Lorde Drops New Song ‘What Was That’ Early

At Coachella this year, Charli XCX said it was going to be “Lorde Summer,” but Lorde said, “Why wait?” After a semi-successful attempt to preview it in Washington Square Park, Lorde debuted her new single “What Was That” a day before New Music Friday. Lorde began the album rollout process with a 15-second TikTok excerpting the song, and now we have 13 times more of that song to stream at our leisure.

“What Was That” got its public debut last night in Washington Square Park, although the NYPD would rather it hadn’t. The cops tried to shut down Lorde’s listening party, as the singer hadn’t gotten the correct permits. But at around 8:00 p.m., Dev Hynes a.k.a. Blood Orange, played the track on a portable speaker. Then the onion-ring reviewer herself came through and danced along to her song. She wants to dance to her when she goes to the park. “I remember saying then / This is the best cigarette of my life / Well I want you just like that,” Lorde sang as Lorde danced. Someone call @cigfluencers.

(Sidenote: Lorde had a crazy wallet chain on her jeans for her Washington Square Park appearance. Are those coming back? Because I want one.)