As Lorde fans await the June release of Virgin, Lorde has offered another preview of the project today (May 29) with a video for “Man Of The Year.” The clip sees Lorde take off her shirt and cover her breasts with tape before dramatically dancing around a dirt-filled room.
Lorde previously told Rolling Stone that while writing the song, she attempted to visualize a version of herself “that was fully representative of how [her] gender felt in that moment.” She pictured herself in men’s jeans and with duct tape on her chest. Lorde said, “I went to the cupboard, and I got the tape out, and I did it to myself. I have this picture staring at myself. I was blonde [at the time]. It scared me what I saw. I didn’t understand it. But I felt something bursting out of me. It was crazy. It was something jagged. There was this violence to it.”
She also said during that interview, “[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.”
Watch the “Man Of The Year” video above.
Virgin is out 6/27 via Republic Records. Find more information here.