Lorde returns to Vegas for a fourth time this year
Lorde, what a year she has had. Even if we just stick to Las Vegas. Seriously, four trips?
In April, two sold-out shows on The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas’ pool deck.
“That was really fun actually,” the singer says. “I didn’t know what to expect but it ended up being kind of beautiful. People usually don’t let me play by pools.”
Lorde’s ubiquitous No. 1 single “Royals” overruled any concerns about a spring break throwdown centered around a teen with a spare sound and a mysteriously elegant air, a modern goth girl fused with a Charlotte Bronte O.G. (original Goth).
In May it was the Billboard Music Awards, where she sang “Tennis Court.” If anyone pays attention to the Billboard awards beyond the TV concert they enable, Lorde was named Top New Artist and “Royals” the Top Rock Song (ask them, not us).
Last weekend, it was the iHeartRadio Music Festival, where stars from all genres are herded into the MGM Grand Garden to perform short sets that keep them in the good graces of corporate radio.
“A lot of the kids at that festival won’t be expecting to see the way I perform on that stage,” she predicted before the event. “To be able to bring what I do to a pop sphere is fun for me. I feel like I’m mixing it up a little bit.”
And now, on Tuesday, another concert, this time a full headline show indoors at the Hard Rock Hotel. Swimwear presumably optional.
“I feel like this experience has been good for me but obviously it’s a lot of pressure,” says the not-quite 18-year-old, for whom a homework comparison is still fairly recent: “I work really well under pressure and I would always leave my homework until the night before.”
Is 2014 moving too fast for her? Did she have time to savor it? Or is she just ready for some downtime?
“Hopefully I’ll have kind of a long career, which means I will get years like this again,” says the singer known offstage as Ella Yelich-O’Connor. “Hopefully. It would be a little grim if I never got to do this again. But no, it’s been an amazing year. It’s been a lot of learning in a really short amount of time.”
Not quite two years ago, the New Zealand teen uploaded five free songs to SoundCloud. By October of last year, “Royals” hit No. 1 for the first of nine weeks topping the Billboard Hot 100. By the time of The Cosmopolitan pool show, her debut album “Pure Heroine” had become a million seller.
She laughs when her song “Still Sane” is quoted back to her as a question: “Do you still like the hotels and the newfound fame?”
“I still like the hotels. I still get a little excited,” she says. “Staying at a hotel is such a cool experience. I almost can’t be jaded about it. I feel pretty lucky.”
Lorde turns 18 in November, which should lessen the “teen prodigy” talk that accompanied “Pure Heroine.” (The daughter of poet Sonja Yelich, young Ella was said to have read more than 1,000 books by age 12.)
“I think already people talk about (my age) much less,” she says. “But the way I’ve always looked at it is, my music is about being the age that I am. To take away how old I am is doing it a disservice in some ways.
“The people who are similar to my age are so loyal and so devoted to me. … They really care about what I’m doing and it feels relevant to them. I guess it’s happening right now, like we all just experienced the same summer and I wrote about it and they got to listen to it.”
Recent concerts have included covers of Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights” and “Hold My Liquor.” She’s a big Kanye fan, but dismisses recent reports that the two will soon begin recording together: “It was a surprise to me.”
When she does delve into a second album, it will again involve Joel Little, the producer who helped her shape her debut.
“I’ve learned so much as a songwriter since I wrote ‘Pure Heroine,’ ” she says. “The amount that I’ve grown seems crazy, but I still know what a good song sounds like.”
Lorde believes she and Little can combat the dreaded sophomore slump.
“We’re all about good songs. We have a really high standard for good songs. As long as that vision remains intact, hopefully we’ll be OK.”
She says she would miss being a pop star if her fame should someday cool down to the more modest singer-songwriter level of, say, Fiona Apple, another former teen prodigy.
“The thing is I love pop music so much,” she says. “I listen to a lot of different types of music,” much of which is not “superconventionally popular. But pop music is something which brings me so much joy, the kind of music I get the most excited about. I feel it’s always going to be a pretty big part of how I write and how my ideas get to people.
“And also there are certain parts about being a pop star, which I guess you could call me, that I really enjoy,” she adds. “Things that are more important in pop, like getting to create this big, live show, or really caring about music videos and making these really beautiful, expansive music videos. Stuff like that, it’s fun for me and it’s important to me. So for now, I’m really enjoying getting to do all that stuff.”
Like, say, being handed the soundtrack to one of the year’s most anticipated movies, November’s “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.”
Lorde “curated” every song on the soundtrack.
“I approached an artist and said, ‘Would you like to write for this film?’ So it’s all completely new content, specifically for the film. I’m featured on a few songs.”
At the time of the phone interview, she didn’t think she was allowed to reveal any of the artists, beyond her own lead-off single, “Yellow Flicker Beat.” It will be released on Tuesday, just in time for the show.
The rumored collaborators include Bruce Springsteen. “Safe to say (it will appeal to) a lot of different age groups and listeners,” she says, just like the rest of her career so far.
Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.
If you go:
Lorde, Majical Cloudz
8 p.m. Tuesday
The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel, 4455 Paradise Road
$39.50-$200 (888-929-7849)
