Lorde is in the midst of a week-long takeover on The Late Late Show, and it has gone well so far. She started the week by performing “Solar Power,” then returned on Tuesday with “California.” Both of those songs are taken from Lorde’s new album Solar Power, but for last night’s appearance, she dug deeper into her catalog.
Instead of another Solar Power cut, she busted out her popular Melodrama single “Green Light.” For the performance, she kept things simple, joined on stage by a pianist and some warm, sunset-colored lighting.
Back when the song came out, Lorde told Apple Music of it, “The song is actually about a heartbreak. And it’s not something that I really am used to writing about. It took me a while to be able to figure out how to write about that. It was my first major heartbreak. The song is really about those moments kind of immediately after your life changes and about all the silly little things that you gravitate towards. I say, ‘She thinks you love the beach, you’re such a liar.’ What the f*ck, she thinks you like the beach?! You don’t like the beach! It’s those little stupid things. It sounds so happy and then the lyrics are so intense obviously. And I realized I was like, ‘How come this thing is coming out so joyous-sounding?” And I realized this is that drunk girl at the party dancing around crying about her ex-boyfriend who everyone thinks is a mess. That’s her tonight and tomorrow she starts to rebuild. And that’s the song for me.”
Watch Lorde perform “Green Light” above.