Lorde’s shushgate, explained

Compilations of Lorde shushing the crowd while singing “Writer in the Dark” have gone viral on TikTok. And the clip’s origin is actually a throwback.

“Writer in the Dark” is one of the most emotional songs on Lorde’s 2017 album Melodrama, and while on tour later that year she occasionally performed the song a cappella. In order to ensure everyone in the venue could hear her vocals, and only her vocals, she’d shush attendees who were a little too eager to sing along. And now that Lorde is currently touring her latest album Solar Power — her first tour in four years — old videos from the Melodrama era are resurfacing on platforms like TikTok alongside clips from 2022’s decidedly more chill Solar Power tour. 

But it’s shushgate that’s got TikTok in a tizzy. 

These compilations slice together videos of Lorde dramatically shushing the crowd in all of her brightly colored tour outfits. In these videos, Lorde aggressively puts her finger over her mouth and then holds her hand up to silence her fans, all while belting the song.

It’s not just the compilations that have gained popularity, but seemingly every angle of her most iconic shushing — which took place at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom in 2017 — have been uploaded to TikTok.  One video from that performance reads, “here’s another angle of that lorde sushing video lololol.” It has over 14.7 million views and 2.2 million likes. 

TikTokkers have posted videos imitating Lorde and providing their take on shushgate. One video posted by @windowsillrry reads, “i was openly a lorde fan but not anymore. I have to stan her in secret. If i tell people i listen to lorde they’re just gonna bring up her sushing the crowd during writer in the dark and i can’t handle that. I get way too much second hand embarrassment. I love her but i can’t be caught when she’s only known for that video now.” Another video from @elyuhswallow adds, “say what u want ab lorde sushing the crowd. She was so right for that. No one should sing over lorde, especially so terribly off key to a beautiful and deep song, she should have quieted them earlier. Ppl making fun of her just don’t understand.” In a hilarious TikTok, creator @willthede documents their journey of going to three different concerts in the hopes of being shushed by Lorde. 

Tweet may have been deleted

Tweet may have been deleted

Most fans can see the meme for what it is: playful trolling at the expense of a celebrity. But some criticisms of Lorde’s shushing cut deeper. One comment reads, “if i were there, that would be my worst concert experience ever like im actually scared of her.” Another says, “does she not know how a concert works?” While some fans found the videos entertaining, others thought her behavior was rude. Her intention, however, wasn’t to offend; she just wanted to create a space for her and her fans to connect.

Before Solar Power, being dramatic was Lorde’s whole thing (hello, Melodrama), and when you attended a Lorde show you expected an experience. If you look at YouTube comments on “Writer in the Dark” videos posted during the tour, her fans loved and were moved by her a cappella performances of the song. It’s only when the videos became decontextualized and meme-ified that fans turned against her. 

Shushgate is part of a bizarre, post-pandemic discourse where concertgoers have forgotten the social contract of attending a concert. Instead, attendees behave with a new sense of entitlement and disregard for the performer. This is best exemplified by fan reaction to Mitski’s request that attendees of her tour withhold from using their phones. Fans responded with such vitriol that she deleted the tweets where she made the request. 

Tweet may have been deleted

Lorde broke her silence on becoming a meme via the fan account @lordecontent on April 23. In the video Lorde says, “I just wanted to talk about this thing of me shushing people at my shows. That was something that I did in that one song a couple of times when I wanted to sing it a cappella and/or off the microphone, so people could hear me and because I wanted to try something different. If you come to my shows you know that it’s an hour and a half of us singing and screaming together.” She ends the video by adding, “Also, that dramatic ass move was literally for an album called Melodrama, so don’t stress too hard.”

That night, at the Chicago stop of her tour, she described the phenomenon of going viral for something as innocuous as shushing, “I had a weird moment where I was like, huh, I’ve been misunderstood,” adding, “​I was like 19 and, you know, very dramatic, [I had] a lot of feelings. The internet has decided that this was very bad and very rude. I think that they must not have come to one of these shows because you know it’s such a communal vibe. We are all singing and screaming all the time. I think occasionally there are moments for silence and there are moments for sound. There are moments that belong to just one person and there are moments that are all of ours. That’s just life.”

She then proceeded to sing “Writer in the Dark” for the first time in four years. So for true fans, the meme was actually a win. And no, she didn’t shush.