Kiwi-Croatian Lorde now has highest certified female solo song in history
- by croatiaweek
- in Entertainment
Some impressive news for Croatian-Kiwi artist Lorde, who now shares the highest certified female solo song in history.
Lorde’s hit single “Royals” recently went 14x platinum, selling over 14 million copies in the US, to become the highest certified song by a lead female artist in Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) history.
She however has just been joined at the top by “All I Want For Christmas Is You” after Mariah Carey’s single picked up 2 platinum certifications this year, bringing the song’s certified US total to over 14 million copies.
.@Lorde‘s “Royals” and @MariahCarey‘s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” are now tied as the highest certified song by a lead female artist in @RIAA history (each 14x). pic.twitter.com/BAyhnMnyzK
— chart data (@chartdata) December 8, 2023
RIAA in the US award certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets.
Born Ella Maria Lani Yelich-O’Connor in New Zealand, Lorde claims Croatian heritage on her mother’s side and has both Croatian and New Zealand citizenship.
Lorde in Croatia (Photo: Sonja Yelich)
Lorde, who wrote the lyrics herself, recorded “Royals” in 2012 before it was released in 2013. The single has the record for longest spell at number one on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart by a woman, surpassing Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” (1995), which spent five weeks at number one.
Last year she held two sold-out concerts in Šibenik, Croatia, which was the first time she performed in the country where her mother’s roots are from.
During one of her concert’s, she paid homage to her mother, Sonja, and her Croatian roots.
“My parents are here tonight, my mum and dad. My mum is the Croatian one in our family,” Lorde told the crowd, who then started chanting her mum’s name.
“My mum is really the reason that I am sitting here in front of you right now. She is the reason I picked up a book instead of playing a sport, she is the reason I want to look at art when I am stressed out and not a TV show. She is the reason I want to walk for hours at sunset, she is the reason I am passionate, sometimes too passionate. But I really think without her being Croatian so much of these qualities that make me who I am, that make me the person who is sitting here in front of you tonight, would not be present. Your passion, your creativity, your grace, these are the qualities I have inherited from you Croatia,” she said.
Lorde performing in Šibenik (Photo: Sonja Jelich)
Lorde is a multiple Grammy winner and one of the youngest performers to top international charts. Time magazine named her one of the most influential teenagers in the world, she was on the Forbes list of the 30 most influential under-30s, on the cover of Rolling Stone, and she performed with Nirvana at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in 2014.
