Lorde honoured for one billion streams of ‘Royals’

Lorde is one of four New Zealand songwriters newly added to APRA AMCOS’ 1,000,000,000 List, marking 1 billion streams of her track ‘Royals’.

‘Royals’ was written by Lorde – real name Ella Yellich-O’Connor – and Joel Little, who was previously inducted into the list for ‘Young Dumb & Broke’ by Khalid and ‘Whatever It Takes’ by Imagine Dragon. In addition to ‘Royals’, Little is also being honoured this time round for his work on Taylor Swift’s track ‘Me!’.

Joining Lorde and Little are songwriters LA-based James Wong and Leroy Clampitt, recognised for their work on Justin Bieber’s song ‘Company’, lifted from his 2015 album Purpose.

Lorde’s award was presented at APRA AMCOS’ New Zealand office, with her publisher Kobalt also receiving an award.

“The breadth, depth and global reach of songwriting talent in New Zealand is truly impressive. Our Kiwi members are sharing their stories with music fans globally, as well as collaborating with the world’s biggest artists. The music of Ella, Joel, James and Leroy is truly global, and opens doors for the growing export potential of Kiwi music creators,” APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston said in a statement.

“It’s very special to be able to honour our songwriter members with the Billions Award, and in the past year, that has been a challenge to make happen, so it meant a lot for our APRA AMCOS Auckland team to be able to present Ella and Joel with awards in person in our Auckland office.”

Previous inductees into the 1,000,000,000 List include Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, Sia, Tones And I, Flume, Vance Joy and Gotye.