Music
Lorde's "Man Of The Year" Lyrics Explore Her Gender Identity
The new single is from her upcoming album, Virgin.
Lorde is going through a transformation. On May 29, Lorde released her new single “Man of the Year,” which she called “the song I’m proudest of” on her upcoming fourth studio album, Virgin.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the singer revealed that after her eight-year relationship ended in 2023, she started exploring her gender identity and described herself as “in the middle gender-wise.” As a result, she wrote “Man of the Year” as an attempt to visualize a version of herself that “was fully representative of how [her] gender felt in that moment.”
On the stark piano ballad, co-produced by Jim E. Stack, Lorde examines how her breakup coincides with her new ideas of gender. “My babe can't believe I've become someone else,” she sings. “Someone more like myself.” She even wonders if she’ll ever find love again as her true self. “Who's gon' love me like this? Who could give me lightness?” she asks. “Now I'm broken open.”
The music video, which she shared uncensored on her website, provides a subtle representation of this transformation. Lorde sits in an empty apartment with nothing but sand, puts duct tape across her breasts to compress her chest, and thrashes around in the dirt as a form of catharsis. “FEELING SOMETHING AWAKENING,” she wrote. “FIRST TAPING MY CHEST. SO SCARED TO BE HIM.”
In a separate interview with Australian radio show Triple J, Lorde said the song was inspired by GQ’s annual “Men of the Year” party, which she attended in 2023.
“I wore a ‘hot girl dress’ and felt so not like myself,” she explained. “It was a really cool marker, especially being at this event that was celebrating all these cool guys. I was like, ‘Oh, I’m one of those guys sometimes, when I wanna be.’ The next day, we were in the studio, and I was like ‘I wanna write a song about how I’m the man of the year for me.’”
Lorde’s “Man of the Year” Lyrics
Read the full lyrics to Lorde’s new song below.
Glidin' through on my bike, glidin' through
Like new from my recent ego death
Sirens sing overnight, violent, sweet music
You met me at a really strange time in my life
Take my knife and I cut the cord
My babe can't believe I've become someone else
Someone more like myself
Who's gon' love me like this?
Oh-oh, oh, who could give me lightness?
Let it flow down to me
Love me like this
Now I'm broken open
Mm-mm, uh-huh-uh
Now I go ‘bout my day riding it like a wave
Playing it any way I want
Swish mouthwash, jerk off
Uh-uh, uh-uh-uh
Days go by in the haze (Ts, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh)
Stay up and sleep late (Ts, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh)
(Ts, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh) (Ts, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh)
Who's gon' love me like this?
Oh-oh, oh, who could give me lightness?
Way he flowed down through me
Love me like this
Now I'm broken open
Let's hear it for the man of the year
Mm-mm, uh-huh-uh
Hear it for the man of the year
Mm-mm, uh-huh-uh
How I hope that I'm remembered
My gold chain, my shoulders, my face in the light, oh
I didn't think he'd appear
Let’s hear it for the man of the year
Hear it for the man of the year
Let’s hear it for the man of the year
