MELODRAMA

Lorde Releases New Song “Green Light” and Music Video

The first taste of her second album, Melodrama.


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Photography by Clara Balzary

More than three years after her debut album, Pure Heroine, Lorde has released the first taste of her second full-length album, Melodrama.

The 20-year-old, Grammy-winning artist just dropped “Green Light,” the debut single from her highly anticipated sophomore album, due out this summer. “I am so proud of this song,” she teased on Twitter{: rel=nofollow}. “It’s very different, and kinda unexpected. It’s complex and funny and sad and joyous and it’ll make you DANCE.”

She continued{: rel=nofollow}: “It’s the first chapter of a story I’m gonna tell you, the story of the last 2 wild, fluorescent years of my life. This is where we begin.”

The song, which she produced with frequent Taylor Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff, is much more up-tempo than Lorde’s previous hits (such as “Royals” and “Team”)— but don’t the beats fool you, it’s about a devastating breakup. “It was my first major heartbreak, and the song is really about those moments kind of immediately after your life changes and about all the silly little things that you gravitate towards,” she explained on Beats 1{: rel=nofollow}. “I realized this is that drunk girl at the party dancing around, crying about her ex-boyfriend who everyone thinks is a mess. That’s her tonight, and tomorrow she starts to rebuild. And that’s the song for me.”

The music video for the high-energy song, which Lorde simultaneously released today, features her living that “wild, fluorescent” life in a car, in the club, and on the streets.

The release of “Green Light” and the summer release of Melodrama coincide with Lorde’s tour on the festival circuit this year: She will be performing at Coachella, Governors Ball, and Bonnaroo.

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