Lorde's 2017 New Zealand opening-acts on their favourite Lorde songs.

To celebrate Lorde kicking off a seven-date tour of New Zealand (and her birthday week!), we've asked each of her personally hand-picked local opening acts to fill us in on what their favourite Lorde song is and why.

Read on for their musings below...

TAPZ
‘Yellow Flicker Beat’ - Her fearlessness and power is so undeniable in the song. I have such appreciation and love for artists who are innovative in their approach when creating. It's haunting with a groove. I relate. The song is in a realm I am familiar with. Shout out Lorde tbh.

DRAX PROJECT
Being a four-member band can make it kind of hard to have a collective position on questions like, "What's your favourite song from a certain artist?" Lorde being a perfect case! We have nominations for 'Royals', 'Yellow Flicker Beat', and 'Green Light' - while the person could cast a deciding vote simply won't accept that 'Magnets' is a collaboration, so doesn't count in this exercise! What we do happily agree on though is that Lorde has a heap of good songs! We also all have the utmost respect for the amazing successes she's had, and the light she's shone on New Zealand music around the world!

MATTHEW YOUNG
I can’t decide between '400 Lux' from 'Pure Heroine' or 'Hard Feelings' from 'Melodrama' - when you play them end on end it’s so heartbreaking but kinda bittersweet in a way. The references to being in a lover's car in both tracks and how one experience of that is carefree, with that soothing familiarity that comes with doing nothing with someone you love (or like), and the other experience, by contrast feels painfully nostalgic. Like revisiting your childhood home - the setting is the same but the decor has changed and the new owner's have shitty taste. Your joy has been traded for sorrow and regret, but you’re still staring into the same face - of the person who made that trade for you. From the passenger's seat. Maybe their eyes are a little red this time 'round. Lines from ‘400 Lux’ and ‘Hard Feelings’ - "you buy me orange juice" / "how we’d drift buying groceries" - that subtle everyday life shit hits so hard. I think most of us relate to this and how you often think about the least monumental moments of a relationship once it’s over. Lorde is a master of this; drawing real depth of emotion from the mundane. Love both, can’t decide.

FRENCH FOR RABBITS
It's a toss up between ‘The Louvre’ and ‘Hard Feelings/Loveless’. Ella has a way of perfectly capturing a place and moment so articulately - her lyrics are terrifyingly smart. I'm a sucker for nostalgia, and ‘Hard Feelings/Loveless’ has such a gut punch. It has a real gentle sadness about it.

DAVID DALLAS
‘Bravado’ - I just love songs with that sort of drama and mood. It starts off all sparse and highlights the quality of her vocal and her lyrics, then builds into this epic piece. Plus I really rate how she delivers the line, "My heart jumps around when I'm alluded to, this will not do..." - brilliant.

YUMI ZOUMA
‘Hard Feelings’ - I’ve only ever had one really bad break-up in my life and while it's not something I think about that often these days, this song threw me back into the all encompassing sense of doom and destruction of it. 'Hard Feelings' covers the spectrum of the doom, clinging on to the dying moments, learning to care for yourself again, the smugness of the universe around you somehow having insider information, and the pain of vivid micro details that flood your brain with vengeance. If only my own breakup songs from that period were this eloquent (I can assure you they are all 100% cringe and I'm glad that laptop died a slow death).

MERMAIDENS
Our fave song is 'Tennis Court'!

Click here for more info about Lorde's NZ opening acts.