Lorde faces major threat as ‘Virgin' album nears release

Lorde just opened up about being threatened by the anti-terrorism police.

The 28-year-old singer planned to film the music video for her song, What Was That? in Washington Square Park in New York, and after she updated her fans about this on her Instagram Story, "such a mob showed up that the cops shut it down."

During her appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the Ribs singer revealed, "We had the anti-terrorism unit being very intense, telling me if I stepped on the premises I would be arrested for riot incitement."

Lorde "couldn't show up for many hours" but eventually returned to the park to shoot the video given that she was allowed to show up for only a limited amount of time.

"I came back later, they said, 'You can go out, you have one shot at it,’” she explained, adding, "If people don't maybe know this, we were launching my first song for this album, but we were also shooting the music video, which would come out 24 hours later.”

"So there was an edit that had to be gotten to very quickly. A lot of dominoes had to fall right for this to work. The NYPD was definitely a spanner,” Lorde admitted.

When reached out for comment, the New York Police Department (NYPD) told PEOPLE magazine, "On Tuesday, April 22, 2025, at approximately 1847 hours in the vicinity of Washington Square Park, in the confines of the 6th Precinct, officers were alerted of an unscheduled event inside of the park.

"A sound and parks permit is required to have a concert in a New York City Park. This individual did not possess either. Organizers of the event were informed they could not perform and they left the location," the organization clarified.