Lorde’s ‘Royals’ passes 1 billion streams

It’s raining Billions Awards in New Zealand, where four songwriters are added to APRA AMCOS’ The 1,000,000,000 List.

Two-time Grammy Award winner Lorde (real name Ella Yellich-O’Connor) leads the charge and is welcomed to the streaming elite with her hit ‘Royals,' which dominated the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks back in 2013.

Lorde’s collaborator and fellow Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Joel Little snags another award, this time for his work on Taylor Swift’s Lover hit ‘ME!’

Little has three previous 1,000,000,000 List honours in his collection, for ‘Young Dumb & Broke’ by Khalid, ‘Whatever It Takes’ by Imagine Dragons and Lorde’s ‘Royals’.

Watch Lorde's 'Royals':

Also joining the billionaire club is James Wong and Leroy Clampitt, for their contribution to Justin Bieber's Purpose single 'Company.'

"The breadth, depth and global reach of songwriting talent in New Zealand is truly impressive,” enthuses APRA AMCOS Chief Executive Dean Ormston, who presented the awards to Yellich-O’Connor and Little at the organisation’s Auckland office.

“Our Kiwi members are sharing their stories with music fans globally, as well as collaborating with the world’s biggest artists. The music of Ella, Joel, James and Leroy is truly global, and opens doors for the growing export potential of Kiwi music creators.”

Designed to recognise the homegrown artists who've managed to punch-up a billion streams across the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Vevo, Amazon, Google Play and more, the list kicked off in June 2019 with Nat Dunn, whose work as a co-writer on Marshmello & Anne-Marie’s hit ‘Friends’ was consumed by music fans the world over.

Since then, the likes of Sia, Kevin Parker, Vance Joy and many others have been honoured for their big streaming milestones. 

Click here for the full list.