Lorde Addresses Her Two-Year Disappearance From the Spotlight After Being Dubbed Music's Next ''It'' Girl

The Grammy-winning songstress reveals the next chapter in her elusive career

By Meg Swertlow May 15, 2017 8:14 PMTags

After 2013, everyone wanted to be Lorde. But when you're Lorde and everyone wants to be you, who are you? 

That's the question that music's "It" girl, who was a literal girl—16 years old—when her album Pure Heroine dropped in 2013, had to answer after her whirlwind debut in the spotlight, resulted in her winning big at the 2014 Grammys, curating a soundtrack to the Hunger Games and being the new sound that singer/songwriters everywhere were emulating.

Recently the now-20-year-old opened up in a candid interview with Rolling Stone and in the revealing sit-down, the New Zealand native discussed what it was like skyrocketing to fame at the age of 16, taking an almost two-year break from new music and where she is now, four years after her wild ride began.

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She told the mag: "Everyone's so crazy when they're 16. I think if you tell a 16-year-old that they're going to Mars—'We're gonna get on a rocket and go, and that's going to be your life'—they'd be like, 'OK, like, that's all well and good, but I'm doing this thing by myself right now, and that's what's important.' Everything kind of normalized week to week."

Notoriety and fame is all well and good (actually, it's probably pretty great) for your first album, but what happens when you have to make another record and the world is waiting with bated breath?

When you're Lorde, you walk away from the masses for almost two years, go back home, find your unique voice one more time and turn out your highly anticipated sophomore album, Melodrama...

In the interview, the Kiwi also revealed that after the success (critical and commercial) of her first album, she had the classic artist's dilemma over her sophomore album: Where do I go now?

"Her first album was all about being this kid," says Jack Antonoff, (whom you may also know from his bands Fun. and Bleachers, as well as being Lena Dunham's special gentleman friend) who produced Melodrama. "When your entire life changes, and you've built your career on being honest with your perspective, how do you continue to [find ways to relate]? It's near impossible."

Near impossible, but not entirely impossible...

Find out when Melodrama drops on June 16.