Lorde Says MDMA Therapy ‘Changed the Game' on Her Stage Fright
During an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the pop star candidly discussed how she once suffered from 'truly the most horrific stage fright' that dated back to her early childhood in community theatre. When Colbert asked how she got past it, Lorde didn't hold back. 'Well, it's MDMA therapy,' she said. 'Truly, like, changed the game on my stage fright.'
More from Billboard
Carín León, Kapo, Netón Vega, Myke Towers, Laura Pausini & More Set for Billboard Latin Music Week 2025
Whitney Houston's 'The Bodyguard' Extends Its Lead as the Highest RIAA-Certified Soundtrack of All Time
Shania Twain Stars in New Commercial for Clearly Canadian Sparkling Water: 'It's Pure Nostalgia in a Bottle'
Lorde explained how the treatment worked for her when other forms of healing hadn't. 'Some of these things live very deep in the body, and you hold on to it,' she said.
'You hold on to a response like stage fright for reasons that no amount of talk therapy or brain use could get at. But when you bypass that and get to the body, something shifts. And that totally happened for me.'
After trying 'everything' for her anxiety around performing, Lorde said she woke up the day after her MDMA therapy and instantly felt the shift: 'I was like, oh, it's over. I know it's over.'
The revelation comes as Lorde gears up for the release of her new album Virgin, out June 27 via Republic Records. She recently dropped the final pre-release single 'Hammer' on June 20. The euphoric track, co-produced by Jim-E Stack, opens the album and has drawn comparisons to Lady Gaga's 'Poker Face' for its glitchy, electro-pop flair.
Lorde described 'Hammer' as 'an ode to city life and horniness tbh' and has promised that Virgin will explore themes of rebirth, gender, spiritual transformation, and bodily autonomy. The album also includes production from Fabiana Palladino, Dan Nigro, Buddy Ross and Dev Hynes of Blood Orange, among others.
She's been open about how her recent life changes influenced the record, from quitting birth control and experiencing disordered eating to ending a long-term relationship. The project's rawness is reflected in its visual aesthetic as well: 'The colour of the album is clear,' she wrote when announcing it. 'Like bathwater, windows, ice, spit. Full transparency.'
Virgin is out Friday, June 27, with a Renell Medrano-directed video for 'Hammer' arriving the same day.
Best of Billboard
Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1
Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits
H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
3 minutes ago
- Axios
Charlotte culinary duo gets national TV spotlight
"Fork & Hammer," the reality TV show about local restaurateurs Jeff Tonidandel and Jamie Brown, will premiere at the newly-restored Carolina Theatre next month. Why it matters: The husband-and-wife duo launched Crepe Cellar in NoDa during the 2009 recession without prior restaurant experience. Since then, they've built a thriving family-run empire comprising local beloved spots — Haberdish, Supperland, Ever Andalo, Growlers, and Leluia Hall — all while raising a family, preserving historic buildings and navigating Charlotte's evolving culinary landscape. Driving the news: Tickets are on sale for the Oct. 7 premiere. Charlotteans will get a first look one week before the show debuts nationwide. PBS North Carolina will air Fork & Hammer every Wednesday, starting Oct. 15, at 2pm and on Sundays, starting Oct. 19, at 11:30am. Season 1 will air on PBS stations nationwide this fall, with exact dates and times rolling out market by market. What to expect: The series follows the couple as they run their five businesses, manage more than 230 employees, open their newest restaurant, Leluia Hall, and save the Leeper-Wyatt building, one of the oldest retail structures in the South End area. The evening kicks off with a lobby meet-and-greet, followed by the 26-minute first episode, "It Started with a Crêpe," which revisits the couple's first restaurant, Crêpe Cellar Kitchen & Pub. Tennis champion and Charlotte resident Andy Roddick will moderate a live Q&A with Tonidandel and Brown after the screening. Behind the scenes: The 10-episode first season, produced by Susie Films and presented by SCETV, will be distributed nationally by American Public Television. "It's entrepreneurship, it's risk-taking, it's the real behind-the-scenes of what it takes to keep these places going," Brown tells Axios. Flashback: Susie Films, a Charlotte-based production company, reached out to Brown and Tonidandel after spotting them on the 2023 cover of Charlotte magazine. From there, Susie Films pitched the concept to several outlets, including Netflix, Magnolia, Food Network and PBS. They raised $1 million from sponsors to produce the show, including ETV Endowment of South Carolina, Trust20, the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, and Biltmore Estate Winery. The big picture: Charlotte's food scene is heading to the national stage in more ways than one. "Fork & Hammer" is coming to TVs across the country at the same time Charlotte is earning fresh culinary cred, from being named host city for "Top Chef" season 23 to the Michelin Guide's expansion into the Southeast. Between the lines: Congress recently cut $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, forcing its shutdown by early 2026 and leaving PBS and NPR stations scrambling, with layoffs, hiring freezes and emergency fundraising drives.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Alex Warren's 'Ordinary' actually is the song of the summer — but nobody wants to admit it
According to the charts, Alex Warren's hit single "Ordinary" is the undisputed song of the summer. The song has reigned at No. 1 on the Hot 100 for nine weeks, but fans and critics remain unenthused. The love song has taken off on pop radio and is perfect fodder for relationship montages on TikTok. Where is this year's song of the summer? It's the question that's haunted road trippers and pool partiers for months now. But like so many low-stakes mysteries, the answer has been hiding in plain sight (or, in this case, earshot) all along. If we're going with cold, hard facts — Billboard chart data — there's one song that's dominated the airwaves as the weather has warmed. It's just that a soaring love ballad a 24-year-old TikToker wrote about his wife is not exactly the ideal soundtrack for your day at the beach. Released in February, Alex Warren's "Ordinary" took a few months to take off, becoming a bona fide commercial juggernaut by June, when it ascended to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It's remained atop the all-genre chart for nine weeks so far, and continues to dominate Billboard's Songs of the Summer chart, where it hasn't budged from its No. 1 position since Memorial Day. Though it makes every attempt to sound momentous, "Ordinary" is a love song that's true to its name. Dedicated to Warren's wife, Kouvr Annon, the song uses vaguely spiritual lyrics to describe their connection. His vocals backed by hymnal echoes and a pounding drum line, Warren insists "the angels up in the clouds are jealous" of his marital bliss and compares his wife to a sanctuary, a vineyard, and a sculptor. If the song's theme of divine love wasn't clear enough, the couple also costars in the music video, and Warren later released a "wedding version" of the song paired with footage from their real-life nuptials. That the song is generically gooey has worked to its advantage in the airplay department. "Ordinary" owes much of its longevity to companies like iHeartMedia, America's biggest radio network, which allocates tens of thousands of spins to the song each week. In its most recent week atop the Hot 100, "Ordinary" tallied over 73 million radio airplay audience impressions, according to Billboard, compared to only 12.4 million streams and 6,000 copies sold. The song's lack of specificity also makes it a broadly appealing soundtrack for lovey-dovey moments on TikTok, where both versions of "Ordinary" have been used in millions of videos with billions of cumulative views. Annon's own uses of the song, usually featuring sweet moments with Warren, frequently collect over 1 million likes. Call it the home court advantage: As a former YouTuber who joined Hype House, a flashy collective for big-name TikTokers, in 2020, Warren learned and then perfected the art of getting engagement. He and Annon briefly lived in the Los Angeles mansion together, constantly creating content, orchestrating David Dobrik-style pranks, and sharing glimpses of their lives together; Warren described the experience as "college, but for social media." "It helped me learn how to create content that resonates with an audience and can captivate people," he told Variety. Warren's self-conscious positioning as America's top new "wife guy" offers the media a tidy narrative to push while reporting on the song's success — and helps cement "Ordinary" as a favorite song choice for romantic montages and relationship content across the internet. But the differential between the song's commercial utility and its artistic value has perplexed critics and fans alike. "Genuinely WHO is listening to this," reads a recent tweet with over 27,000 likes. Even r/popheads, a Reddit community for recreational pop scholars whose self-appointed mission is to take the merits of the genre seriously, is full of cold contempt for the song's dominance. "I don't think you can deeply hate the song by itself," one commenter wrote, "because it's so fucking boring." Rolling Stone's Larisha Paul coined the phrase "'The Voice' Audition Core" to characterize the musical formula that "Ordinary" follows: ideal for soundtracking a throwaway emotional moment on reality TV, but devoid of any real personality. Indeed, Warren performed the song on the "Love Is Blind" season eight reunion special, slotting easily into a generic vision of happily ever after literally accompanied by a montage of couples. Still, there's no denying that "Ordinary" is the summer's defining hit. Remaining atop the Hot 100 for over two months is no small feat, and even as late-season challengers have emerged — most recently in the form of a fictional K-pop group from a Netflix film — there isn't enough time before the autumnal equinox for another song to challenge Warren's reign. It's just a shame that many excellent summertime jams actually have been released this year, they just lacked the radio push or market power to challenge "Ordinary" at the top of the charts. Addison Rae is Warren's fellow former TikToker-turned-singer, but the similarities end there; her cool-girl collaborators and creative curiosity resulted in a debut album, "Addison," that toes the line between nostalgic and eccentric. (The appropriately named "Summer Forever" is a standout.) Lorde's latest album, "Virgin," includes gems like "Shapeshifter" and "Favorite Daughter," which wrap arresting lyrics in melodic, highly accessible packages, the ghost of last year's "Brat summer" hovering on the margins. Care for something a little less personal, a little more irreverent? Tinashe and Disco Lines have you covered with the freshly remixed "No Broke Boys." And forget song of the summer, Haim's "Relationships" may be the song of the year. Danielle Haim and her sisters manage to spin the agony of indecision into flippant, funky magic. As the season winds down, a new Taylor Swift album draws closer, and the charts begin to change shape, may "Ordinary" serve as a reminder that summer trends may disappoint or underwhelm — but they never last forever. Read the original article on Business Insider Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
Oasis' Noel Gallagher Breaks Silence in First Interview Since Reunion: ‘It's Great Being Back in a Band With Liam'
So far, Oasis have let the music do the talking. Liam and Noel Gallagher have just wound up the first round of UK and Irish dates on their sold-out Live '25 tour and in a testament to the breathless enthusiasm that's greeted their first round of shows in more than 16 years they've hardly had to talk up the dates at all. In fact, until Tuesday (Aug. 19) neither brother had sat down for a proper interview about the shows at all. But Noel, who like his younger sibling singer Liam, is simply mad about football, called in to his favorite drive-time sports chat show, talkSPORT with Andy Goldstein and Darren Bent, to chat about Man City, and, of course, how things are going with the formerly battling brothers. More from Billboard Oasis Takes Over Dublin for Triumphant First Ireland Live Show Since 2009 Oasis in 1996: What's the Story Behind the Britpop Giants' Lone Year of U.S. Pop Stardom? Oasis Is Reuniting For 2025 Tour Saying he was feeling 'a bit shaky' after the band's two-night run at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland on Saturday (Aug. 16) and Sunday (Aug. 17), Gallagher summed up the weekend by saying, 'there was a lot of singing, a lot of drinking and a lot of talking nonsense… it was quite a night.' Noel said he's on 'top of the world' at the moment, professing to be 'completely blown away' by how the gigs the reunited band have played so far have been received. 'It's difficult to put into words, actually,' said the band's lyricist. 'Every night is the crowd's first night, so every night's got that same kind of energy. It's been truly amazing… I'm not usually short for words, but I can't really articulate it at the minute.' Asked how he was feeling on July 4 in Cardiff, Wales, when the band were gearing up to take the stage for the first show of a tour pretty much nobody thought would ever happen, Noel said Oasis have never been one of those bands who have a prayerful 'huddle' before they go on. That said, speaking just for himself, Noel admitted he, 'grossly underestimated what I was getting into… After about five minutes I was like, 'All right, can I just go back to the dressing room and start this again?' I've done stadiums before and all but, but I don't mind telling you my legs are turned to jelly after about halfway through the second song.' Summing it up, Noel said simply, 'it's been an amazing thing.' Reflecting on the emotional hug the brothers shared at the end of the first reunion show in July, Noel said, 'we're not those kind of guys, really… It's great just to be back with [guitarist] Bonehead and Liam and just be doing it again. I guess when it's all said and done we'll sit and reflect on it, but it's great being back in a band with Liam. I forgot how funny he was.' Giving his former sibling rival props for sounding great at the shows, Noel said, 'Liam's smashing it. I'm proud of him.' After fronting his own band for the 16 years they were apart — the High Flying Birds — Noel said he knows the pressures of being the lead singer and admitted, 'I couldn't do the stadium thing like he does it…. I kind of look around and I think, 'You know, good for you, mate.' He's been amazing.' Also, in case you were wondering, yes, he's still getting hit up all the time by mates looking to score the hard-to-get tickets. 'When it all started, the ticket sales and all that, there was a few people who I would have expected to [be] looking for tickets who didn't,' he said. 'But after the first gig my phone just exploded.' Saying he feels bad for those who are left outside on the streets singing the band's songs at top volume after getting shut out on getting tickets, Noel said the showering of love is 'mental… it's more than the band. It's more than the songs. There's something else going on that we've not quite been able to our fingers on yet. Looking forward, Noel said he's really looking forward to playing one of the band's last shows, at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Nov. 15 and 16. 'We've played there a couple of times and the Argentinians are without doubt in the top five places for us to play in the world.' When Goldstein brought up persistent rumors that the band might be playing the Knebworth Festival next year on the 30th anniversary of their legendary 1996 headlining slot for 250,000 fans over two nights at that event, Noel politely moved right past that query and insisted they get on with the football talk. Listen to Noel Gallagher on talkSPORT below. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart Solve the daily Crossword
