Olivia Rodrigo is ready for Lorde summer. Less than 24 hours after the New Zealand pop star dropped her comeback single “What Was That,” the “Vampire” singer shared her review of the track while posting a video of herself jamming out to it in New York City. (Spoiler alert: She’s a fan).
In a TikTok posted Friday (April 25), Rodrigo films herself frolicking around Washington Square Park — an homage to the music video for “What Was That,” which dropped the day prior and also found Lorde strutting through the famous location — while passionately singing along to every lyric. “Since I was 17, I gave you everything/ Now, we wake from a dream, well, baby, what was that?” she mouths along, dancing unabashedly and showing off the park’s famous arch behind her before leaning in to get best friend Iris Apatow in the shot.
“I LOVE THIS MF SONG,” Rodrigo captioned the clip.
The three-time Grammy winner has long been a fan of Lorde’s, often citing the “Royals” artist as an inspiration for her own work. In 2024, she praised Lorde’s 2013 debut album Pure Heroine during a Hollywood Reporter roundtable discussion, saying, “I love that record so much, and I remember listening to it as I first started writing songs and just being blown away by her lyrics that are just about being a teenager living in the suburbs … It just made being young and doing these seemingly unimportant things feel so sacred.”
The former Disney star is one of countless fans who’ve been waiting tirelessly for Lorde to follow up her 2021 album Solar Power with new music, something she finally did Thursday (April 24) with the release of “What Was That.” Two days prior, the Kiwi musician premiered the track in Washington Square Park for a crowd of fans — only after their original gathering scheduled for a few hours prior was shut down by city officials — and later included footage from the pop-up in the “What Was That” music video.
In a description of the song on her website, Lorde wrote in all-caps: “BACK IN NEW YORK. DEEP BREAKUP. STOPPING BIRTH CONTROL. EVERY MEAL A BATTLE. FLASHBACKS AND WAVES. FEELING GRIEF’S VORTEX AND LETTING IT TAKE ME. OPENING MY MOUTH AND RECORDING WHAT FELL OUT.”
She added, “THE SOUND OF MY REBIRTH.”
Watch Rodrigo’s TikTok below.
The post “Olivia Rodrigo Rocks Out to Lorde’s ‘What Was That’ in Washington Square Park” by Hannah Dailey was published on 04/25/2025 by www.billboard.com