The pop icon reflects candidly on gender and self-discovery.
Lorde’s fourth studio album, Virgin, arrived in June, marking a new chapter that will see her tour Australia and New Zealand in 2026.
More than a musical milestone, the record is a deeply intimate exploration of gender, identity and selfhood.
In her recent cover interview with DAZED, she reflected candidly on a transformative moment in late 2023 when she taped her chest for the first time and, in doing so, “came into some understanding” of herself.
This revelation also inspired the creation of Man of the Year, where Lorde appears in the video binding her chest and moving through soil – an homage to Walter De Maria’s New York Earth Room.
For the 28-year-old, the gesture carries weight beyond performance, embodying identity and rebirth.
“I came into some understanding about myself, and felt a very pure version of myself present… It was scary,” she reflected.
Speaking with DAZED, Lorde returned to a recurring theme: feeling “in the middle gender-wise,” outside the confines of fixed categories.
As she once told Chappell Roan, “I’m a woman except for the days when I’m a man” – a phrase that underscores the fluidity and resistance to definition that now shapes her sense of self.
She spoke of the dissonance she has long felt in feminine clothes and garments that felt suffocating, pulling her “totally out-of-body.”
Now, she takes a simpler approach, asking makeup artists to “treat it like male grooming,” a subtle adjustment that grounds her more fully in her own skin.
Lorde emphasised that her exploration is less about labels and more about honesty.
She also acknowledged her privilege, noting that her journey carries far lower stakes than those faced by more vulnerable trans and gender-diverse communities.
Virgin carries these reflections throughout.
Tracks like Hammer and Man of the Year capture the uncertainty, expansiveness, and physical awareness that emerged from her gender exploration, sometimes raw, sometimes tender, but always honest.
In the end, Virgin doesn’t just mark a new era in Lorde’s music.
It’s the record of a woman learning to inhabit herself, with all the power and vulnerability that entails.
