Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor – better known as Lorde – celebrates her 21st birthday on Tuesday.

Since she stormed into the public consciousness in 2012, having just turned 16 and already with a sackful of fully-formed pop masterpieces, Lorde has established herself as one of the most original, alluring musical stars in the world.

Along the way she wowed Bowie, won a pair of Grammy Awards and earned an enormous fortune. She's avoided the public missteps that often characterise the coming of age of those who achieve superstardom prior to adulthood.

MARIO ANZUONI/REUTERS Lorde performs at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards.

And through snippets of interviews, the laidback Kiwi humour she employs on social media, she's allowed us in to see only as much as she wants us to see. On Instagram, gracing the cover of Vogue seems as everyday an occurrence as eating Vogel's with Vegemite.

READ MORE:

* Lorde: My difficult second album

* From Devonport to diva: The story of Lorde so far

* Knowing, and not knowing Lorde

In the past few months she's played everywhere from Seattle to Spain, Montreal to Munich. And she timed her homecoming tour to coincide with this coming of age anniversary, and will mark the occasion of her 21st by performing the first of seven long soldout shows in smallish venues around the country in Dunedin, Wellington, Christchurch and her hometown of Auckland.

PHIL WALTER/GETTY IMAGES Singer-songwriter Lorde at a state luncheon for Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovicon at Government House on August 19.

Lorde's joked in the past she'll be drinking a yard glass for her birthday – which is sure to go down well in Dunedin.

We asked a few prominent fans to write a few words about Lorde.

JACINDA ARDERN

Prime Minister; Minister For Arts, Culture and Heritage

HAGEN HOPKINS/GETTY IMAGES Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been a fan since 2012.

I was standing on a street corner in Auckland talking to a music producer when I first heard the name "Lorde". It wasn't that long after that I heard one of her tracks (on George FM if my memory serves). I was completely blown away.

Lorde's writing has always defied her age but even that feels like a trite thing to say.

None of us knows what it is to be a teenager in 2012 except those who are.

MEDIAWORKS Samantha Hayes writes about Lorde ahead of her 21st birthday.

To be able to translate that into music the way Ella has makes her not just unique but exceptional.

Happy birthday Ella. Thanks for making us proud and making the soundtrack for a generation.

SAMANTHA HAYES

Newshub anchor

MEDIAWORKS Samantha Hayes writes about Lorde ahead of her 21st birthday.

Lorde was 16 when I met her – "Royals" had just been released online but at that point there wasn't one public photo of her.

In the months that followed we tracked her meteoric rise and while documenting key milestones I was constantly surprised by her assuredness and confidence.

In rooms filled with adults, Ella would make the decisions and stick with them. During her first New Zealand TV interview she told me she had no regrets turning down an offer to tour the world as Katy Perry's support act. It would have been a massive springboard for any musician – and this came well before the Grammy awards – but she knew it wasn't right and quickly moved on in her own direction.

Lorde has been touring the world to promote her second album Melodrama.

Around the same time that we were filming her first performance on stage as Lorde, she arrived at the Auckland venue looking every bit the school girl she was in knee high socks and a backpack slung over her shoulder. This wasn't in our story but it's stuck with me: she wasn't happy with the stage backdrop and wanted the image to be taken down.

The roadies didn't think that was possible, telling her Galatos had that same image there for every other act. I watched on as Ella maintained her position, a calm insistence, she didn't feel it was right. By the time she took to the stage later that night it was gone. The roadies had found a way to cover it for her.

She's had that confidence, determination and decisiveness from the beginning and yet at times we also saw the 16 year old, the kid stoked to be out of school and in the recording studio, a kid hardly believing she's doing what she loves.

Hera Lindsay Bird.

It may have looked like Ella's success happened overnight but it didn't, she worked away at it for years and somehow she's known exactly what she was doing the entire time. I love seeing her continued success and I'm still a big fan.

HERA LINDSAY BIRD

Poet

The other day I was in Australia teaching a poetry workshop to a group of children under twelve, and because I was from New Zealand they asked me if I knew Lorde.

Lorde performs at the Life is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas.

I accidentally told them I had met her once before, and they all immediately lost interest in poetry, faced with something better.

I told them her mother was a successful New Zealand poet, but it didn't help. Every time I travel somewhere overseas, people ask me about Lorde and Lord of the Rings, our two main cultural exports, and I prefer talking about Lorde.

She's a cool young woman with incredible pop songs, beautiful lyrics and a terrifying stage presence. Of course we love her.

STUFF Hollie Smith and Deborah Pead at the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards in 2012.

Sometimes I feel embarrassed for all of us, at our collective national obsession with her. I feel like we should all take a deep breath and back slowly away into the forest with our hands raised.

When I met her for the first time, there was an article in the paper the next day about the colour of the nail polish she was wearing.

Her nail polish was red.

I think we all need to get a hobby. Still, I hope she has a good birthday!

DEBORAH PEAD

Public relations boss

Sixteen years ago, Pead PR and J&A Productions were part of the team that brought back the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards. Back then it had poor production values, limited support, and it wasn't really valued by New Zealanders. It was plagued by controversy with judging because it was only the labels who were the judges. It's come a long way since those days.

Three years ago we experienced an absolute step change in media interest, in requests for photography accreditation when Lorde emerged on the scene. The demands for interviews with her were so vast, we couldn't manage them all.

The Lorde factor had an unprecedented impact on publicity for the music awards and the music industry as a whole in New Zealand.

She brought in such a topspin of media interest, red carpet attendance, we saw a whole new group of tweens that wanted to be photographed with her.

In our dealings with her she's very professional, tightly managed but she needs to be. Having said that the whole music industry has lifted its game and become more professional. It's become more slick, more glamorous, they've really polished up their act. I think Lorde's shown the industry what they can do.

Just look at the strong lineup of females among the finalists this year. That's the Lorde effect.

* In a nod to her beginnings on Auckland's North Shore, Lorde has handpicked seven Kiwi artists to open for her during her New Zealand tour, beginning with Wellington band Mermaidens on Tuesday. There's also Yumi Zouma, French For Rabbits (Christchurch's Isaac Theatre Royal, Nov 8 and 9), Tapz (Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre Nov 11), and Drax Project, David Dallas and Matthew Young (Auckland's Powerstation Nov 12, 14 and 15).