"Royals" is the debut song by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde from her The Love Club EP (2012) and debut album, Pure Heroine(2013). The song was released on 8 March 2013, as the lead single from the EP. Lorde and Joel Little co-wrote and produced the song. Musically, "Royals" is a minimal and art pop song. Lyrically, it expresses the protagonist's disdain for the lavish lifestyles of music stars.
Upon release "Royals" was met with acclaim, winning the Silver Scroll Award for 2013, New Zealand's top songwriting prize. Critics called the song "one of the best releases of the year."[citation needed] "Royals" reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also reached number one in Ireland, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand and was certified triple platinum by Recorded Music NZ. In August 2013, Lorde became the first female solo act to top the Billboard Alternative Songs chart since Tracy Bonham in 1996.[3]"Royals" was the second time a New Zealander had topped the Billboard Hot 100, behind Kimbra's collaboration with Australian singerGotye on "Somebody That I Used To Know" and the first time a New Zealand solo artist had reached number one.
Joel Kefali directed the song's music video, which portrays normal teenagers doing mundane things in slow motion. An international version of the video was released which features small appearances of Lorde. "Royals" has been remixed by artists including Rick Ross, The Weeknd and Gilbere Forte.
Production
Lorde had thought of writing a song about the luxury of pop musicians after seeing a National Geographic image. It showed a Kansas City Royals-player signing baseballs, with his team's name emblazoned across his shirt – according to Lorde, "It was just that word. It's really cool." More broadly, historic aristocrats were also inspirational. She wrote the lyrics to "Royals" at her house in only half an hour. She was listening to a lot of rap and hip-hop-influenced music, especially Lana Del Rey, while writing. Lorde has mentioned that "all those references to expensive alcohol, beautiful clothes and beautiful cars – I was thinking, ‘This is so opulent, but it’s also bullshit.’" Lorde later went to the studio to show the lyrics to producer Joel Little, who said "Yeah, this is cool", and "Royals", along with two other songs, was produced in a week for The Love Club EP
Composition
"Royals" is a minimal song that incorporates elements from different genres. The song is influenced by art pop, pop, grime andblues.[citation needed] It follows a V-IV-I chord progression, D-C-G, and is written in the key of D Mixolydian mode (scale).[citation needed] It plays in common time at a slow tempo of 85 BPM. The track has a similar rhythm to a snap song, with its instrumentation of "fingersnaps and toe-tapping bass."The lyrics are described as turning "the aspirationalism of hip-hop culture on its head." The song concerns the luxury and lifestyle of pop artists. The first verse focuses on her early life and sorrow over pop growing up in Auckland. The concept is introduced in the pre-chorus: “But every song’s like gold teeth,Grey Goose, trippin’ in the bathroom / Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin’ the hotel room / We don’t care, we’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams / but everybody's like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your time piece / jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash / We don't care, we're not caught up in your love affair."
Release and reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Common Sense Media |   |
| The Corner | 7.5/10 |
| Digital Spy | |
| The Singles Jukebox | 6.00/10 |
"Royals" is a single from The Love Club EP, which was originally released as a complimentary SoundCloud download on 22 November 2012.[17][18] The EP was later released for sale digitally in March 2013, and on CD in May 2013.
"Royals" received generally favourable reviews from music critics. Digital Spy gave the song five out of five stars praising the song saying it has an "addictive hook that thrives on its simplicity" continuing to comment saying "Lorde's success is here to stay."Other reactions were mixed, with The Singles Jukebox concluding in its review that the song has "[g]reat minimal beat, decently feisty lyrics, lovely sentiment, vocal straight from Satan’s asshole."
On 11 September 2013, co-writers Ella Yelich-O'Connor and Joel Little were shortlisted for "Royals" in the 2013 APRA Silver Scroll Award, which honours outstanding achievement in original New Zealand pop songwriting. The song won, beating Phoenix Foundation's "Thames Soup", Aaradhna's "Wake Up" and Anna Coddington's "Bird In Hand".
Alleged racism
On October 3, 2013, feminist blogger Verónica Bayetti Flores accused Lorde's lyrics of being racist. "While I love a good critique of wealth accumulation and inequity, this song is not one; in fact, it is deeply racist, because we all know who she's thinking when we're talking gold teeth, Cristal (champagne) and Maybachs. So why shit on black folks? Why shit on rappers? Why aren’t we critiquing wealth by taking hits at golf or polo or Central Park East?” In response to her article being reported by CNN, Flores gave a longer explanation and quoted Lorde on saying that she was specifically pointing out hip hop in the song. A spokesman for her record label said Lorde had no comment on the controversy.
On October 11, 2013, Aziza Jackson from The Washington Times defended the song by saying "Both Lorde and I are the spawns of a culture rigged with consumerism and class, not race, a world where money is green and greed is good. Today’s hip-hop and pop lyrics are laced with the promotion of shiny yet empty lives and skin that is not black or white, but green."
The Civilian, a satirical New Zealand website, jokingly accused the album Pure Heroine of being "riddled with bigotry" and mentioned Flores' article. Several lyrics are broken down and explained: "It don’t run in our blood; that kind of luxe just ain’t for us" talks about expensive luxuries not being for white people and obnoxious materialism is only for black people, "Let me be your ruler" is Lorde asking for black people to submit to her so that she can rule over them and reap the economic benefits of their labour, and "Let me live that fantasy" is Lorde desperately wanting to live out her fantasy of owning black slaves.
Chart performance
"Royals" debuted at number 1 on the New Zealand Top 40 on 15 March 2013 and remained in the top position for three weeks. In August 2013, Lorde became the first solo female artist to top the Billboard Alternative Songs chart in the United States since Tracy Bonham in 1996. The song also holds the record for longest reign by a woman atop the BillboardAlternative Songs chart, surpassing Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know," which spent five weeks at number one. Following the release of "Royals" in the United States in June 2013, 85,000 copies were sold during a single week in July. In a subsequent interview, Lorde stated, "I had a sneaking suspicion that it might do all right". On the week dated October 2, 2013, the song rose to number-one on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Lorde her first number one. At sixteen, she is the youngest artist to reach #1 since Tiffany did with "I Think We're Alone Now" on November 14, 1987.With "Royals", Lorde is the first New Zealand act to have achieved a Billboard Hot 100 number one as lead artist.The song debuted at number-three in the Irish Charts on the 3rd October 2013, before climbing to number-one, the following week. On the week dated October 9, 2013, the song retained its number one spot, selling a further 309,000 copies.
Music video
The official video for "Royals" was directed by Joel Kefali and released on Lorde's official YouTube channel on 12 May 2013with a US version released on 18 June 2013 on her VEVO account.In line with the subject of the song, the video for "Royals" mostly consists of normal teenagers doing unexceptional things in slow motion. The actors in the music video are Lorde's schoolmates. In the international version, with the exception of one extended frame of Lorde singing, Lorde herself rarely appears in the video. On her lack of appearance in the video, Lorde said, "The music video for me was about creating a piece of art and I wanted it to feel cinematic and like it's something you can immerse yourself in. Having me in it didn't feel like something that was necessary to create that world. So I'm just in it for just a little bit. I think it works well." The US version of the song uses the same clips as the international, however it intersperses more clips of Lorde singing. It also omits a few seconds from the beginning and end, which make reference to two of her other songs.
Live performances
On 13 August 2013, a rendition of "Royals" was recorded live for KCRW's radio programme Morning Becomes Eclectic. Lorde appeared on US television for the first time by singing "Royals" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on 1 October 2013, wearing a white dress, and backed by a keyboardist and a drummer. "White Teeth Teens" was also performed on the show, but was only shown online.She later sang the song on VH1 television show Big Morning Buzz Live on 4 October 2013, dressed in a black turtleneck and skirt. Lorde performed "Royals" on US talk show Ellen on 9 October 2013.
In popular culture
Covers and remixes
Singer Selena Gomez gave an acoustic live rendition of the song during her Stars Dance tour, in Vancouver on August 14, 2013.The band Saints of Valory covered the song with an added "country-tingled rock twist".Producer Raak released a remix of the song with Gilbere Forte's guest vocals. This was followed by a remix from R&B singer The Weeknd.In early September 2013, the group Fifth Harmony covered "Royals" on Cher Lloyd's I Wish tour. New Zealand girl-group Gap5 covered this on The X Factor in New Zealand. Canadian indie rock band Walk off the Earth also covered the song in a video on their YouTube channel. US girl band Cimorelli also covered the song on their YouTube channel. The winners ofNBC series The Sing-Off (season 3), Pentatonix, have also covered "Royals" on their YouTube channel. British girl-group, Mutya Keisha Siobhan covered the song for Reload Sessions on Google+, on 10 October 2013. Mayer Hawthorne did the song as part of Vevo's "Unexpected Covers" series, and Billboard asked readers to vote on their favourite cover in October 2013. Meanwhile, hundreds of lesser known artists have uploaded their covers of the song on YouTube.
Track listing
- Digital download
- "Royals" – 3:09
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