“Royals” by Lorde

"Royals" was Lorde's debut single, first heard on her 2012 EP The Love Club before it anchored Pure Heroine in 2013, and it arrived from New Zealand sounding like almost nothing else on pop radio. She wrote it with Joel Little, who produced, engineered and mixed it, and they pared it right back: minimalist art pop and electropop with a hip-hop and R&B lean, all space and heavy beat, her voice cool and unhurried up front.

The song takes aim at the lavish lives pop stars flaunt in their songs and videos, the way they parade around like modern royalty, and Joel Kefali's video answers with plain suburban teenagers. It went to number one in the US, holding the top of the Hot 100 for nine weeks, as well as in Canada, New Zealand and the UK, and it won Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 2014 Grammys.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.