A wavy-haired 16-year-old from the suburbs of New Zealand has captured the attention of her home country (population: 4.5 million). Now the pop singer is working on conquering the rest of the world.
一名来自新西兰郊区、拥有一头波浪卷发的16岁女孩引起了本国国民（该国共有450万人）的关注。现在，这名流行音乐歌手又踏上了征服全世界的征程。
Discovered at a talent show when she was 12 years old, Ella Yelich-O'Conner has spent the last four years honing her skills on a development deal with Universal Records near her home on the outskirts of Auckland. In November, she posted her first EP, 'The Love Club, ' free online. The music was marked by full-bodied vocals and knowing lyrics that belied the singer's age. Identified only as her stage name, Lorde, the artist kept her true identity a mystery for months. The only available representation of her was a drawing of a girl holding a snake.
她原名埃拉•叶利奇-奥康纳(Ella Yelich-O'Conner)，于12岁时在一次才艺秀上崭露头角。过去四年间，按照与环球唱片公司(Universal Records)的演艺发展合约，她一直在她家附近的奥克兰郊区打磨自己的唱功。去年11月，她在网络上发布了其首张细碟《The Love Club》，该碟可免费下载。她嗓音醇厚，歌词有洞察力，这掩饰了她的真实年龄。她还隐瞒了自己的真实身份数个月之久，在这段时间里大家只知道她的艺名──Lorde。此外，她唯一示人的形象就是一幅画像，画中的女孩怀抱着一条蛇。
In an age of instant gratification, this elusive approach to publicity is increasingly popular among labels and artists. It's a delicate courtship in which musicians must seduce success without seeming like they want it. But while playing hard to get can earn an artist respect, it doesn't guarantee record sales.
在一个讲求即刻获得满足的时代，这种让人难以捉摸的宣传方式越来越受到各品牌和艺人的青睐。它是一种精明的吸引关注的手段，歌手必须要表现出毫不在意的样子来获取成功。不过，施欲擒故纵之计虽能让艺人获得重视，但它并不能保证唱片的销量。
'I always say mystery makes history, ' said Charlie Walk, executive vice president of Republic Records, whose Lava imprint signed Lorde this spring. Mr. Walk has been working with a team of Lava employees on raising Lorde's profile. He oversees strategy, which includes marketing and promotion. 'But, ' he said, 'a funny thing happens when you don't promote: nothing.'
共和唱片(Republic Records)执行副总裁查利•沃克(Charlie Walk)称：“我一直都说神秘感创造历史。”该公司旗下的Lava唱片公司在今年春季签下了Lorde。沃克一直在与Lava的职员合作，来提升Lorde的知名度，他负责包括营销和推广在内的宣传策略。他说：“不过，如果你不做推广的话，有趣的事情就会发生，那就是落得平淡无奇。”
In Lorde's case, things escalated quickly after the online debut of her EP last November. Her song 'Royals' was quickly picked up by New Zealand blogs and rose to the top of the country's iTunes charts. Universal Music Group released the EP in the U.S. in March. In May, Lorde released a music video for the song that received more than 100, 000 views within 24 hours (it is now above three million).
以Lorde为例，在她的细碟于去年11月首发之后，其知名度迅速蹿升。她的单曲《Royals》迅速得到新西兰各博客的青睐，一举升至该国iTunes排行榜榜首。环球音乐集团(Universal Music Group)于今年3月在美国发行了这张细碟。Lorde在5月份还为这首歌发布了一段音乐视频，这段视频在24小时内即获得100,000次点击量（现在它的点击量已经超过300万）。
On June 14, she became the first New Zealand artist to simultaneously have four songs in the country's top 40. 'Royals' is now getting airplay around the world and according to Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan, it is the first song by a solo female artist to hit the top 10 of the alternative-music chart in the U.S. since 1997, when Fiona Apple's 'Criminal' reached No. 4. Lorde is currently working on a full-length album slated for release Sept. 30.
6月14日，Lorde成为新西兰首位同时有四首歌打入该国音乐排行榜前40名的歌手。现在，《Royals》正在全球各地播放，根据Billboard排行榜及尼尔森音乐统计(Nielsen SoundScan)的数据，它是1997年以来第一首由独唱女歌手演唱的登上美国另类音乐排行榜前10位的歌曲，当年菲奥娜•阿普尔(Fiona Apple)的《罪犯》(Criminal)登上了该榜单的第四位。目前Lorde正忙着录制一张全长专辑，该专辑预定于9月30日发行。
In early August, she will perform in New York and Los Angeles. Both shows, her first U.S. appearances, are her label's attempt to personally present Lorde to industry insiders, music journalists and bloggers. 'It's a process, but we want her to play the right venues, do the right press, licensing her music in the right places, and so on, ' said Jason Flom, the president of Lava Records, which, like its parent label, Republic, is owned by Universal Music Group.
Lorde还于8月初在纽约和洛杉矶举办了演出，这两场演出是她在美国的首秀，是其唱片公司为了向业界人士、音乐记者和博客作者直接推介Lorde的尝试。Lava Records的总裁贾森•弗洛姆(Jason Flom)说：“这是一个过程，我们希望她在适当的场馆演出，接受合适媒体的采访，在恰当的地方授予她的音乐版权等等。”与其母公司共和唱片一样，Lava Records也由环球音乐集团所有。
As the former CEO of Atlantic Records, Virgin Records and Capital Music Group, Mr. Flom is credited with discovering Tori Amos and Matchbox 20. After one listen to Lorde's EP 'The Love Club, ' which had been recommended by a friend of a friend in Australia, he hunted down the artist on Facebook and flew to New Zealand to see her perform and meet her parents. Mr. Flom said he considered bringing her to Los Angeles, New York and London to record with various producers, but ultimately decided not to interrupt her creative process.
弗洛姆曾担任大西洋唱片(Atlantic Records)、维京唱片(Virgin Records)及Capital 音乐集团的首席执行长，被认为是发掘托丽•阿莫斯(Tori Amos)与Matchbox 20的伯乐。在一位澳大利亚朋友的朋友的推荐下，他听了一遍Lorde的细碟《The Love Club》，随后便在Facebook上四处搜寻这名歌手，并飞到新西兰观看她的演出，还和她的父母见了面。他说他曾考虑把她带到洛杉矶、纽约和伦敦与不同的制作人录制唱片，但最终决定还是不去打断她的创造过程。
The team at Universal is being prudent with publicity. Mr. Walk, of Republic Records, said he is working on creating partnerships with radio stations, concert venues and music publications or blogs that will circulate her music without catapulting it into the mainstream. Instead of sending her music to KIIS, a famous top-40 Los Angeles radio station, they've turned to San Francisco's Live105 and Chicago's Q101, alternative stations that 'start playing the good stuff way before everyone else, ' Mr. Walk said.
环球音乐的团队对宣传事务相当谨慎。共和唱片的沃克说，他正忙于和音乐电台、演唱会场馆和音乐刊物或音乐博客建立合作关系，请他们帮助传播Lorde的音乐，但又不把它推入主流。而且，他们并没有把她的歌曲发给洛杉矶排名前40的知名电台KIIS，而是找到了旧金山的Live105和芝加哥的Q101，这两家另类音乐电台“早在所有人之前开始播出好音乐”。
This tight-lipped marketing strategy has been recently championed by French electronic producers Daft Punk, who have hidden behind their robot helmets for two decades. On a smaller scale, British producer Burial gained notoriety for maintaining his anonymity for the first two years of his career.
这种守口如瓶的营销策略也得到过法国电音组合傻瓜朋克(Daft Punk)的采纳，他们以机器人头盔隐藏自己的真容达20年之久。实行这种策略时间较短的有英国电音歌手Burial，他因为在演艺生涯的头两年一直隐瞒自己的真实身份而声名远扬。
Lorde uploaded her November EP without any accompanying biographical information. Two months later, she revealed her name and a photograph of herself. 'I wanted people to listen to it first, ' she said on a phone call from her recording studio. 'People started to get really aggressive about [the mystery], and almost angry. So I just released a shot of me and did a few interviews, because I didn't want it to feel like a scheme.'
在去年11月上传其细碟时，Lorde没有附上任何个人信息。两个月之后，她公布了自己的姓名及一张照片。她在录音室接受电话采访时称：“我希望大家先听听我的音乐，后来大家开始（因为神秘身份）变得气势汹汹，几乎到了生气的地步，所以我就发布了一张我的照片，接受了几次采访，因为我不想让它给人以阴谋诡计的感觉。”
She said she took her cues from DJ culture. 'They have this dissonant cool about them, they're not starving for attention, ' Lorde said. 'Instant gratification can be boring. Mystery is refreshing, and rare in pop music.'
Lorde说她是从DJ文化得到启发的。她说：“他们很酷，与世界保持距离，他们也不渴望得到关注。即刻得到满足会让人厌烦，神秘感则让人精神一振，而且它在流行音乐界也很少见。”
Instead of cooing about boys or slinging sexual innuendos, her lyrics condemn conspicuous consumption and narcissistic self-promotion. And as the master of her own image (going by the name 'Lorde' was her idea), she keeps things light and low-key. She recently tweeted: 'My bank acc situation is way better, now I have twenty six dollars.'
Lorde歌曲的歌词并不叽叽咕咕地谈论男孩或抛出性暗示，而是批评铺张炫耀的消费和孤芳自赏的自我吹嘘。作为自身形象的主宰者（取名“Lorde”是她本人的主意），她喜欢让事情简单明了和低调。最近她在推特上发文称：“我的财务状况大有改善，现在我的银行账户里有26美元了。”