Lorde has shared photos from her upcoming Vogue Australia cover shoot where her elegant gaze and beguiling dress reminds everyone of how adept she is at surprising us.

That the 18-year-old (yep, only 18) sits so commandingly, comfortably and elegantly on the front of the world’s pre-eminent fashion magazine – doing so without resorting to anything shocking or risqué – speaks volumes about her talent.

Lorde reveals in the interview that music wasn’t always a serious priority for her, admitting that “writing and singing were just a hobby”.

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“I was that kid. I liked to hang out with people older than me; I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” Lorde told Vogue Australia.

“I just know how much I love doing this, and I know how special it is to me. When you are that invested in something, it’s always going to hopefully treat you well.”

Since March 2013 when she released her debut EP with the world-beating tune Royals, Lorde’s music, public persona and passionate fan following have spoken of a woman changing the modern pop star profile.

She’s already won two Grammy Awards and sold 2.7 million albums worldwide and yet her career is only just starting.

When she tweeted the cover photo from the shoot on Sunday wearing the floral Gucci gown, she gave fans another glimpse of the person behind the performance.

YOUR GIRL ON THE COVER OF A PRETTY UNDERGROUND PUBLICATION KNOWN AS @vogueaustralia pic.twitter.com/hDDdVKYclb

— Lorde (@lordemusic) June 6, 2015

“The world has expanded for me in this incredible way,” she said. “It’s cool, and I’m very lucky that I get to surround myself with creative people who are clever and good at what they do.”

The anti-pop princess

There are plenty of female musicians who’ve steered clear of the Rhianna, Britney Spears or Katy Perry approach to notoriety.

Think of artists like Bjork, St. Vincent, Karen O (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and La Roux – they’re respected and famous less because of the scandals, and more because of the music.

Lorde sits comfortably beside any of those artists, and doing it by starting as a 16-year-old who became the biggest thing in the world of music makes the achievement even more astounding.

There are no gimmicks with Lorde either. Think of Miley Cyrus’ current incarnation in her Bangerz period. She is somewhere between parody of an African-American hip hop artist and a white girl trading on cultural appropriation of R ‘n B culture.

Lorde pursues her originality and isn’t afraid to cite obscure books and art as being influences in her craft.

“As a young teen, I went to a lot of David Lynch films, I read a lot of strange books, I loved to go to the museum all day,” she said.

A New York Times‘ review of her show at the Big Apple’s Webster Hall wrote best to her authenticity saying: “She moved to the beat, but like a teenager, not a music video trouper.”

A young voice to follow

When Lorde speaks, people of all ages listen to her. In only two years on the celebrity and music scene she’s developed an authoritative voice in a number of forums.

The New Zealand Electoral Commission used her to urge youngsters to vote in the 2014 Election.

In a meeting of two of the world’s most influential and mature young women in early 2014, fellow youth icon Tavi Gevinson published an 11-page chat with Lorde on her popular blog Rookie. 

They discuss the meaning of her hit Royals, which she summarises as a critique of “standard pop culture ‘rich kids of Instagram’-type excess”.

She says she wrote that song when she was 15 and that she’s “glad that people are having discussions about it”.

Lorde comes from a middle-class upbringing in the affluent, middle-class suburb of Devonport in New Zealand. Some critics have said her denouncement of material or upper-class culture is hypocritical given that’s where she is from, while others say it’s an impressively honest appraisal of her hometown.

Whatever it is, people are talking about what she observes and recognise that her music has something to say, on top of her ability to make it a damn good listen.

Most importantly she is respected by her peers, so much so that she was asked to join Nirvana on stage to perform with them at the 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Quite an achievement for someone who was 17 at the time. And yet, surprising her fans and confounding expectations may be what comes to defines her career.