Everything We Know About Lorde’s New Song, ‘What Was That’
If you’re anything like me, then your world was absolutely rocked when Lorde hinted that she has new music on the way. The artist born Ella Yelich-O’Connor recently wiped her social media accounts and then posted a lone video of herself stomping through Washington Square Park, featuring a snippet of an unreleased song.
It might have only clocked in at 15 seconds long, but I would go as far as to say it’s already a banger.
Arriving nearly four years after her last album, Solar Power, the time couldn’t be more ripe for a Lorde comeback. The song tease on TikTok also came days before the singer joined Charli xcx onstage at Coachella to perform their hit collab, “Girl, so confusing.” When she first hopped on the remix last year, she and Charli instantly dominated headlines and For You Pages; it just shows the hunger for new Lorde music is wilder than ever.
Here’s what we know about her upcoming song, “What Was That,” so far.
When does the song come out?
It looks like the song drops at midnight ET tonight, according to Lorde’s latest Instagram post. The video she shared appears to include clips of her impromptu show at New York’s Washington Square Park the night prior.
When she officially announced the single on April 16, she said it would be “out soon.” We’re on high alert. In the meantime, you can pre-save the song on Apple Music or Spotify here.
What are the lyrics about?
The only lyrics we’ve heard from the short snippet released so far are as follows:
Since I was 17
I gave you everything
Now we wake from a dream
Well, baby, what was that?
What was that?
Lorde seems to allude to growing up and making art in the spotlight, especially with those first two lines. She was around 17 years old when her breakout single, “Royals,” came out in 2013 and changed the course of her career. But it seems that now, 12 years after that milestone, she’s looking back at her trajectory with fresh eyes, and even questioning it a bit. It’s an intriguing direction from the artist.
Is this song part of a new album?
Again, no official word from Lorde yet, but I sure hope so. This speculated release would follow her previous studio albums, Solar Power (2021), Melodrama (2017), and Pure Heroine (2013).
After bringing Lorde onstage at Coachella, Charli xcx declared that “Lorde summer 2025” is coming our way. If that’s true, it can’t come soon enough.
This story will be updated.