Is Lorde Nonbinary? What the Singer Actually Said About Her Gender

Lorde has always been a bit of a mystery. Since she burst onto the scene with "Royals" as a teenager, she's hopped between being a global pop sensation and a total recluse who only emails her fans once every few months. But lately, things have changed. With the rollout of her 2025 album Virgin, the conversation has shifted from her music to something much more personal: her identity.

People are asking: is Lorde nonbinary?

It’s not a random rumor started on TikTok. The singer herself has been surprisingly open about her "expanding" view of gender. During her 2025 press run, she dropped some pretty heavy quotes that left fans wondering where she stands. Honestly, the answer isn't a simple yes or no. It's more of a "it’s complicated."

The Rolling Stone Interview That Started It All

In May 2025, Lorde sat down for a cover story with Rolling Stone that basically broke the internet for her fanbase. She revealed a conversation she had with her friend and fellow pop star, Chappell Roan. Apparently, Roan just came out and asked her point-blank: "So, are you nonbinary now?"

Lorde’s response was classic Lorde.

"I was like, 'I'm a woman except for the days when I'm a man,'" she told the magazine. She admitted it wasn't a "satisfying answer" but said she is deeply resistant to "boxing it up."

She’s not claiming the nonbinary label officially. In fact, in that same interview, she clarified that she still identifies as a cisgender woman and uses she/her pronouns. But she also described herself as feeling "in the middle gender-wise."

It’s a weird tension to hold. She’s using the language of cis-identity while describing an experience that sounds very gender-fluid.

The "Man of the Year" Era

The music on Virgin reflects this internal shift. The opening track of the album contains a lyric that repeats the sentiment: “Some days I’m a woman / Some days I’m a man.”

There’s also a song called "Man of the Year." Lorde explained that when she was writing it, she had a specific image of herself in mind. She visualized herself wearing just a pair of men's jeans, a gold chain, and duct tape across her chest.

"I went to the cupboard, and I got the tape out, and I did it to myself," she told Dazed in a later September 2025 interview. Seeing that version of herself in the mirror "scared" her, but she said it felt like a "pure version" of herself was finally present.

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Why now?

Why is this happening over a decade into her career? Lorde has pointed to a few big life changes:

• Coming off birth control: She mentioned that after being on it since she was 15, stopping felt like "cutting a cord" to a "regulated femininity."
• Body Image Recovery: She’s been open about recovering from an eating disorder. She told Rolling Stone that giving her body more room to exist naturally made her gender feel "way more expansive."
• Psychedelic Therapy: She experimented with MDMA and psilocybin therapy to deal with stage fright, which she says helped her "liberate" her relationship with her physical self.

Is Lorde Nonbinary? The Label vs. The Feeling

If you're looking for a definitive "I am nonbinary" statement, you won't find it. Lorde seems very conscious of her position. She has explicitly said she doesn't want to "take up space" from trans people who face real-world danger or lack the safety she has as a "wealthy, cis, white woman."

To her, this seems to be an internal "broadening" rather than a public rebrand of her identity.

In her September 2025 Dazed cover story, she doubled down on the idea that her identity is still "unfurling." She’s not at a destination. She’s just realized that some days, wearing "women’s clothes" makes her feel totally out of body. She even told her glam team to treat her makeup like "male grooming" instead of traditional pop-star styling.

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What This Means for Fans

So, where does that leave the question?

Basically, Lorde is exploring gender fluidity without adopting a new label. She’s still she/her. She’s still calling herself a woman. But she’s also telling us that she feels like a man sometimes.

For the LGBTQ+ community, seeing a major star talk about gender as a spectrum—rather than a fixed point—is huge. It validates the idea that you can feel "in the middle" without needing to have a perfect, polished identity ready for a Wikipedia update.

If you’re following this journey, the best thing to do is listen to the lyrics on Virgin. Songs like "Man of the Year" and "What Was That" are the closest we'll get to her actual diary on the subject. Lorde is clearly in a transitional phase of her life, and she’s letting us watch the process, even if she hasn't reached a final "conclusion."

Actionable Insight: If you're interested in Lorde's evolving identity, keep an eye on her "Solar Institute" emails. That's usually where she drops the most unfiltered thoughts on her personal growth and the "masculine" energy she’s currently channeling into her live performances.