Lorde Recounts Gender Identity Conversation With Chappell Roan

Lorde does not want to put her gender identity in a box.

In an interview with Rolling Stone published on Thursday, May 15, the 28-year-old singer-songwriter opened up about a conversation she had with fellow musician Chappell Roan about gender identity. According to the outlet, the two have formed a close friendship over the past year.

“[Roan] asked me this, she was like, ‘So, are you non-binary now?’” the two-time Grammy Award winner recalled. “And I was like, ‘I’m a woman except for the days when I’m a man.’ I know that’s not a very satisfying answer, but there’s a part of me that is really resistant to boxing it up.”

The “Royals” hitmaker noted she’s “in the middle gender-­wise” but still identifies as a cis woman and uses she/her pronouns.

“I don’t think that [my identity] is radical, to be honest. I see these incredibly brave young people, and it’s complicated,” she confessed. “Making the expression privately is one thing, but I want to make very clear that I’m not trying to take any space from anyone who has more on the line than me. Because I’m, comparatively, in a very safe place as a wealthy, cis, white woman.”

The New Zealand native touches on her gender expression in her upcoming album, Virgin. Per the outlet, she sings the lyric “Some days I’m a woman/Some days I’m a man” in the opening song.

The “What Was That” lyricist also recounted her songwriting process for the track “Man of the Year.” She told the publication she was sitting on her living room floor picturing a form of herself “that was fully representative of how [her] gender felt in that moment.” The image that came to mind was herself dressed in men’s jeans, a gold chain and duct tape on her chest.

“I went to the cupboard, and I got the tape out, and I did it to myself. I have this picture staring at myself. I was blond [at the time]. It scared me what I saw. I didn’t understand it,” she admitted. “But I felt something bursting out of me. It was crazy. It was something jagged. There was this violence to it.”

Virgin will be released on Friday, June 27.