Lorde claims part of womanhood is “sometimes being a man” and ‘Virgin’ is about “femininity”
Lorde has opened up about the inspirations behind her latest album Virgin, claiming it is based on “femininity” and that part of womanhood is “sometimes being a man”.
The singer was speaking in a recent interview with the French outlet Le Monde when she reflected extensively on the themes of gender, which are integral to the record, released in June.
Explaining her own personal sense of gender fluidity, she said: “I never felt like a woman until I was 26. I remember the day. My mother was sort of androgynous and showed me a lot of David Bowie, Grace Jones.”
Lorde continued: “I understood that was a source of power. And I also saw how dangerous it sometimes was to be a woman.”
To this end, the ‘What Was That’ singer went on to expand on how this notion of androgyny shaped her idea of feminine identity, adding: “So I decided that if I’m going to be a woman, I want to be exactly the kind of woman that I need to be. Part of that is sometimes being a man.”
Most notably, these themes are explored on Virgin through tracks like ‘Man of the Year’, which the New Zealand pop star said elsewhere in the interview was inspired by the Dutch woman Annette Herfkens, who in 1992 spent eight days alone and injured in the jungle of Vietnam, after her plane crashed there.
However, Lorde has spoken previously with regards to the album about how she feels like both “a man and a woman,” which she came to reflect on further in the process of creating Virgin by saying: I thought it was cool to have a document of my femininity at this specific age, even just to see how it changes, as it inevitably will.”
Lorde will begin a North American tour for Virgin in Austin, Texas, on September 17th, before heading to the UK in November, for which she has sold out dates in Manchester, London, Glasgow, and Birmingham.
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