Lorde Embraces Gender Fluidity and Creative Rebirth on New Album Virgin
Lorde has never been one to play by the rules of pop stardom, and with her upcoming album Virgin, out June 27, she’s pushing her artistic boundaries even further—this time by peeling back the layers of gender, identity, and raw self-expression.
In a deeply personal Rolling Stone cover story, the New Zealand singer-songwriter reflects on her gender journey, sparked by introspection during the making of Virgin. The album’s opening lyric, “Some days I’m a woman / Some days I’m a man,” sets the tone for Lorde’s most emotionally exposed record yet. Speaking with journalist Brittany Spanos, she described herself as “in the middle gender-wise,” elaborating, “I’m a woman except for the days when I’m a man.”
While Lorde still identifies as a cis woman and uses she/her pronouns, she resists labeling her evolving sense of self. “There’s a part of me that is really resistant to boxing it up,” she admitted. The transformation began with what she called “the ooze”—a process of letting herself “take up more space” emotionally, physically, and sonically.
Key turning points include her decision to stop taking birth control, a moment she described as severing her tie to “regulated femininity.” “I felt that all of a sudden, I was off the map of femininity,” she said. “That allowed things to open up.”
Her 2025 Met Gala look, which Lorde called an “Easter egg” for Virgin, reflected this dual energy: “It made me feel like a man and a woman.” Another pivotal moment came when producer Jim-E Stack encouraged her to bring the version of herself in a photo—dressed in men’s jeans—into the music.
Lorde expects the album to challenge perceptions. “There’s going to be a lot of people who don’t think I’m a good girl anymore,” she said. “It’s over. And for some people, I will have arrived.”
Following the album’s release, Lorde will embark on the Ultrasound world tour, beginning in September 2025 in Austin, Texas, before hitting arenas across Europe and the U.K.