Lorde Drops Surprise EP Featuring ‘Solar Power’ Tracks Sung Entirely In Māori
The new version of 'Solar Power' is particularly stunning.
A matter of weeks after she released her album Solar Power, Lorde has returned with a “new” EP.
Yep, turns out we’re really in the thick of Lorde season. That album, an unbeatable serve of optimism and good vibes, has barely had the dust settle on it, and already we’ve gotten a Britney Spears cover, and a collection of five songs.
Titled Te Ao Mārama, a Māori concept that relates “to wisdom and understanding, and the natural world of life and light”, the EP features five songs taken from Solar Power and sung “entirely in te reo Māori”, which is the Indigenous language of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Lorde explained the release in a new entry in her regular newsletter. “Many things revealed themselves slowly to me while I was making this album, but the main realisation by far was that much of my value system around caring for and listening to the natural world comes from traditional Māori principles,” she wrote. “There’s a word for it in te reo: kaitiakitanga, meaning ‘guardianship or caregiving for the sky, sea and land.’ I’m not Māori, but all New Zealanders grow up with elements of this worldview.
“I know I’m someone who represents New Zealand globally in a way, and in making an album about where I’m from, it was important to me to be able to say: this makes us who we are down here.
“It’s also just a crazy beautiful language — I loved singing in it.”
From Lorde's newsletter: pic.twitter.com/18uZGEE6qb
— Alister Newstead (@AlNewstead) September 9, 2021
Truly we are in the height of the season of the Lorde. Listen to the EP in full here: