The beauty of Lorde

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Lorde performing during one of her tour stops earlier this year. Her concerts have become the subject of great excitement and are relatively rare for a star of her standing. (Image courtesy of Facebook, Lorde)

At 17, Ella Yelich-O’Connor, also known as Lorde, released her first album “Pure Heroine.” Also at 17, Lorde became an international success story off of songs about her lonely teenager years. She took four years to create a new album, making sure it would be a work of art. When “Melodrama” came out last year, it immediately topped charts and struck fans with its emotional brilliance. Her Melodrama World Tour, a work of art in itself, embodies feelings that every person in her audience experience. Lorde exposes herself to her own vulnerabilities, making her a powerful player in the music world.

The brilliance behind Lorde is not only in the lyrics that ring painfully and artistically true, but in her performances. She begs the audience to give her all the emotion they can muster – all their voice to sing along, all the happiness and pain that comes with being an adolescent. The Melodrama World tour strategically tells a story, brilliantly weaving together her first and second album to show the extreme highs and lows of growing up.

While “Pure Heroine” told a story of growing up as a teenager, being at once lonely, nostalgic and hopeful, “Melodrama” gives her fans the essence of being in love. Lorde, is not afraid of telling the truth or being vulnerable. She is happy to tear herself apart and break into the deepest parts of her feelings to give her fans the music she believes they deserve.

In “Pure Heroine”, she begs for an out, she cries out to anyone and everyone about her loneliness, but no one comes to help. She sings of being in love for the first time, then losing that love. She puts all her emotions into her album, something that many artists refuse to do. “Melodrama” refuses to be secretive about love. She refuses to hold back her emotions, and she screams to the world that she is not afraid to be in love. With an essence of heartache, Lorde relives her pain.

Lorde is not afraid of going back to her darkest times to attempt to heal the audience. Lorde relives her most tragic experiences for millions of people around the world. And she does it every single night. At 21 years old, Lorde can make every single member of the audience feel welcome and at home.

While the show itself is her, a glass box, a broken screen, and a few backup dancers, Lorde uses her two hours of stage time to tell a story. A story of love, loss and all the crazy events that happen in the world every single day. She creates a melodramatic show, intending her audience to feel everything she felt while writing the songs. She brings the world of “Melodrama” to life in an incredible way.

She dances, sings, cries and laughs throughout the entire set. She hears the audience screaming to her lyrics that she thought no one would like, and smiles. She empowers herself through her pain, her lyrics and her art. Every night she puts herself into a place most people refuse to go to. She puts herself in all her pain and solitude to tell a story that everyone should hear. She creates magic through her lyrical prose. Not afraid of being alive and lonely, she incorporates her emotions in her music to show all the teenagers that feel older than their years, that it is okay. She asks for the audience’s full attention and full emotion to experience her shows.

While the young artist has millions of fans, she writes for herself, and herself only. She wrote “Melodrama” to heal from the emotional turmoil of growing up. She did not write the album to sell out arenas, or to see her face on shirts. She wrote both her inherently personal albums on the basis of not feeling pain, putting herself in an uncomfortable and liable position. She asks for love, but does not expect it.

Lorde proves to be an artist beyond her years. And it is the very fact that she is so young which makes her so adored. She is not recalling and remembering the years of her youth because she is still living them. She wants to be appreciated, loved and respected; She wants the world, just like everyone else. However, unlike everyone, she is not afraid to ask for it. And that is the beauty behind an artist that is growing up at the same time her fans are.