A zeitgeist-grabbing, history-making song from a new pop superstar.
It’s still astounding that “Royals” was Lorde’s debut single, released when she was just 16 years old. In a matter of weeks and months, the song became a phenomenon, seemingly born out of nowhere. Where did this preternaturally gifted artist come from? How did she write a song this mature at such a young age?
It’s always tempting to attach mythic qualities to a story like this, but Lorde was both an overnight sensation and not.
A Universal A&R rep spotted the talent of Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor when she was just 12, and she signed a development deal with the label when she was 13. Her team spent a while trying to pair her up with different songwriters and producers, to no avail.
There was no connection to be found, until Lorde met Joel Little.
The former Goodnight Nurse frontman was just starting out in his production career (a career that’s since soared) when he met Lorde, and the Kiwi pair clicked immediately. Instead of trying to imprint his own style and vision onto Lorde, Little recognised her songwriting ability — she’d been writing lyrics consistently since she was 13, after all.
One of the first songs they created together was “Royals”, which took its name from a photo Lorde seen of George Brett signing baseballs in the ’70s. “He was a baseball player, and his shirt said ‘Royals.’… It was just that word. It’s really cool,” she said.
“Royals” isn’t about baseball or Brett, of course. The song offers a critique of materialistic lifestyles, Lorde musing on the dangers of conspicuous consumption. She ridicules the luxury items beloved by pop and hip-hop stars of the day: “But everybody’s like / Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece / Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash,” she sings. An admonishment follows. “We don’t care / We aren’t caught up in your love affair.”
How minimal the sound is, instantly standing out in an era of bombastic production and sonic excess. Lorde and Little pare everything back, relying on simple synth stabs and timid drum beats, leaving plentiful empty space for finger snaps and the former’s breathy vocals. Even when Lorde’s voice rises in volume in the chorus, the instrumentation barely rises with it; when it comes to pop music, the pair realised, less truly could be more.
As a result of this minimalism, “Royals” doesn’t transfix a listener upon first listen. Its full effects are felt afterwards, on the second or third or even fourth listen, its pointed lyrics and unprecedented production lingering in the mind.
It’s important to remember Lorde’s age when listening to “Royals”. The song’s observations are earnest and messy, a little pointed without being all that pointed. They are diaristic thoughts from an evolving young mind, waking up to the world around them. If Lorde sounds in danger of romanticising the very things she purports to be against, that’s because she’s a girl in her mid-teens; it comes with the territory.
“Royals” obviously topped the charts in New Zealand, but it spent an impressive nine weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100. The song won big at the 2024 Grammy Awards, winning Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance; the Silver Scroll Award win in her home country was an inevitability; it also won Single of the Year at the 2013 New Zealand Music Awards. Most publications, including Rolling Stone, featured the song high up on their year-end lists in 2013, while it also made it to No. 2 on triple j’s Hottest 100 of 2012, only edged out by Vance Joy’s ubiquitous “Riptide”.
“Royals” catapulted this Auckland teenager to stardom, and she’s spent the past decade-and-a-bit attempting to deal with her growing fame. She’s always been the most reluctant of pop stars, evading the public spotlight when she can. One wonders what she thinks of her own debut song now — how prescient her own words must sound to her.
Lorde fans can debate her best song long into the night — one could make a strong pitch for “Ribs” or “Green Light”, which feature further back in our list, to take out the top spot — but “Royals”, for its unexpectedness and subsequent influence, is the only one that deserves the number one position. No other song can claim to have changed the landscape of pop music. —Conor Lochrie