Lorde Shares "Yellow Flicker Beat" Video

Lorde‘s “Yellow Flicker Beat” is the first single from the Hunger Games: Mockingjay soundtrack (which Lorde also curated). Today is the singer’s 18th birthday, and to mark the occasion, she’s shared the video for the song, directed by Emily Kai Bock. In it, Lorde performs the song in a wide array of locations – an empty auditorium, a swimming pool, and even a cushy party (where she also happens to fall into a bottomless pit) – while sporting a number of fashion-forward outfits. Watch below. Update: Lorde has also written a note about the ideas behind the video, as well as her 18th birthday. Read it below.

Mockingjay hits theaters November 21. The soundtrack is out November 18 via Republic.  

Read Corban Goble and Ryan Dombal’s show report from seeing Lorde in March.

Lorde’s note:

it’s midnight, and i’m all of ten seconds into being eighteen. the first thing that came into my head just now is that i thought i would have less acne at eighteen.. some things never change. lol. happy birthday me.

i’m in my bed in new zealand, and it just occurred to me i don’t think i’ve been home for one of these little notes in a while. on my seventeenth birthday, i wrote from my hotel bed in new york. on the team music video release, i wrote from paris. when yellow flicker beat came out, i wrote from the bus, whizzing across the las vegas desert. it feels nice to come full circle, in a way, back to where i typed out the little note to accompany the royals video, back where i sucked my thumb, and talked in my sleep, and dreamed.

this video is something i’m really proud of. there are so many beautiful shots and moments, and it’s really worth watching it a few times (in the highest possible quality ;~)) to see all the details. when i was dreaming it up, i wasn’t thinking too hard about story or a specific narrative, more a mood; a harsh, crackling heat. yellow flicker beat is about katniss realizing that things have crossed a line, about being pushed to the edge and right over it. my character in this video, whether she’s weaving her way through a decadent ballroom, hiding out in a grimy, neon-lit motel room (her hair ever-so-slightly dishevelled), or waiting in the night for her bus to come dressed in her whitest clothes, is a shapeshifter, full of intensity and impulse, kind of like katniss. whether she’s in a small space or a cavernous one, she’s fiery. i don’t really know what i’m trying to explain to you here, but don’t read the video like a story, just let it take you somewhere.

i guess that’s all i have to say right now – my mind is kind of whizzing about this new milestone. i hope you enjoy this. i’ll let you know what being eighteen is like when i’ve been it for a second. i love you lots and lots, you know. thanks for watching, and for still being here.

xxxx

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