Lorde overcomes body image issues

The pop singer says songs on her new album Virgin are meant to urge listeners to feel free in their bodies

- Eddino Abdul Hadi

In her new album Virgin, released on June 27, New Zealand pop singer Lorde is finally at peace after grappling with body image and gender issues.

The single Man Of The Year, for example, was inspired by her experience at the 2023 GQ Men of the Year party. She had felt out of place as she was wearing a dress in a room full of men.

The songs on Virgin are meant to encourage listeners to liberate themselves and feel free in their bodies, the 28-year-old singer-songwriter says in a Zoom conference with Asian media.

"I really came into my own power making this album. I, in the past, have struggled with that, with feeling powerful, with feeling fully in my body," says the singer, whose real name is Ella Yelich O'Connor.

"It was my intention with this one to make something that felt like it could carry the full weight of my inner world, ambition and history."