The announced 2026 headliner born Ella Yelich-O’Connor is Lorde.
Lorde is the professional name of Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor, a New Zealand singer-songwriter and producer. She was born in 1996 and grew up around Auckland, where her early musical development led to a recording deal while she was still a teenager.
Her breakthrough arrived with “Royals,” first associated with the 2013 extended play The Love Club and then included on her debut studio album, Pure Heroine. The song became an international hit and established her minimalist electropop sound.
Readers sometimes confuse Lorde with an artist’s stage persona that has no connection to a birth name, but Ella Yelich-O’Connor is Lorde’s publicly documented birth name. Her later albums, including Melodrama and Solar Power, expanded her sound while retaining her reputation for introspective songwriting.