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EXCLUSIVE: Lorde Has A Winner On Her Hands With This Live Performance Of "Tennis Court"

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Lorde, much like her Antipodean (and fellow You Oughta Know) compatriot Gotye, has come out of left field from Down Under and landed one of the biggest surprise singles of the year. However, whereas Gotye was not able to capture the zeitgeist the way that "Somebody I Used To Know" did with any of the other tracks on his Making Mirrors LP, Lorde seems very well set up to avoid one-hit wonder status thanks to the power of her next single, "Tennis Court."

The closest analog we can think of for "Tennis Court" is Kid Rock's "Batwitdaba," despite the fact that the two songs sound NOTHING alike. Their similarities, though, reveal themselves upon closer inspection. Both songs occupy the pole position on their respective albums, Pure Heroine and Devil Without A Cause, both are the second singles from said albums, and both make a similar statement about the artist singing them. Namely, these songs present a thematic blueprint for the artist that sings them that showcases the tremendous amount of confidence that they have in what they imagine will be their impending success. On Kid Rock's "Bawitdaba," he famously declares (promises?) that "I'm going platinum!", and here on "Tennis Court," the 16-year-old Lorde accurately states that she's "Doin' this for the thrill of it, killin' it" and promises that "Pretty soon I'll be getting on my first plane / I'll see the veins of my city like they do in space." At the time that each of these tracks were originally penned, neither artist had quote-unquote "made it," but you can tell by listening to them that failure is not an option.

You can see the confidence we speak of above on display in the video of "Tennis Court" that VH1 exclusively shot at Le Poisson Rouge back on August 6, the night Lorde made her North American debut. We also have an exclusive clip of "Bravado" for you below, shot that very same evening.

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For more information on VH1's latest You Oughta Know artist, be sure and check out Lorde.VH1.com all month long.