Lorde has said it is a thrill to realise nothing had to be “sacrificed” for her to have a big hit, as she celebrated topping the US album chart for the first time.

The Royals singer’s latest offering, Melodrama, was number one on the Billboard 200 chart this weekend.

Lorde on stage at Glastonbury
Lorde (Yui Mok/PA)

Lorde, 20, posted a string of messages on Twitter after hearing the news.

She said: “You guys, today we have the number one album in America. from the bottom of my heart, thankyou.

“Royals was, to quote david chase, ‘a moonshot, a dreadnought’. there were no such guarantees with melodrama—that’s why this means so much.”

The singer-songwriter from New Zealand told her five million followers: “When i was a kid i thought big records had to be made a certain way—to be sterile &; calculated in craft; that something had to be sacrificed.

“i have had the divine thrill of disproving that firsthand, twice over.”

Lorde said her 15-year-old self would have been “proud”.

The singer’s breakout first album, Pure Heroine, debuted and peaked at three on the Billboard 200 chart when it was released in 2013.