Lorde
What Was That lyrics
- Language
- English
- Level
- Beginner
- Released
- 2025
- Genre
- Pop
- Length
- 3:30
A place in the city, a chair in the bed
I cover up all the mirrors, I can't see myself yet
I wear smoke like a wedding veil
Make a meal I won't eat
Step out into the street, alone in a sea
It comes over me
Oh, I'm missing you
Yeah, I'm missing you
And all the things we used to do
MDMA in the back garden, blow our pupils up
We kissed for hours straight
Well baby, what was that?
I remember saying then
"This is the best cigarette of my life"
Well, I want you just like that
Indio haze, we're in a sandstorm
And it knocks me out
I didn't know then
that you'd never be enough for me
Since l was seventeen, I gave you everything
Now, we wake from a dream
Well, baby, what was that?
What was that?
Baby, what was that?
Do you know you're still with me
When I'm out with my friends?
I stare at the painted faces that talk current affairs
You had to know this was happening
You weren't feeling my heat
When I'm in the blue light, down to be myself right
I face reality
I tried (I tried)
To let (To let)
Whatever has to pass through me, pass through
But this is still a problem, I know
It might not let me go
MDMA in the back garden, blow our pupils up
We kissed for hours straight
Well baby, what was that?
I remember saying then
"This is the best cigarette of my life"
Well, I want you just like that
Indio haze, we're in a sandstorm
And it knocks me out
I didn't know then
But you'd never be enough for me
Since l was seventeen, I gave you everything
Now, we wake from a dream
Well, baby, what was that?
What was that?
'Cause I want you just like that
(When I'm in the blue light, I can make it alright)
What was that?
(When I'm in the blue light, I can make it alright)
Baby, what was that?
Key vocabulary
- can't
- cannotB1
- veil
- thin covering for the face
- won't
- will not
- affairs
- things to manageB2
- myself
- me, aloneA2
- sea
- large ocean areaA2
- smoke
- visible gas from burningA2
- straight
- not bent or angledA2
- used
- worn or previously employedA2
- eat
- take in foodA1
Test yourself
How much of What Was That did you catch?
A quick quiz on the key words from this song.
About this song
Lorde is a New Zealand singer-songwriter known for electro-pop and pop with a sharp adolescent perspective. She is best known for the 2013 debut Pure Heroine, especially the breakout single “Royals,” and for later albums Melodrama and Solar Power.