Lorde at 2025 Glastonbury festival. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Lorde is officially an independent artist, the pop star revealed to fans in a voice memo published on Tuesday, meaning one of the world’s biggest acts is officially on the market.
“I have been in that contract for a very very long time, in some form of that contract since I was 12 years old, when I signed my first development deal with Universal,” Lorde told fans on the voice memo, saying that her deal with the label ended at the end of last year. “And I adore them. They’re incredible people, and I had an amazing experience with them. But the truth is that a 12 year old girl pre-sold her creative output before she knew what it would be like, and before she knew what she was signing away.”
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Lorde continued to say that “I’m sure I’ll have a deal again, could well be with Universal,” but further added that “I knew that I needed to take a second to have nothing being bought or sold that comes from me. When I see an opportunity for a clean slate, I try to take it.”
Lorde first broke through with her debut album Pure Heroine when she was just 16 years old, thanks to global smash “Royals,” which topped the Hot 100 and won a Grammy for song of the year. She followed that with her much-beloved sophomore album, Melodrama, in 2017, then took a sonic departure with 2021’s Solar Power. After a four-year hiatus, she returned with last year’s Virgin.
Aside from the major change in her music representation, Lorde told fans about her prep for upcoming shows, including festival appearances and a just-announced headlining slot at Lollapalooza in Chicago later this year. She’ll play a pair of shows at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, which she said will serve as the end of her Ultrasound World Tour.
Also in the memo, Lorde said she was studying to get her permit, further quipping, “I must be a licensed driver before I turn 30.” She told fans she took out a lease on an office to give her a more dedicated space to handle her art, a change after she’d “run all of this from my bed forever.”
A fresh start and a clean slate are clearly a present concept in her mind, no doubt influenced by her first bit of artistic independence since pursuing a career as a musician.
“Newness is kind of the theme, a clean slate,” Lorde said. “I don’t know if you saw my phone background that says ‘I have no master,’ but I’m really trying to feel what that feels like.”
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