Lorde has spoken about dealing with fame following her rise with breakthrough hit ‘Royals’, as well as being the target of body-shaming trolls online.

The New Zealand star appears on the cover of this week’s free NME, which is available digitally and nationwide from this Friday (June 16). Subscribe now and find out where to pick up a copy here.

Speaking to NME recently, the singer (real name Ella Yelich-O’Connor) described how she was feeling during her rapid ascent when she was just 16-years-old: “When it was happening, I was quite overwhelmed by it. But that was a long time ago. If anything, I’ve slowly been getting less famous since ‘Royals’ was really big. Which is totally cool for me… I suck at being famous. And that’s fine.”


She elaborated on the aftermath of ‘Royals’: “It rocked my foundations and could have fucked me, you know? I remember being made aware of my looks and my body in a way that I had never been.”

On her appearance being the topic of discussion online, the singer said: “I remember all these kids online, I think I beat their favourite people to Number One, and they were like, ‘Fuck her, she’s got really far-apart eyes.’ I remember being like, ‘Whoa! How did I get all this way without knowing I had far-apart eyes?’ Just weird shit like that. But I was able to return to my family and shelter against that and get to where I am now. I feel so comfortable in myself.”

Lorde releases her second album ‘Melodrama’ tomorrow (June 16), having already shared four songs from it – ‘Green Light‘, ‘Perfect Places’, ‘Sober’ and ‘Liability‘. She has also performed another new track, ‘Homemade Dynamite‘, live.

In support of the album, Lorde will play the following UK live dates later this year:


26 Sep – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo

27 Sep – London, UK @ Alexandra Palace

30 Sep – Brighton, UK @ Brighton Centre

1 Oct – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy

2 Oct – Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy