Lorde Says She’s ‘Not Built for Pop Star Life’
Lorde, whose real name is Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor, released her third studio album Solar Power on Aug. 20. After the album dropped, Lorde sat down for a lengthy interview with Vogue to discuss her career. Even though her music is incredibly popular, Lorde revealed that she thinks she is “not built for pop star life” in the interview with Vogue.
Lorde first rose to fame after releasing Pure Heroine, her first studio album. The album received a nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2014 Grammy Awards.
Meanwhile, “Royals,” the lead single from Pure Heroine was nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance. It went on to win Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year.
Despite achieving acclaim and stardom early on in her career, Lorde does not think she is meant to be a “pop star.”
“I’m great at my job, but I’m not sure I’m the man for the job,” she told Vogue. “I’m a highly sensitive person. I’m not built for pop star life. To have a public-facing existence is something I find really intense and is something I’m not good at. That natural charisma is not what I have. I have the brain in the jar.”
Because Lorde does not like to do constant promotions in the spotlight, the singer-songwriter prefers to take time away in between releasing albums.
“But for whatever reason people have allowed me to say, Okay, I’m going to come and do the thing—do the shoot, do the red carpet, speak to the journalists, put the music out—and when I’ve done it to the point of total exhaustion, when I have completely quenched that thirst, I’m going to go home, and you’re not going to see me for two or three or four years,” Lorde told Vogue.
She continued, “I’ll be doing the other thing, which is being there for every single birthday and dinner party and cooking every single meal and going on every single walk and taking every single bath. And when I’ve done that, and I’m like, all right, that’s enough of that for a little while, I’ll come back again.”
After releasing Pure Heroine in 2013, the singer dropped her second studio album Melodrama in 2017. Lorde then took until 2021 to release Solar Power.
In addition to staying out of the limelight as much as possible, Lorde does not use official social media accounts. According to Vogue, the singer stopped using social media in 2018.
“I could sense that it would be very bad for the work and for me if I stayed online,” Lorde told Vogue. “I don’t think I’ve met too many people for whom social media is a net positive.”
She added, “So I’m not, like, lurking on a Finsta. I’m really off.”
