Lorde Recalls Moment She Had Gender Revelation: 'I Felt So Not Like Myself'

When Lorde unveiled her upcoming fourth album Virgin, she explained how the project is all about her personal journey with gender identity. The singer recently shared the album's second single, "Man of the Year," which she admitted is the song on Virgin that makes her "proudest." In a new interview, Lorde recalled the moment she had a gender revelation that was the catalyst for the song: attending the 2023 GQ "Man of the Year" awards.

“I had been feeling this expansiveness of gender happening for a while, and this was my first event that I’d been to in a while,” she said before describing her attire as "kind of a 'hot girl' dress."

“I felt so not like myself,” the 28-year-old continued. “And it was a really cool marker, especially being at this event that was celebrating all these cool guys, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m one of those guys, like, sometimes, when I wanna be. And I was like, ‘Whoa, I don’t think the hot girl dress is the right device for this moment.’”

She ended up sharing a photo from the event on Instagram story with the caption “Some days I’m a woman, some days I’m a man.” The next day, Lorde was “kind of hung over” in the studio with her producer Stack, and she told him she wanted to write a song about “how I’m the Man of the Year for me.”

"Man of the Year" follows the album's lead single, "What Was That," which came out last month. Virgin is slated for a June 27 release. In September, Lorde plans to hit the road on a world tour. Watch the "Man of the Year" music video below and see the full list of tour dates here.