Lorde Seemingly Teases New Music

Lorde is teasing/hinting to fans that she is coming out with new music. In an Instagram post, the 27-year-old singer said that she's "Listening to myself" in two photos where she's wearing headphones. The New Zealand artist last came released music when she put out her third studio album, Solar Power, two years ago. Per Billboard, the "Stoned at the Nail Salon" singer teased a pair of new songs while headlining the UK's Boardmasters Festival. Fans speculate the songs are titled: "Silver Moon" and "Invisible Ink."

One fan's comment garnered a clarification from Lorde, whose real name is Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor. The fan wrote under her post: "L4 SEASON IS UPON US. Lorde is TEASING NEW MUSIC on her Instagram post this is NOT a drill!!!!!!" The user also claimed that the singer archived her Solar Power cover art from her feed and changed her profile pic. Lorde, whose Instagram feed only contains two pictures at the moment, responded to the comment, writing, “We’re not CLOSE close you guys… i’m just getting so hype n needed to let u know .. start ur excitement on a low flame and bring it up to a gentle simmer .. we building stamina for this chapter.”

With her other Instagram photo posted in August, Lorde also teased at the time that her fourth album was coming. She wrote alongside the photo of herself swimming underwater of a green-lit pool: "These times are beautiful and they freak me out and there’s so much to tell you," she said. "No this is not the start of anything out there, just want u to know there’s a light on inside me .. show it to you soon."

In between her projects, the Grammy-winning artist typically keeps it low-profile. However, a month later in September, she wrote in her newsletter that she has been "living with heartbreak again." As we previously reported, her note described the physical and emotional pain she went through recently because of it. "It’s different but the same. I ache all the time, I forget why and then remember. I’m not trying to hide from the pain, I understand now that pain isn’t something to hide from, that there’s actually great beauty in moving with it. But sometimes I’m sick of being with myself."

Lorde, born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor, was born on 7 November 1996 in New Zealand. The "Solar Power" singer-songwriter's mother, Sonja Yelich, is a poet, while her father, Vic O'Connor, is a civil engineer. At age five, Lorde joined a drama group, and her mother encouraged her to read a range of genres, which the pop star cited as a lyrical influence. With three albums under her belt, she has cited the 2002 dystopian novel Feed and authors J. D. Salinger, Raymond Carver, and Janet Frame for influencing her songwriting.

In 2009, Lorde and her friend Louis McDonald won their middle school's annual talent show. A few months later, the duo appeared on Jim Mora's Afternoons show on Radio New Zealand. There, they performed covers of Pixie Lott's "Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)" and Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody." McDonald's father then sent recordings of their Pixie Lott cover "Mama Do" and Duffy's "Warwick Avenue" to Universal Music Group. Lorde was subsequently signed to UMG for development. In 2010, Lorde and McDonald formed a duet called "Ella & Louis" and performed covers live regularly at local venues. The following year, UMG hired a vocal coach to give Lorde singing lessons for a year.

Lorde performed her original songs for the first time in 2011. She and singer-songwriter Joel Little recorded five songs for an extended play, The Love Club. Lorde released the EP through her SoundCloud account for free and was downloaded over 60,000 times. UMG commercially released the EP following that success, which featured her hit single, "Royals." The song helped Lorde rise to prominence after it became a critical and commercial success, selling more than 13 million units worldwide.

At 16 years old, Lorde became the youngest artist to earn a number-one single in the United States since Tiffany in 1987. The track won two Grammys for Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year. Her second studio album, Melodrama, was released in 2016, featuring such hits as "Supercut" and "Liability." The album Solar Power came a few years later in 2021, classified by the artist as her "weed album." Solar Power is a psychedelic pop and indie folk record, marking a departure from her previous synth-heavy, dance-oriented works.

See below our ranking of Lorde's 12 best songs: