Lorde Apparently Breaks Silence Over Reported Split With Manager

Adolescent pop darling Lorde has broken her silence in the wake of reports this week that she has split with long-time manager Scott Maclachlan, taking to Twitter today to apparently take aim at media commentators questioning the wisdom of the decision.

"Hey, men — do me and yourselves a favour, and don't underestimate my skill," the 18-year-old artist wrote.

"Yes, I'm a young lass, but I'm also making the best decisions for me each day," she continued, concluding with the hashtag "#stayeducated".

The story originally broke via the New Zealand Herald earlier this week, citing an anonymous source who "confirmed" to the paper that Lorde and Maclachlan had parted ways about a month prior, despite refusal to comment from Maclachlan; his company, Saiko Management; and Lorde's label, Universal Music.

In fact, prior to Lorde's tweets this morning, the only real evidence there had been of the professional separation was Lorde's sudden absence from Saiko's artist roster. However, late last year, Lorde took on directorial duties for her IP organisation, Sackful Of Squirrels Ltd, in a move the NZ Herald has since labelled "a major step on the path to independence".

Much has been made this week of Maclachlan's instrumental role in catapulting Ella Yelich-O'Connor from unknown schoolgirl to globally worshipped pop idol after he saw a video recording of her performing at a school talent show, signing her to Universal in 2008 at the age of 12; however, she's since spent much of her time in the limelight asserting herself as a thoughtful and mature individual, with clarity of ambition and ideology that evidently outpaces her relative youth — not to mention an army of young fans who couldn't care less about industry travails and will follow her to the ends of the earth regardless of who's in charge — so it will be interesting, at least, to see where the Pure Heroine hitmaker goes from here.