My special connection with The Hunger Games' Katniss Everdeen Lorde cracking up The Hunger Games Mockingjay actors Natalie Dormer, Jennifer Lawrence and Elizabeth Banks during the world premiere of the film in London. Mockingjay early verdicts More on Mockingjay Movie session times Although she pushes against the grain of today's hyper-sexualised pop stars, you wouldn't call Lorde a freedom fighter. But the singer still felt a special connection to the Hunger Games series' lead character, Katniss Everdeen, played by her new friend Jennifer Lawrence - with whom Lorde was clearly bonding at the Mockingjay Part 1 world premiere in London. I've never really felt that inspired by somebody who's from a young adult novel, but [Katniss] has this kind of raw, embodied confidence and the way she makes decisions is very impulsive and just driven by this very clear moral compass she has, so that's pretty appealing to me as someone who makes decisions in a similar way. The woman named among Time magazine's most influential teenagers in the world was handed the keys to a major franchise soundtrack,when she was asked to curate The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 soundtrack. She took the job very seriously, writing and performing the closing credit song, Yellow Flicker Beat, and recording a Bright Eyes cover, The Ladder Song. But she also tapped an eclectic and diverse range of artists including: Grace Jones, Chvrches, Raury, Charli XCX, Tove Lo, Haim, Pusha T, Q-Tip and Tinashé, as well as Kanye West, who reworks her closing song as Flicker. The soundtrack also features collaborations between Major Lazer and Ariana Grande and the Chemical Brothers, with Miguel. "The soundtrack had to be something that reflected what was going on in these characters' minds," says Lorde, sitting in a London hotel suite a few hours before her red carpet debut. It turns out she's an avid reader and huge fan of the Hunger Games trilogy of books by Suzanne Collins. This book and film has everyone at breaking point so I was trying to reflect the different sides of that, whether it was 'I'm coming for blood' or 'this has got to end'. Lorde giggles like a schoolgirl when she talks about watching Kanye West work and then lights up when asked about Bruce Springsteen recently covering her song Royals while performing in New Zealand. "My whole country was talking about it, like it was national news," she beams proudly. I watched it afterwards and cried because I'm his greatest fan. It's hard to reconcile that Lorde - who has earned two Billboard Music Awards, two Grammy awards and the record for the longest standing #1 record for any female artist in the Billboard Alternative Chart history, thanks to her quadruple platinum-selling single, Royals - has only just turned 18. How does one of the most famous artists in the world celebrate her 18th birthday? "I was just at home, with my family, eating cake," says the Auckland-based New Zealand songstress. Lorde talks with the maturity of someone twice her age and accepts this compliment gracefully. "I think a lot of it is coming from New Zealand," she says. I feel like anything is possible coming from there because there don't seem to be restrictions on me as a young person, especially being in a family that really encouraged creative thinking. "I've not always been a super confident person," she insists, "but I guess when you really care about what you're doing, and you're really proud of it, it helps you to be more forthcoming." The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 opens in Australia on November 20.