Lorde crashed a Lorde-themed party in Sydney on Sunday night, surprising a room full of unsuspecting fans attending a club night dedicated to her music.
The event, held at Mary’s Underground, was described as a celebration of “our true Lorde and saviour” – but the New Zealand pop star snuck on to the dancefloor incognito and began shaking hands with fans before the crowd erupted in recognition, sending a wave of cheers and phone flashlights through the room.
Attender Andrew Fraser described the night as a “total thrill”.
“Lorde made her way through the swarm of people, going between dancing and taking a moment to greet, hug and converse with multiple fans, allowing each to have their moment and to explain what her music means to them,” he said.
The Grammy-winning musician stayed for around half an hour, Fraser said. She briefly jumped behind the DJ decks and sang along to a bevy of hits, including her recent single What Was That.
Lorde went to leave but her Charli xcx remix Girl, so confusing came on – and “she immediately returned to the crowd to deliver a lip-sync,” said Fraser.
The appearance was Lorde’s “impromptu decision”, with no label involvement, a representative from EMI Australia told Guardian Australia on Monday.
It was a relative surprise to Mary’s Underground too: a spokesperson for the venue said there had been whispers internally after Lorde’s security team visited the space, but nothing was confirmed.
“We tried to shuffle her to the green room but she wasn’t having it. Straight into the crowd, singing along, soaking it up,” Mary’s said in a statement. “[She] almost refused to leave when her management were trying to usher her out.”
Lorde’s surprise Sydney appearance comes one month after she invited fans to New York’s Washington Square Park to debut What Was That, the first single from her upcoming album Virgin.
“Meet me in the park. Tonight 7pm,” Lorde wrote in a mass text to fans, who swarmed the area in a viral event that was eventually shut down by police. Clips from the meet-up were later included in the music video for the track.
Virgin is Lorde’s first album in four years and comes out 27 June.
