As the hit singer better known as Lorde demonstrated at the first of two shows at the Greek Theatre last night (she plays again tonight), kiwis can be strange fruit. Eschewing choreography, headsets, and most accouterments of today’s pop stars, she simply grasped a mic, alternately belted and chanted, and periodically spasmed rhythmically, sending her long curly mane and limbs flying. Accompanied only by a keyboardist and drummer—no backup singers, dancers, hype men, or even guitarists—the goth soul singer embraces an austere minimalism. The coolest special effects were smoke-filled bubbles that occasionally blew across the stage then burst into puffs of gray.
Lorde expresses existential emotions with a confidence way beyond her 17 (!) years. Hers is a voice of difference but not diffidence. Last night, the brimming venue sang along with her unprocessed alto on her unlikely number-one hit “Royals,” a postcolonial anthem that rejects the materialist imperialism of commercial American music for a kind of downhome (or down-under) individualism. In some ways, Lorde is the anti-Beyonce.
But Lorde shares with Ms. Knowles-Carter an unapologetic feminism; hence the name of her album. She comes from a land of pioneering women with sometimes perverse perspectives, from the writers Katherine Mansfield and Keri Hulme to the filmmaker Jane Campion. Her songs are full of enigmatic epigrams that are more often cultural critiques than empowering aphorisms.
Maybe she’s not a white teeth teen, but Lorde’s electronic-driven songs about trying to find her place in a strange and sometimes hostile world surely speak to adolescent angst. Outspoken in her scorn for many of her pop peers, Lorde has a rep for being the outsider, the misfit, the malcontent. Clearly, she speaks for and to that demographic, which spans ages and genres. Last night, her flailing fits seemed not like desperate attempts to bust out of cages, but more like cathartic outbursts of kinetic energy set free.
All those radio hits, promo on every X Factor, countless discounts and it's yet to outsell an R&B album who had 1 single and 1 performance outside of the US. The ****ing nerve.
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Originally posted by Sammi
370k in the UK after X Factors and isn't Roar like the biggest hit ever there? The ****ing nerve of it to come for anyone, let alone GOD.
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Originally posted by Sammi
A few months ago ****** stans told us that bitch would outsell GOD with ease and it still hasn't seen GOD's sales.
Oh, that hate doesn't change the fact you were a HARDCORE Katy stan years ago. I still remember, honey.
4 Madonna, Robyn AKA Queen Of Pop
Olympic Stadium Athens, Greece
Sept. 27, 2008
$9,030,440
75,637 / 75,637
1 / 1
$332.02, $79.69
Live Nation Global Touring
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69 Lady Gaga, Lady Starlight AKA Jester of Pop
Olympic Stadium Athens, Greece
Sept. 19, 2014
$941,091
26,860 / 26,860
1 / 1
$134.99, $45
Live Nation Global Touring/Lavris
