Royals Makes Top 10 and Selena Gomez Covers

Auckland singer Lorde, 16, has made it into the United States Billboard Top 10, with her “debut alternative/pop hit” Royals, which pop star Selena Gomez covered at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam on 3 September. Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton said Gomez’s version was a “wonderful cover … of one of [his] favorite songs of the summer”.

Lorde’s breakthrough US single springs 12-8, Gary Trust writes for Billboard. “[Royals], atop the Alternative Songs airplay chart for a fourth week, bullets at No 8 (down from No 6) on Digital Songs but with a 16 per cent gain to 167,000; lifts 13-12 on Streaming Songs (2.8 million, up 14 per cent); and rumbles 30-17 on Radio Songs (57 million, up 40 per cent),” Trust writes.

“Royals also takes over atop Hot Rock Songs (3-1), supplanting [US band] Imagine Dragons’ Radioactive after a record 23 weeks at No 1.”

Last month, Lorde – real name Ella Yelich-O’Connor – became the first woman in 17 years to top the Billboard alternative songs chart.

Lorde’s debut album, Pure Heroine, is out in New Zealand on 30 September.