Don't panic, but there's a chance that none other than Ella Marija Lani "Lorde" Yelich-O'Connor is not only coming back, but also heralding her return with a Taylor Swift collaboration. Deep breaths.
On Twitter, Lorde's mother, Sonja Yelich, posted a picture of a retro VW van with the caption "here’s my friend’s VW #betty." The internet promptly freaked out, thinking that Yelich was hinting at a collab between her daughter and Swift for a remix of her popular folklore track "Betty."
Then came a wave of disappointment. Yelich then replied under her own tweet, asking why her hashtag had a little "ts" by it. "whaaat? why ts on my hashtag? How?" she wrote. Swifties explained that it was a special hashtag designed to promote the release of folklore, and Yelich responded, calling herself a "ding dong."
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whaaat? why ts on my hashtag? How?
— Sonja Yelich (@sonjayelich1) October 29, 2020
Fans related, as they also felt like ding dongs, and admonished themselves for letting themselves get too excited. (Lorde and Taylorde fans are fragile right now, ok?). But then, a Lorde update account called LordeCrave tweeted that the news was actually true, and Yelich was just playing dumb. "3 of our sources, including TMZ, have confirmed this was shot at the set of the remix's music video near Takapuna Beach, New Zealand," they tweeted.
3 of our sources, including TMZ, have confirmed this was shot at the set of the remix's music video near Takapuna Beach, New Zealand. pic.twitter.com/zmUWybgs5D
— LordeCrave (@thelordecrave) October 29, 2020
It's unclear how reliable this account is, but we're thankful for the fact that they have given us license to get our hopes up for an epic comeback, even just a little. It's safe to say that Lorde ride-or-dies have been through a lot. The Kiwi singer left social media shortly after her Melodrama tour in 2018 and has been basically silent ever since. In fall of 2019, she announced that her third album would be delayed as she grieved the death of her beloved dog, Pearl, but then in May 2020 made the surprising announcement (via email??) that she and frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff were working on the new album again, and that it's "so fucking good."
We never thought that in 2020 we'd all be praying to be clowned by Lorde's mom, but here we are.