The New Girl

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Lorde

Lorde

A LAMP OR A BOWL? Ella Yellich-O'Connor wants to buy a Christmas present for her manager, which is why she’s standing, with a puzzled look, in a chic design store in Herne Bay, an Auckland, New Zealand, suburb that smells like affluence and the ocean. They’re both great gifts, but Ella is determined to figure out which one is better.

The choices: a hand-shaped brass bowl with a glowing gold wash, or a minimalist globe table lamp with no base. “Taylor’s -supergood at this stuff,” says Ella, who’s wearing light-gray trousers and a slightly-less-gray shirt. “She’s decorated her own -houses for ages.” So why not text photos of both gifts to her? “That’s a great idea.” Her friend Taylor Swift is in London, where it’s almost midnight, and doesn’t reply immediately, so after more furrowed deliberation, Ella chooses the bowl.

Outside, at a cafe on Jervois Road, we’re interrupted approximately every six minutes by autograph and photo requests from polite New Zealanders enjoying the summer weather. A bus of school kids in red blazers pauses at a stoplight, and when the kids spot Ella, they wave in unison delight.

In “Royals,” her worldwide smash, Ella mocks the fatuousness of pop stars who brag about driving Maybachs and drinking Cristal, and she also brazenly offers to replace the idiots who dominate Top 40: “You can call me Queen Bee, and baby, I’ll rule,” she sings. Big talk for a teenage nobody from nowhere.

“I’ve always been into the idea of confidence. Like, I called my record Pure Heroine.” She laughs. “Even my stage name is kind of cocky or grandiose.” She mentions a lyric from Kanye West’s “Dark Fantasy” (“Me found bravery in my bravado”), which gave her courage to announce her ambition in “Royals.” “I get paralyzingly nervous a lot of times, so I tried bravado. The way I dress and carry myself, a lot of people find it strange or intimidating. I think my whole career can be boiled down to the one word I always say in meetings: strength.”

Now, at 17, she is the Queen Bee, with four Grammy nominations (and two wins, for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance) and well--deserved acclaim for her smart and unique album. On the day in October when “Royals” went to Number One – displacing Miley Cyrus, symbolism that’s hard to miss – Ella had a photo shoot in New York. “The photographer kept saying, ‘Pop your hip out. Try to look cute. Big smiles, now.’ And I was like, ‘I’m Number One in this country not because I flirt and wink and all that shit, but because I’ve done exactly what I want to do.’ So, no, he did not get smiles.” And then she smiles.

Her phone dings. It’s a reply from Swift. “Oh, shit. She wrote, ‘I love the lamp.’ Nooooo!”

This is an extract. To read the full story, pick up a copy of Rolling Stone Middle East

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