Two-Thousand-Seventeen is already the year of our Lorde.
As we count down to the release of her sophomore album Melodrama, out this June, the 20-year-old New Zealander returned to the Saturday Night Live stage last night to deliver a pair of hypnotic renditions of recent singles “Green Light” and “Liability.”
Last time she was on SNL, in November 2015, Lorde sung along with musical guest Disclosure, but last night, the stage was all her own.
And she owned it.
As we noted in the single’s debut earlier this month, monster comeback track “Green Light” showcases Lorde’s new desire to dance up an alt-pop storm without losing any of the dazzled charm that made her an instant sensation on 2013’s breakout LP Pure Heroine. For Lorde’s follow-up, on the more subdued broken-hearted, true-to-yourself ballad “Liability” (which oddly reminds us of My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome To The Black Parade”), the songwriter was joined by collaborator Jack Antonoff on piano as she performed emotionally in wedding-minded white under the glare of the spotlight.
Lorde crushes the festival circuit this summer, with appearances at Coachella in California, Montreal’s Osheaga, Governors Ball in New York, and Tennessee’s Bonnaroo; after that, we can only hope her never-ending road eventually leads her to New England stages. Watch both of her SNL performances below.
“Green Light”:
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“Liability”: