“I was like - there has to be a different way to express how I’m feeling”: How Lorde established herself as Bowie's creative heir with her weirdest and most brilliant single

Lorde.

Once dubbed the future of music by arch-visionary David Bowie, Lorde has continued to follow a similarly adventurous trajectory as her late hero.

First emerging onto the world stage with the divine single Royals in 2013, the New Zealand-born Lorde - real name Ella Yelich-O'Connor - followed up its explosive success with an equally superlative debut album, Pure Heroine.

That first album revealed Lorde’s penchant for raw and unflinching lyrical honesty, married to a rich tapestry of music infused with a breadth of influences.

Pure Heroine would have been a standout piece of work from a seasoned artist. For Lorde to release it as her debut - at the then-astoundingly young age of 16 - was extraordinary.