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\n\tShe may not be a royal, but her breakthrough music video has been crowned as part of YouTube<\/a>\u2018s Billion Views Club<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tThe music video for Lorde<\/a>\u2018s debut single \u201cRoyals<\/a>\u201d has officially racked up 1 billion views on YouTube \u2014 the New Zealand singer\u2019s first song to achieve this feat.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cRoyals\u201d is the lead single from Lorde\u2019s 2013 debut studio album Pure Heroine<\/em>. The track topped the Billboard Hot 100<\/a> for nine weeks, making a then-16-year-old Lorde the youngest chart-topper since 1987, when \u201cI Think We\u2019re Alone Now\u201d by Tiffany hit No. 1. The song would go on to receive Grammy nominations for record of the year, song of the year and best pop solo performance, with wins for the latter two. After \u201cRoyals,\u201d Pure Heroine<\/em> \u2014 which hit No. 3 on the Billboard 200<\/a> \u2014 spawned three more Hot 100 hits with \u201cTeam\u201d (No. 6), \u201cTennis Court\u201d (No. 71) and \u201cGlory and Gore\u201d (No. 68). In the years since she debuted, Lorde has released three more Billboard 200 top five studio albums, including her chart-topping sophomore album Melodrama<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tLorde\u2019s four studio albums have all been released under a contract she signed with Universal Music Group when she was 12 years old. Also on Wednesday (March 18), the \u201cSupercut\u201d singer announced that her label contract expired<\/a> last year and that she\u2019s looking forward to starting over with a \u201cclean slate.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI feel a feeling of openness and possibility, and I\u2019m inspired,\u201d she said in a series of voice notes sent to fans. \u201cIt just feels exciting to have removed the container or something for a second.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAs we look forward to what the future holds for Lorde, we can all join the ranks and watch the \u201cRoyals\u201d video below. <\/p>\n \t
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