Ella Yelich-O’Connor (Lorde) was honoured by APRA AMCOS this week for reaching over one billion streams on her ground-breaking single ‘Royals’ released in June 2013. Written by Ella and produced by Joel Little (who was presented with his fourth Billions Award this week), ‘Royals’ was the world’s introduction to Lorde who quickly became internationally recognised for her genre-bending sound. ‘Royals’ saw Ella perform on stages all around the world including a stand-out performance at the 56th Grammy Awards in 2014 where she was up for four awards. That night she took home the Best Pop Solo Performance award and Best Song of the Year. APRA is excited to officially induct Ella into the 1,000,000,000 List family.
APRA AMCOS is proud to present Joel Little with his 1,000,000,000 List award for Taylor Swift’s track ‘ME!’. This is Little’s fourth Billions Award following ‘Young Dumb & Broke’ by Khalid, ‘Whatever It Takes’ by Imagine Dragons and ‘Royals’ by Lorde.
The collaboration came about backstage at a Broods concert when Little's manager approached Taylor Swift’s team to plant the seed about getting the two together. They were both due to be in New Zealand at the same time, so it only seemed appropriate to get them in the same room. During the reputation Stadium Tour in NZ, Little and Swift ended up hanging out, visiting Little’s studio in Titirangi. He was invited to work with her in New York and the pair began working on songs that would feature on the chart-topping album Lover, released in 2019.
Little has been recognised as one of the world’s top songwriters and producers having worked with top international acts such as Khalid, Imagine Dragons, Broods and fellow 1,000,000,000 List-er, Lorde. With a Grammy Award under his belt and multiple nominations it is with great pleasure that APRA AMCOS celebrate yet another success of his with the Billions Award.
New Zealand songwriter's Leroy Clampitt and James Wong (who is based in L.A.) have been presented with their 1,000,000,000 List Award for ‘Company’, co-written by international writers Andreas Shuller, Justin Bieber, James Abrahart, Thomas Troelsen and Jason “Poo Bear” Boyd.
‘Company’ was released as the fourth and final single for Justin Bieber’s album Purpose and reached the top forty in most countries it charted. It was first performed live in April 2016 at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, and later at the Billboard Music Awards, as well as on Bieber’s ‘Purpose’ World Tour.
The 1,000,000,000 List exists to celebrate our top songwriters across New Zealand and Australia who have reached a billion streams on a single song. The list takes into account streaming numbers from major services Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. It is the first award of its kind to recognise a songwriter’s achievement.