Lorde

After the excitement of getting Happier Than Ever in July, August just kept on giving with lots more inspiring musical releases. In a month that saw the opening of the Tokyo Paralympics, the start of the new Premiership season and the return of Extinction Rebellion protests to London the U.S. ended it's presence in Afghanistan, Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake and 'Ida' left one million in Louisiana without power. Kanye came back with his long awaited 10th studio album, Donda, Reading & Leeds returned to put on the biggest UK festival in two years to the ecstatic delight of tens of thousands and multi-million selling breakthrough artist Olivia Rodrigo had to continually defend plagiarism claims surrounding her global number one album, SOUR. Britney came one step closer to freedom, rumours ramped up about the possibility of a new Abba record following teasers on TikTok and not one, not two, but three more Little Mix's were brought into the world. As well as all that going on there was also our top five favourite releases, here they are. 

Halsey: If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power.

Continue reading: August 2021 Favourites: 'If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power', Sustainable, Green And Fresh, 'Solar Power'.

Lorde has hit out at Kanye West and Kid Cudi, accusing the rappers of stealing her idea of a ‘floating’ Perspex cage for their stage design.

The two rappers, who collaborated earlier in 2018 on an album entitled Kids See Ghosts, performed live together for the first time over the weekend at the Camp Flog Gnaw festival in Los Angeles. It saw them both suspended in a Perspex box above the stage – something very similar to the technology utilised by Lorde during her Melodrama world tour last year.

“I’m proud of the work I do, and it’s flattering when other artists feel inspired by it, to the extent that they choose to try it on themselves,” she wrote in an Instagram story, showing an image of her tour with images of West and Kid Cudi’s performance.

Continue reading: Lorde Hits Out At Kanye And Kid Cudi For Stealing Stage Design Idea

A court in Israel has ordered the two New Zealand activists who published a letter urging pop star Lorde to cancel a concert in Tel Aviv earlier this year to pay damages for harming the “artistic welfare” of three Israeli artists.

The Jerusalem Post on Thursday (October 11th) reported that Judge Mirit Fohrer ruled Justine Sachs and Nadia Abu-Shanab of New Zealand must pay damages to the tune of NZ$18,000 to Israeli teenagers Shoshana Steinbach, Ayelet Wertzel and Ahuva Frogel for writing a letter to urging Lorde to cancel her concert in Tel Aviv in December 2017.

The social media pressure sparked by the letter caused the New Zealand-born pop star Lorde to cancel her June 2018 show, on the world tour for her most recent album Melodrama.

Continue reading: New Zealand Activists Fined By Israel For Lorde Gig Cancellation

Pop star Lorde has been forced to apologise after sparking outrage on social media when she posted what she called an “insensitive” reference to the late singer Whitney Houston.

The 21 year old New Zealand-born hitmaker shared a photo on Instagram of a bathtub filled with water, captioned with the words “and iiii will always love you”. Oops!

Legendary soul and R&B singer Whitney Houston passed away in 2012 at the age of 48, when she accidentally drowned in a bathtub in a hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, died three years later in 2015 in eerily similar circumstances.

Continue reading: Lorde Apologises For "Insensitive" Whitney Houston Instagram Post

If you ever needed proof that Lorde can sing almost anything, her cover of Kanye West's 'Love Lockdown' during her Chicago show is pretty much that. She sang a raw a cappella rendition of the 2008 hit on stage and fans are absolutely in love with it. 

Lorde at the Musicares Person of the Year Awards

The 21-year-old New Zealander's cover of the track - which featured on Kanye West's fourth album '808s & Heartbreak' - was so good, that now we're left wondering whether it beat Glass Animals' version of the track from their 2014 'Pools' EP. She certainly comes close.

Continue reading: Fans Are Living For Lorde's Cover Of Kanye West's 'Love Lockdown'

After a turbulent week in the wake of the Grammy Awards ceremony, dogged by accusations of inequality between male and female artists, an independent task force has been set up to examine “the role of gender”.

It comes in the context of Recording Academy president Neil Portnow coming under fire for saying that women in music needed to “step up” when he was quizzed about the relative lack of recognition they received during Sunday’s awards, where female artists or female-fronted bands only received 17 out of the 86 awards and the list of performers included few women.

On Thursday (February 1st), Portnow went back on his statement and said they were a “poor choice of words” and that “gender bias” in the industry needs to be addressed. 

Continue reading: Grammy Awards Sets Up 'Independent Task Force' To Examine Gender Equality Issues

The lawsuit allegedly brought against two New Zealand-based activists after they penned an opinion piece calling on pop star Lorde to cancel a concert in Israel is apparently not real – according to the would-be defendants.

The article’s authors Nadia Abu-Shanab and Justine Sachs, are widely reported to have been sued this week under an Israeli law that allows claimants to file civil lawsuits against anyone calling for a boycott of Israel, if they know it could reasonably have triggered a boycott as a result of their action.

As such, the supposed lawsuit seeks $13,000 in damages by way of “moral and emotional injury” for three people who had been scheduled to attend the gig before it was cancelled, according to the Associated Press.

Continue reading: Activists Who Urged Lorde To Cancel Israel Gig Say They Have NOT Received Any Lawsuit

Lorde is believed to be considering cancelling a concert in Israel.

The 21-year-old singer - whose full name is Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor - is considering ''all options'' about performing in an upcoming gig in Tel Aviv, after she received criticism from her fans who asked her to cancel the gig as a sign of protest against the country's occupation of Palestine.

The 'Royals' hitmaker said: ''Noted! Been speaking w many people about this and considering all options. Thank u for educating me i am learning all the time too (sic).''

Continue reading: Lorde Is Considering Cancelling A Concert In Israel

Lorde is treating fans to free tickets and secret gift packages during her homecoming tour of New Zealand.

The 'Royal' singer celebrated her 21st birthday on Tuesday (07.11.17) and she marked the happy occasion by giving a present to her fans in the form of tickets to her Dunedin concert and even a piece of personalised merchandise.

Tweeting a picture of a 'New York Times: Page One' book on a shelf in a local library, she said: ''DUNEDIN: left a little package in the city library behind this book. see you tonight. (sic). ''

Continue reading: Lorde's Gift To Fans

Lorde has finally opened up about the criticism she received following her non-singing all-dancing performance at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards last month. She thinks people were uncomfortable with the show because she looked like she was enjoying herself too much.

Lorde arriving at the 2017 MTV VMAs

The 20-year-old popstar has never exactly been known for being conventional, but she took her performance art a step further by doing a dance routine to her song 'Homemade Dynamite' at the MTV VMAs on August 27th rather than singing it live. She was struggling with the flu at the time, so the audience at The Forum in California were lucky she even made it out onto the stage.

Continue reading: Lorde Knows Why People Were Uncomfortable With Her Wild Dancing At 2017 MTV VMAs