Yesterday (April 30), Lorde announced her next album, Virgin. The immediate assumption for many after hearing that title is that the project has at least some focus on sex. Perhaps that’s true, but it appears that it covers more than that, too, as Lorde has offered some context.
On her Instagram Story today (archived by Pop Crave here), Lorde shared a few different meanings of the word “virgin” (screenshots from websites, seemingly), presumably implying that they apply to her mindset behind the album. One reads, “The word ‘virgin,’ some say, was derived from a Greek word that meant ‘not attached to a man, a woman who was ‘one-in-herself.’ Goddesses like Ishtar (Assyrian-Babylonian), Diana (Roman), Astarte (Greek) and Isis (Egyptian) were called ‘virgins’ not because they were inexperienced but because they were strong and independent.”
Another says, “There is also evidence that the word ‘virgin’ derived from the combination of the Latin words ‘vir- (for man, as in ‘virile) and-gyne’ (for woman, as in gynecology) – a man-woman or androgynous person.” Lorde’s third and final one reads, “What does virgin metal mean? Pure metal obtained directly from ore.”
Lorde previously wrote of the project, “I was trying to see myself, all the way through. I was trying to make a document that reflected my femininity: raw, primal, innocent, elegant, openhearted, spiritual, masc. I’m proud and scared of this album. There’s nowhere to hide. I believe that putting the deepest parts of ourselves to music is what sets us free.”
Virgin is out 6/27 via Republic Records. Find more information here.