Lorde has played her first set at Governor’s Ball in nine years, and put her own personal spin on the Charli XCX collab ‘Girl, So Confusing’.
The New Zealand pop star made her return to the New York music event on Friday (June 5), closing out the first night of the festival.
Acknowledging her return to that stage after nearly a decade, she said it was “the most nervous I’ve been for a show in a while” and went on to break out numerous fan favourites like ‘Royals’, ‘What Was That’, and ‘Hammer’.
One of the most exciting moments in the set, however, came towards the end of the 21-song setlist, when Lorde broke out a rendition of her collab with Charli XCX, ‘Girl, So Confusing’.
That song originally featured on Charli’s hit 2024 album ‘Brat’ – not featuring Lorde – but was inspired by the ‘Royals’ singer, with Charli touching upon the industrial tension they each faced, and how she once felt “super jealous” of the New Zealander’s success when she was younger.
They went on to record a remix of the song together, with Charli telling Lorde about the subject matter of the track before the ‘Brat’ album was released, and Lorde then suggesting that they come together for a collaborative remix.
At Governor’s Ball, Lorde broke out the remix version towards the end of her show and put her own spin on the song.
Charli did not join her on stage for the cover, with Lorde playing it solo, and the moment was particularly special as the track is one that rarely made it onto the setlist of Lorde’s recent ‘Ultrasound’ tour. Check out more footage from the gig below.
🚨New video of Lorde performing “Don’t look for me now, I’m gone”, the new unreleased song #GovernorsBall pic.twitter.com/tRhR4YIr9M
— Lorde Haus (@LordeHaus) June 6, 2026
As well as breaking out fan favourites and putting her own spin on ‘Girl, So Confusing’, the latest performance from Lorde also saw her debut a brand new song.
At the start of her set, the singer shared a section of an unreleased track from the side of the stage, and, from behind a synth board, sang: “Don’t look for me now that I’m gone/ Don’t look for me, I’m gone.”
The festival slots from Lorde this summer come on the heels of the aforementioned ‘Ultrasound’ tour, which she embarked on in celebration of her latest album ‘Virgin‘.
That album dropped last June, and was given a four-star review by NME which read: “‘Virgin’ is a vibrant combination of Lorde’s best qualities, and then some.”
“With her newfound candour, the record combines the emotional whirlwind of ‘Melodrama’, the chilling minimalism of ‘Pure Heroine’ and the breezy freedom of ‘Solar Power’,” it added. “This might be called ‘Virgin’, but Lorde proves she’s not afraid to strip herself bare.”
While Lorde rarely broke out the Charli XCX collab in her ‘Ultrasound Tour’ shows, last October she did play the song live while at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles and brought out the ‘360’ singer as a surprise guest.
Since the ‘Virgin’ record arrived and the ‘Ultrasound’ live dates kicked off, Lorde has donated over $200,000 from merch sales to Minnesota immigrant funds, and also been confirmed as a headliner for All Points East 2026 in London. That line-up also includes PinkPantheress, Zara Larsson and more as support.