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Lorde's surprise pop-up event at Washington Square Park in New York City on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, was shut down by police after hordes of fans appeared in the area. According to The Wrap, the singer sent out a message to her "community text thread," saying, "Meet me in the park tonight 7 pm."
However, minutes before the surprise event was set to start, the New York Police Department ordered people to disperse for crowd control purposes. Lorde apologized to her fans for having to cancel, taking to her Instagram Stories on April 22 to share what happened. She wrote:
"Omg @thepark the cops are shutting us down I am truly Amazed by how many of you showed up !!! But they're telling me you gotta disperse ... I'm so sorry."
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While the Grammy winner didn't specify which park she was talking about in the invitation, fans figured out that the event would be at Washington Square Park, which is near the NYU campus. Lorde's fans flooded the area, as seen in the clips from the event that are circulating online, with some even climbing trees to get a better vantage point.
The botched surprise event comes after Lorde teased her fans that new music is coming "out soon."
Lorde is set to release new music amid disappointed fans flocking to her surprise NY event
Before the horde of fans went to her surprise pop-up event at Washington Square Park on April 22, 2025, which left them disappointed after it was canceled, they were anticipating new music from Lorde. After making a Coachella cameo alongside Charli XCX on April 12, the Kiwi singer shared on her Instagram on April 17 that she's releasing new music soon.
Alongside a close-up photo of herself wearing a red top, with water dripping off her face, which New York-based photographer Talia Chetrit took, she wrote:
"My new song What Was That. Out soon."
She has yet to reveal to her fans when exactly they can expect the new song to arrive on streaming platforms.
However, her Instagram post confirming the upcoming song's title is not the first time she teased the new single. On April 10, according to the NZ Herald, the Grammy winner shared a 15-second video on TikTok with an unreleased song playing in the background as she walked through New York's Washington Square Park in jeans and a white button-down shirt. In the video, the Sober singer sings:
"Since I was 17, I gave you everything. Now, we wake from a dream. Well, baby, what was that? What was that?"
Also, per the local news outlet, Lorde sent her subscribers to her email newsletter shortly after sharing the What Was That teaser on TikTok. The newsletter reportedly included a US phone number, and two days later, on April 12, the NZ Herald reported that fans received an email with the headline:
"From the desk of Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor."
Also, in the newsletter, fans reportedly received a message from the Kiwi singer, saying, "There's so much to say," and a teaser that there will be a "longer note" sent soon.
Stay tuned for more news and updates on Lorde's new music.
