Lorde Opens Up About Losing Touch With Music During Mental Health Struggle: 'Never Felt More Distant From My Creativity'

Lorde is opening up about a time when she felt creatively paralyzed and defeated by body image woes. The 28-year-old singer spoke to Jack Saunders on BBC Radio 1 and revealed that she was in a difficult headspace at the start of 2023.

"I'd never felt more distant from my creativity," Lorde said. "I didn't think I had anything to offer and I hadn't had an idea in a while."

When she made a surprise appearance at Glastonbury earlier, she told the crowd she thought she would "never make music again." Saunders later asked her to clarify that moment. Lorde explained that at the time, her mind was completely consumed with food, weight and exercise.

"This was a period when I was trying to weigh as little as possible and going to sleep and thinking about food and weight and wake up thinking about food and exercise," she said. "That was the creative pursuit, you know."

She realized she needed to stop. "At that time I was like I really need to stop doing this because it's blocking all my artistry," she said. "Once that went away it all started to come back."

A New Era: Reclaiming Her Body and Voice

In a Document Journal cover story, Lorde expanded on how much pressure she felt to appear a certain way. "I had made my body very small, because I thought that that was what you did as a woman and a woman on display," she said. "I thought, I'm small. This will communicate to people that I'm taking my position seriously."

Looking back, she said she felt "very weak" and "ungrounded." She admitted, "I wasn't very embodied," but now says, "I eat as much as I want and need now."

With her album "Virgin," released June 27, Lorde says the music is a result of reconnecting with her physical and emotional self. "This album is a byproduct of that process of fully coming into my body and feeling the fullness of my power," she said.

In a note posted to her website, she recalled writing "What Was That" in late 2023, during what she described as a "deep breakup" and while "stopping birth control." At the time, she wrote, "Every meal a battle. Flashbacks and waves. Feeling grief's vortex and letting it take me."

Lorde is also reportedly dating producer Jim E-Stack, who she was seen with following her Glastonbury performance. The two were previously linked in 2024 and worked together on her single "Man of the Year."

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Lorde, New Album