Lorde drops first new single in four years 'What Was That' (2025)

Lorde has sent fans into a frenzy by releasing her first new music in four years.

The New Zealand-born singer, real name Ella Yelich-O'Connor, partially filmed the music video for her new track 'What Was That' en route to perform the single at Washington Square Park.

The video shows Lorde riding a bicycle around New York City and includes footage from her pop-up performance on Wednesday that was abruptly cancelled by New York police after the park became too crowded.

She eventually came out two hours after the scheduled start time and set social media abuzz with footage of her dancing to a recording of the song.

What Was That is Lorde's first major release in almost four years, following 2021’s Solar Power album.

The Melodrama-esque track appears to provide some answers to the questions Lorde raised with a distressing open letter she penned to her fans in 2023.

The singer, then 26, shared a newsletter titled 'How I've Been, Revised' with her newsletter subscribers, hinting at relationship troubles with her long-term boyfriend Justin Warren.

'It might seem funny or be easy to forget, but I make records because I need to. The songs are spells; a spell to let go of something, a spell to unlock a door,' she wrote.

'There's actually great beauty in moving with it. But sometimes I'm sick of being with myself.'

Lorde then said she wished she could turn back the clock and revealed she had stopped taking her medication.

While her letter did not explicitly mention relationship troubles with her music executive boyfriend, fans were quick to speculate it meant the pair had broken up.

They had been linked together since 2015.

In What Was That, Lorde appears to be reflecting on the break down of the tumultuous relationship that began in her teenage years.

'MDMA in the back garden, blow our pupils up,' she sings in the chorus.

'We kissed for hours straight, well, baby, what was that?

'I remember sayin' then, "This is the best cigarette of my life".

'Well, I want you just like that Indio haze, we're in a sandstorm and it knocks me out. I didn't know then that you'd never be enough.

'Oh since l was seventeen, I gave you everything.

'Now, we wake from a dream, well, baby, what was that?'

The notoriously private pop star has shared relatively few personal updates with her fans since in recent years, but her profile has been high thanks to her collaboration with Charli XCX on 'Girl So Confusing'.

Lorde performed the song with Charli at the first weekend of the Coachella festival earlier this month.

The release of the single on Friday quickly sent the singer's fans into a meltdown on social media.

'This is soooooo 2014 of you,' the top comment reads, while another declares,'this is the MOMENT.'

Thousands of supporters rushed to the comments section on Instagram to lavish praise on the singer and her return to the edgy alt-pop sound that made her famous.

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