Lorde Wins Prize, Distributes Money

Lorde won this year’s Taite Prize for her Pure Heroine album, and asked that the money be distributed among the rest of the award’s nominees.

Photo: Chris Pizzello / Invision / AP

April 12

“I think everyone is kind of sick of me winning stuff at the moment and other people are more in need of the funds and exposure right now,” Lorde said via satellite during the awards ceremony in Auckland, New Zealand, April 16. She was performing in Las Vegas.

“So if you will accept it the prize money and the studio time have been split between this year’s nominees … if you don’t want it that’s cool too.” The prize money totals NZ$10,000 ($8,578) and honours New Zealand’s most creative album of the year.

The other finalists will get NZ$1,666 ($1,430) each. They will also share in the other prizes including free studio time at Red Bull Studios, a radio marketing campaign with the KiwiFM network and a year’s supply of Red Bull energy drink.

Finalists were Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Beastwars, Sheep Dog & Wolf, The Phoenix Foundation, David Dallas, @peace, and Jonathan Bree.