Pop singer Lorde is trying something different with her upcoming album, Virgin by using the album to further explore her gender identity. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Lorde discussed a difficult period within her life, specifically the moments in between her 2021 album Solar Power and her work on Virgin throughout 2023 and 2024. After she faced a significant breakup, received psychedelic therapy and took on her eating disorder, Lorde began exploring her gender identity more. She elaborated by saying, “My gender got way more expansive when I gave my body more room.”

According to Consequence, Lorde’s eating disorder stemmed from her stage fright and that she first started to overcome this after she tried MDMA and psilocybin therapy. The experience gave her a new perspective on performing her music and allowed her to connect with fans more deeply. However, her eating disorder persisted which caused her to have self-esteem issues and hate her image in the mirror. All of this has led Lorde to her latest eye-opening experience and inspired her to write Virgin which is an exploration of gender identity, femininity, beauty and the grotesqueness of the human body. Upon writing Virgin, Lorde realized that her eating disorder forced her to be small rather than allowing her to take up space. To battle this, the singer began exploring her identity further to take back both her body and mind.

Her gender identity is not concrete as noted in one of the opening lines on the first track from Virgin, “Some days I’m a woman / Some days I’m a man.” Lorde has made an effort to keep a label away from her identity. One such example can be found in her retelling of a conversation with pop icon Chappell Roan, in which Roan asked if Lorde was nonbinary. Lorde responded by saying, “‘I’m a woman except for the days when I’m a man.’ I know that’s not a very satisfying answer, but there’s a part of me that is really resistant to boxing it up.” The only part of her identity she has seemingly been clear on is her identity as a cis woman who is careful not to take space from others, particularly those less fortunate than her. She added, “I don’t think that [my identity] is radical, to be honest.” Lorde’s Virgin will be released on June 27, 2025 and she will start her 2025 tour in September to promote the album. Tickets for her tour can be purchased here.