Lorde "couldn't get out of bed" for three days before releasing her comeback single.
Lorde
The 20-year-old singer brought out 'Green Light', her first new material in three years, last month, and admits she was overwhelmed by the "intense" process of waiting to see what people thought of the track.
She said: "[For three days before it came out], I couldn't get out of bed. I didn't want to be out in the world. It was so intense to arrive at this moment of, This is it. Whatever it is, it's about to be out of my control."
Though the 'Royals' singer has amassed a fortune of several million dollars, she isn't particularly extravagant.
She told the New York Times magazine: "I have money now, and I don't spend it on watches or something. I spend it on food."
Lorde - whose real name is Ella Yelich-O'Connor - believes writing pop music is far harder than people believe.
She said: "I have such reverence for the form. A lot of musicians think they can do pop, and the ones who don't succeed are the ones who don't have the reverence -- who think it's just a dumb version of other music. You need to be awe-struck."
And she thinks one of the greatest tracks released in recent years is Katy Perry's 2010 single 'Teenage Dream'.
She said: "There's this sadness about it, where you feel young listening to it, but you feel impermanence at the same time.
"When I put that song on, I'm as moved as I am by anything by David Bowie, by Fleetwood Mac, by Neil Young. It lets you feel something you didn't know you needed to feel. There's something holy about it."
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