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Lorde got candid about her upcoming album, Virgin, and exploring her gender identity in her latest cover story with Rolling Stone, published on Thursday, May 15, 2025. The singer-songwriter opened up to Brittany Spanos for the interview, where she clarified the gender she identifies with. Lorde confirmed that she still identifies as a cis woman and that she still uses "she/her" pronouns.
However, she also considers herself "in the middle gender-wise" and refuses to box herself up in that matter. In the cover story, Spanos wrote that she explicitly asked the What Was That singer about her gender identity and what has changed for her. The singer replied, recalling the time fellow artist Chappell Roan asked her the same. She said:
"[Chappell Roan] asked me this. She was like, 'So, are you nonbinary now?' And I was like, '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."
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It's the same sentiment Lorde features in her upcoming Virgin album. The cover story also mentioned that the album's opening track features the lyrics, "Some days I'm a woman / Some days I'm a man." Lorde also added that her gender identity will be a topic prevalent in her upcoming album.
What to know about Lorde's upcoming album, Virgin
Virgin marks the fourth album Lorde is going to release and the first one in the last four years, following her third album, Solar Power, in 2021. She first gave fans a taste of the highly anticipated project with What Was That, the album's lead single that she released on April 24, 2025. It's described as a synth-pop dance track, with the lyrics mentioning dancing at a New York City nightclub and lots of MDMA.
The Grammy winner also released an accompanying video for the track, featuring her performing the song in front of the Washington Square Park crowd. The clip was from Lorde's unscheduled pop-up event at New York City's Washington Square Park on April 22, which the police had to shut down because of crowd control.
Ahead of her album's release, the New Zealander teased what the project is going to be. She expressed the rawness of the album's creative process, alluding to it as representing "full transparency." On her website, per Cosmopolitan, she described Virgin:
"The colour of the album is clear. Like bathwater, windows, ice, spit. Full transparency. The language is plain and unsentimental. The sounds are the same wherever possible. I was trying to see myself, all the way through."
She also mentioned that, in creating the album, she was trying to make a document that "reflected my femininity." Also, she posted a note on her website, per Billboard, where she shared the producers she worked with on the album. The list includes Fabian's Palladino, Andrew Aged, Jim-E Stack, Dev Hynes of Blood Orange, Dan Nigro, and Buddy Ross.
The What Was That singer also teased that Virgin will feature lyrics that are blunt and visceral. She said that she will discuss bodily truths that are "right on the edge of gross."
Virgin will be released on June 27, 2025, followed by her Ultrasound world tour, which will kick off on September 17, 2025.
