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Just a day after surprising fans with an in-person preview of her new single, Lorde has officially dropped her latest track, “What Was That.” Announced by the New Zealand singer just 12 hours before its arrival, “What Was That” serves as Lorde’s first piece of new music since her 2021 album Solar Power. Co-produced by […]
Lorde has given fans in New York City a preview of her new single after plans for an in-person event fell by the wayside thanks to local law enforcement.
The New Zealand singer is currently preparing to launch new single “What Was That” on Friday (April 25), with the track serving as her first piece of solo music since 2021. The first taste of her upcoming fourth album, Lorde initially teased the single with her first-ever post on TikTok, sharing a video of herself walking through Washington Square Park in New York City while listening to the dreamy synth-pop track.
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In lieu of traditional social media updates, Lorde has since taken to connecting with fans by way of text messages and voice notes, with her legions of supporters receiving a message on Tuesday (April 22) which told fans to “meet me in the park” at 7pm.
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As a result, fans flooded to Washington Square Park to hopefully catch a glimpse of the musician, though the gathered masses were soon urged to leave by local law enforcement.
Lorde took to her Instagram Stories soon after to address those who had turned out for the last-minute affair. “Omg @thepark the cops are shutting us down I am truly Amazed by how many of you showed up !!!” she wrote. “But they’re telling me you gotta disperse … I’m so sorry.”
According to Rolling Stone, a spokesperson for New York City’s DCPI stated that officers had been alerted to an “unscheduled event” within the park, adding that a “sound and parks permit” is required to hold a concert event in a NYC park. “This individual did not possess either,” the statement added. “Organizers of the event were informed they could not perform and they left the location.”
Fans who remained within Washington Square Park were rewarded for their patience, however, with the singer later showing up to play her new single. Though Lorde didn’t perform the track live, she danced along to “What Was That” while it was being played by producer Dev Hynes of Blood Orange fame.
Lorde’s appearance in New York City comes just over a week after she made a surprise appearance during Charli XCX’s Coachella set to guest on a performance of “Girl, So Confusing.”
With her new single set to arrive in a matter of days, Lorde’s new era is fast-approaching, telling fans in her recent voice note that “everything is about to change.” She added, “These are the last moments where it’s just us, which is crazy. But so right. I’m so ready.”
Two of the most prominent names in New Zealand music have joined forces, with Lorde appearing on “Kāhore He Manu E”, the latest single from Marlon Williams’ first Māori language album.
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Set for release on April 4, Williams’ forthcoming album – Te Whare Tīwekaweka – was first announced in January as the follow-up to 2022’s My Boy, his second-consecutive chart-topper in his native country. Most notably, it’s also his first album recorded in te reo Māori. In addition to being the language of New Zealand’s indigenous population, it’s also Williams’ ancestral tongue, and one which he spent much of the past five years developing.
According to Williams, the motivation behind the album came via the Māori whakatauki (proverb) “Ko te reo Māori, he matapihi ki Te Ao Māori,” which translates to English as “The Māori language is a window to the Māori world.”
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“Through the process of constructing these songs, I’ve found a means of expressing my joys, sorrows and humour in a way that feels both distinctly new, yet also connects me to my tīpuna (ancestors) and my whenua (land, home),” Williams explained.
Previewing the album with first single “Aua Atu Rā,” Williams has now unveiled a collaboration with New Zealand pop superstar Lorde (also known as Ella Yelich-O’Connor).
The track, titled “Kāhore He Manu E,” also comes paired with a music video which captures the pair working together in the studio. The clip itself is taken from the larger forthcoming documentary Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds, directed by Ursula Grace Williams about the making of the record.
“‘Kāhore He Manu E’ was one of those gentle labours. It played itself out to me, easily and near complete from the first,” Williams said of the collaboration. “It was also obvious who should be singing it; Ella’s voice in a very real sense wrote the song. The distinct and striking characteristics in her voice cornering and demanding of the melody and phrasing what only her voice could.
“Singing with Ella is incredible; the amount of mind she’s able to pour into the vessel,” he added. “We got to know each other through sharing the highs and lows of touring life, and in a real sense this song is an ode to the colourful but grim wormhole of road life, to the friends made and lost in the folds of time, ‘visions lost in the blur.’”
“Over the course of several years I watched Marlon pull at the threads that became Te Whare Tīwekaweka,” added Lorde. “I saw that the further he got into the album, the deeper my friend came to know himself, his whānau (family) and his world at large. Marlon is an undercover perfectionist, and he was never going to embark on this journey without turning over every stone, crafting complex waiata (songs) that speak to the past while also braiding in his characteristic humour and X-ray vision.
“Singing with Marlon is one of my favourite things to do on earth, whether we are tipsy backstage by a pool table or in a luscious studio, and I was honoured he asked me to sing with him on this album. I’m so proud of my friend.”
Williams first found fame as a teenage musician in New Zealand before moving to Melbourne, Australia in 2013 and launching a solo career. His self-titled debut was issued in 2015 and resulted in widespread acclaim, including an appearance on U.S. television the following year when he was invited to perform on Conan with his band the Yarra Benders.
Williams has also dabbled in acting alongside his musician career, arguably becoming best known to U.S. audiences when he appeared in Bradley Cooper’s 2018 A Star is Born as himself, and as Johnny Abbot in the Netflix series Sweet Tooth.
The new single isn’t the first time that Williams and Lorde have collaborated together, either. In 2019, the pair performed at a benefit concert for victims of the Christchurch terror attack, sharing an arresting duet of Simon & Garfunkel’s classic No. 1 hit “The Sound of Silence.” In 2021, Lorde appeared at Williams’ Auckland concert to guest on a cover of Bruce Springsteen‘s “Tougher Than the Rest,” lifted from his 1987 LP Tunnel of Love.
Months after their tribute to The Boss, Lorde herself dabbled with the Māori language when she shared Te Ao Mārama – a five-track companion EP to Solar Power, sung entirely in te reo Māori.
Indy, the younger sister of Lorde, announced her upcoming debut EP Threads on Thursday (Jan. 12) with the release of the new single “Hometown.”
The five-track project from the newcomer, born Indy Yelich O’Connor, will arrive Feb. 17 via TMWRK Records featuring the new single as well as previously released tracks “Killer” and “Threads.”
“Hometown” certainly owes a debt to her famous sister’s signature style on tracks like “Royals” and “Team,” what with its suburban setting and wistful production as Indy sings, “Nineteen and we haunted streets that we knew so well/ I cut my feet on the love and the lust I felt/ Stuck in the quiet of my hometown/ You’re wonderin’ if we’ll go back to bein’ friends/ I just stay quiet so you know now/ That if I could, you know I’d do it all again/ I gave you all of my midnights/ But baby, now that it’s daytime/ You are stuck in the quiet of my hometown/ I have to go now” with a familiar deep, throaty voice.
“‘Hometown’ is about the memories from my teen years in suburbia that I’ll never forget,” the pop upstart said in a statement. “This song is very nostalgic for me, as it makes me think of driving through the suburbs, taking the long way to go past an ex’s house, returning from the big city and staying at your parents’. Everybody has somebody from their past they hold close. Knowing you’ve outgrown this person, the first inklings of real love, innocence, the sadness of having to let them go.”
Lorde, meanwhile, spent the majority of 2022 on the road in support of her third studio album Solar Power. In a November newsletter to fans, she detailed the challenges of touring in a post-pandemic industry, writing, “Basically, for artists, promoters and crews, things are at an almost unprecedented level of difficulty. Let’s start with three years’ worth of shows happening in one. Add global economic downturn, and then add the totally understandable wariness for concertgoers around health risks.”
Stream Indy’s “Hometown” below.
Charli XCX took to Twitter on Friday (Oct. 28) to give fans some insight on what would have been an incredible Halloween costume this year.
“So, i thought about going as @lorde for halloween this year,” she tweeted, noting that she was also going to do a cover of the star’s breakthrough 2013 hit, “Royals.”
Even better, when Charli texted Lorde about her thoughts, the 25-year-old singer replied, “Ok, iconic. I’m going as charli xcx.” However, the plans ultimately fell through.
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“We both cackled and then we were like, ok cute yeah but actually cba maybe next year,” Charli wrote. “So just so you guys know THE THOUGHT was there and we KNOW it’s legendary butttt we’re just lazy lol.”
and like actually doing a cover of “royals”— Charli (@charli_xcx) October 28, 2022
and so i text @lorde and told her the idea and she was like “ok, iconic. i’m going as charli xcx”— Charli (@charli_xcx) October 28, 2022
and then we both cackled and then we were like, ok cute yeah but actually cba maybe next year. so just so you guys know THE THOUGHT was there and we KNOW it’s legendary butttt we’re just lazy lol— Charli (@charli_xcx) October 28, 2022
Last year, Charli XCX brought some serious Halloween vibes to the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where performed “Good Ones,” the lead single from her fifth studio album, Crash, released in March of this year. For the performance, Charli XCX came out of her own tombstone, which was sat in a graveyard covered in mist.
Upon the album’s release, Crash hit No. 1 on Australia’s Albums Chart, and the British artist produced the same result impressive result on the Official U.K. Albums Chart.
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