Lorde reveals first record deal has finally ended after 17 years

Lorde has revealed her first record deal - with Universal - has finally ended after about 17 years. Photo / Getty Images

Lorde has revealed her first record deal has finally ended after about 17 years.

The Royals hitmaker has revealed that after signing with Universal Music Group when she was just 12 years old, the contract expired at the end of 2025.

In a voice note to her fans, she said: “At the end of last year, my label deal – my record contract with Universal – came to an end.

“I have been in that contract for a very, very long time, in some form … since I was 12 years old, when I signed my first development deal with Universal.”

There are no hard feelings with the “incredible people” who helped release her first four albums – which started with 2013 debut Pure Heroine – and she “adores them there”.

She continued: “I’ve had an amazing experience with them.

“But the truth is that a 12-year-old girl pre-sold her creative output before she knew what it would be like, and before she knew what she was signing away.”

The 29-year-old singer is “sure” she’ll sign another deal in the future, and she could easily return to Universal.

However, at the moment, she “needed to take a second to have nothing being bought or sold that comes from” her.

She added: “When I see an opportunity for a clean slate, I try to take it. And it does feel different …

“I feel a feeling of openness and possibility, and I’m inspired. It just feels exciting to have removed the container or something for a second.”

The news comes three years after Lorde felt “disconnected from [her] creativity” and almost walked away from the music business entirely in 2023.

Speaking to BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, she explained: “At the beginning of 2023, I was not in a great way on a lot of levels.

“I’d never felt more disconnected from my creativity.”

Lorde admits that an eating disorder took over her life at the time, and that it stunted her musical creativity.

The singer shared: “All I was thinking about was trying to weigh as little as possible.

“Going to sleep thinking about food, waking up thinking about food and exercise – that was my creative pursuit.”

By that point, she had followed up Pure Heroine with 2017’s Melodrama and 2021’s Solar Power, while she saw last year’s LP Virgin as a chance to be “brave”.

She explained: “It was hard, it was scary. Some songs aren’t easy.

“I made a lot of changes and really put my artistry front and centre and made that my fulltime job and I got a lot of stuff out of the way.”