When Lorde’s debut single “Royals” reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, it made her the youngest artist in 26 years to top the chart, after Tiffany’s “I Think We're Alone Now” in 1987. While Tiffany’s hit was as sugary as you’d expect from her age—even she thought the cover was uncool—“Royals” was the work of a writer observant beyond her 16 years. Lorde’s exhaustion with celebrity culture and conspicuous consumption got her tagged the voice of her generation, setting the template for essentially every alt-pop artist to come, from Alessia Cara to Halsey. The song also distinguished Ella Yelich-O’Connor as something of a songwriting prodigy, whose age would haunt her career even as she’s moved beyond her teens.

In this, Lorde joins a distinguished cohort: musicians who became known as wunderkinds, and either embraced or fought against the label. Lorde herself seems ambivalent, recalling upon the recent release of Melodrama, “I think I would have been annoyed by me. This kid... This very self-assured 16-year-old, who seemed to think she knew everything. Writhing around on TV with bad, kind of broken movements. Wearing these weird clothes.” Needless to say, the world did not exactly see it that way, instead deeming her pop’s future (a claim Melodrama helps to support). Lorde’s not the first to be labeled as such, and she won’t be the last. So let’s take a look back, with a nowhere-near-complete timeline of her prodigious peers navigating big expectations.

Some criteria:

No child stars—namely, family acts like the Jackson 5 and Disney/Nickelodeon actors. It’s one thing to be a child prodigy, another to be just a child.

The artist’s first big success, whether charting or critical, must have come in his or her teens. Lots of artists mature beyond their juvenilia; even these artists’ juvenilia earned them acclaim.

The artist’s age must have been seen as noteworthy or unusual somehow; simply being a teen isn’t enough.

Stevie Wonder

Age at First Album: 12 (born May 1950, released The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie September 1962)

At 16 He Was: Writing the instrumental to Smokey Robinson’s No. 1 hit and future soul standard “The Tears of a Clown”

Thoughts on the Age Thing: “It’s amazing. I been in the business ten years, going on 11 now, and I look back and see so many things, changes, it's almost like I’m an old person sometimes.” – Rolling Stone, 1973

Wonder is a borderline case here. He may not have been a child star per se, but he was signed before his teens and billed as “Little Stevie,” the 12-year-old wunderkind. Still, it’s hard not to mention someone who, at age 13, became the youngest person to top both Billboard's singles and albums charts, with “Fingertips Pt. 2” and Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius. (In other words, an encore and a live performance of material he wrote even earlier.) Wonder still holds both these honors. And while he started as a virtuoso performer, by his mid-teens he was already writing for artists as distinguished as the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, and the Temptations—not to mention the aforementioned Smokey track, which he presented to Robinson, basically complete, at Motown's Christmas party.

Kate Bush

Age at First Album: 19 (born July 1958, released The Kick Inside February 1978)

At 16 She Was: Newly signed to EMI

Thoughts on the Age Thing: “There’s a line between a child prodigy and someone who’s just doing their own thing. I think the reason why child prodigies don’t come through is because they’re being led through something. They’re not actually going through it themselves; they’re not directing their destiny. It’s either their manager or their parents.” – Toronto Express, 1978