In 2013, a 16-year-old Lorde released the music video for her debut single, “Royals.” Thirteen years later, that video has reached one billion views on YouTube.

Directed by Joel Kefali, the video quietly portrays two suburban teenagers in their daily life, interspersed with shots of Lorde singing to the camera. At the time, Lorde told Teen Vogue that she wanted to portray the mundanity of teenage life she was experiencing. “You feel like it’s the waiting period of your life,” she explained. “We can’t get into bars, we can’t drive or anything and it can be frustrating sometimes. I wanted to portray that instead of just, like, ‘yay!’”

In another interview with The Huffington Post, Lorde explained her decision to not be the focal point of the video. “With pop music and pop musicians you know everything about everyone all the time, particularly their physical appearance. With female musicians that’s made a big thing of and I think people, certainly with me, have appreciated a bit of mystery.”

She continued, “With the music video, I wanted to continue that approach. The music video for me was about creating a piece of art and I wanted it to feel cinematic and like it’s something you can immerse yourself in. Having me in it didn’t feel like something that was necessary to create that world.”

“Royals” won Best Rock Video at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards, and Lorde became the first female solo artist to win in that category. While the win was historic, the categorization of her music as “rock” drew some criticism. “Royals” was perhaps considered a little too off-beat to fit in the pop category, and MTV did not have an award for Best Alternative from 1998 to 2020.

In recent news, Lorde has been announced as a headliner of the 2026 Governors Ball, New York City’s biggest music festival. The festival will be held at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens from June 5-7th.

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