The Songwriters Behind The Grammy-Nominated Songs Of The Year Sound Off

“Royals”
Joel Little & Ella Yelich-O’Connor, songwriters (Lorde)
Track from: Pure Heroine

Written by Ella Yelich-O’Connor, aka Lorde, when she was all of 15, with her collaborator, the songwriter-producer Joel Little, “Royals” began, as do all their songs, as lyrical ideas in her notebook. “We wrote it during Ella’s school holidays,” Little told us from Auckland. “She’d come into the studio with lyrics and we’d mess around with ideas. It was my job to capture what she was saying musically, to find something that feels genuine. Her words are so clever, and her voice so unique, that it’s about staying out of the way of that, and letting her shine. On this day she came in with the entire lyric to ‘Royals.’ It instantly stood out to me as a unique and interesting take. We came up with the ‘We will never be royals, royals’ idea, and having a choir of Lordes follow. I put a beat together pretty quickly. We got pretty stuck, and frustrated at the end of the day. But the next morning we thought of having the contrast between a dark and soulful verse, and a nursery rhyme style pre-chorus. Once we clicked into that, everything came together pretty quickly. The word ‘royals’ was inspired by a picture of a guy from the Royals baseball team. [Ella] has an amazing way with words, much more advanced than I am, and I’m twice her age. I am proud when I can sneak a line in. The tiger on the gold leash, that was mine.”

“Same Love”
Ben Haggerty, Mary Lambert & Ryan Lewis, songwriters (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Featuring Mary Lambert)
Track from: The Heist

It started as a dynamic rap track about the innate pain of being gay in modern culture, but with gaps where the chorus would go. Into those momentous gaps walked Seattle-based songwriter Mary Lambert with the essence of classic songwriting, pure emotion crystallized to a few lines, “I can’t change, even if I wanted to … she keeps me warm.” It happened when her mentor Hollis told her Seattle heroes Macklemore wanted her to contribute. “Everything was done but the hook,” Mary said, “and I loved it. I spent three hours, came up with four choruses. Then I went to meet them, and I was terrified. This was my moment. I sang what I had, and they looked bewildered. Ryan said, `I never say this, but I don’t want you to change any of that.’ I realized the [rap] was pragmatic and rational, and I wanted to bring a universal truth. It’s why it resonated with people: everybody wants someone to keep them warm. I was raised in the Pentecostal church. It was a ritual to repent, and apologize to God for being gay. I’d sit in church and cry every Sunday. So when they sent me the song, I felt this was a real gift, because this was my story. I felt I was supposed to write this song. It’s a dream come true for me; I was working three jobs before this happened. Now I get to be a full time artist and sing a song in front of 15,000 people a night. I feel like Cinderella.”

More Grammy Coverage:
“It’s Been Mental”. . . Backstage At The 2014 Grammy Awards
Mary Lambert On Writing “Same Love” With Macklemore & Ryan Lewis