Did Lorde Release "Solar Power" For The Sole Purpose Of Making A Butt Joke?

After four, long years of crying over our exes to “Liability,” embracing the inconsequential excitement of our youth to the tune of “Perfect Places,” and getting down with our bad, newly-single selves to “Loveless,” Lorde has finally given herself the “Green Light” to release new music, dropping her long-awaited single, “Solar Power” on Thursday.

Yet amid the fanfare surrounding her highly-anticipated return to the public eye … 

… discussions of the song's very cheeky cover art … 

… the controversy surrounding the track allegedly leaking … 

… and the excitement of longtime fans – myself included – thrilled to see our favorite artist entering a new era of apparent healing and joy …

… one question remains – Did Lorde and her team schedule the release of “Solar Power" for the sole purpose of making a joke about her butt?

Earlier this week, the artist officially broke her extended radio silence (only occasionally interrupted by the odd onion ring review), bestowing upon us the name of her latest single and its scandalous accompanying cover art, featuring the singer running on a beach, her ass directly obscuring the Sun above her. As the announcement went viral, quickly becoming the butt – pun definitely intended – of several jokes on Twitter …

... many fans also began speculating when, exactly, we'd finally hear her new song. While many of the anonymous sources predicting her return to the limelight suggested that in honor of the song's solar theme, the single would hit streaming services on June 20, the summer solstice, Lorde ultimately dropped “Solar Power” on Thursday, coinciding with the “ring of fire” solar eclipse visible throughout many parts of the Northern Hemisphere.

Considering the song's cover art and this celestial event, which for those of us who need a middle-school science refresher (looking at you, Rep. Louie Gohmert), only occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, some fans couldn't help but wonder if this release date was intentional, a direct joke about Lorde's moon blocking the Sun.

“I'm convinced Solar Power will release earlier than the leak states,” wrote one user earlier this week in a since-deleted post on the artist's subreddit. "The cover is literally a picture of Lorde's ass (the "moon") covering the sun, which is probably a nod to the upcoming solar eclipse on June 10th, as u/yuvi2999 pointed out previously."

However, it seems the fine people of Reddit weren't the only ones speculating if the song's entire release was one giant ass joke. "Pls lorde rlly intended to release solar power during the solar eclipse bc her moon is covering the sun," mused @thepigprint on Twitter. 

As Lorde has yet to comment about her reasoning for choosing Thursday as the single's release date – which may be tough, considering she threw her “cellular device in the water,” according to the song's lyrics – it seems we may never know if this was really just a long-winded joke months in the making. But hey, at least in the meantime, we can now jam to the joyful, summery vibes of “Solar Power” as we read about her takes on various types of onion rings. Happy Lorde release day, friends!

For more internet nonsense, follow Carly on Instagram @HuntressThompson_ on TikTok as @HuntressThompson_, and on Twitter @TennesAnyone.