Green Light (Lorde song)
"Green Light" is a song by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde, released on 2 March 2017 as the lead single from her second studio album Melodrama (2017). It was written and produced by Lorde and Jack Antonoff, with additional writing by Joel Little and production assistance from Frank Dukes, and was released to radio stations by Universal. Musically, "Green Light" is an electropop, dance-pop, and post-disco song. The lyrics use a "green light" as a traffic light metaphor that gives Lorde permission to move on with her life after a breakup.
"Green Light"
2 March 2017
2016
- Electric Lady (Manhattan)
- Rough Customer (Brooklyn)
- Westlake (West Hollywood)
- 3:54
- 4:08 (Chromeo remix)
- Lorde
- Antonoff
- Frank Dukes
The song received widespread acclaim from critics, many of whom praised its production and Lorde's vocal delivery. It earned the Silver Scroll Award at the New Zealand APRA Awards and appeared on various year-end and decade-end lists. In the US, the single peaked at number 19 and received platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Green Light" also entered the top-ten on charts and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
Grant Singer directed the music video for "Green Light", which shows Lorde leaving a nightclub and walking through the city streets as she tries to move on from a breakup. Photography took place primarily at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. She performed "Green Light" at Saturday Night Live and at multiple music festivals. A remix of the song by Canadian electro-funk duo Chromeo was released on 19 May 2017. Lorde included the song on the set list for the Melodrama (2017–2018) and Solar Power (2022–2023) concert tours.
Commercial performance[edit]
Commercially, "Green Light" achieved success following its release. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted at number 28 on the UK Singles Chart, in the issue dated 16 March 2017.[59] On the week of 20 April, it reached the 20th position after leaping seven spots, becoming her second top 20 entry on the chart, after "Royals".[60] "Green Light" received a Platinum certification by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 18 August 2017 for 600,000 sales.[61] In Spain, the song debuted at number 13, becoming Lorde's second top twenty entry in the chart. "Green Light" peaked within the top ten in Canada,[62] Iceland,[63] and Israel.
In the United States, "Green Light" debuted at number 100 on Billboard Hot 100 based on the song's first roughly half-day streaming and sales, as well as its first three-and-a-half days of airplay.[64] The following week, the song leaped from 100 to number 19, and debuted at number six (52,000 downloads sold) on Digital Songs Sales, and at number 20 (13.6 million U.S. streams) on Streaming Songs, while drawing 20 million in radio airplay audience. It marked Lorde's third top 20 hit, preceded by "Royals" and "Team" (2013).[65] With a leap of 81 spots, "Green Light" became one of several songs to have the biggest single-week upward movements since Jeannie C. Riley's "Harper Valley PTA" first accomplished this in 1968.[65] The song performed modestly in other Billboard markets, landing within the top 20 on the Mainstream Top 40, and the top ten on the country's Alternative Songs and Rock Airplay charts. It received a Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for over one million shipments.[66]
"Green Light" was successful in Oceania. On the report dated 19 March 2017, the song debuted at number four on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart. In Australia, it received a quadruple Platinum certification for sales of 280,000. The track debuted and peaked at number one on the New Zealand Top 40 Singles chart on the report dated 13 March 2017, receiving a double Platinum certification by the Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ) for sales of 60,000.[67]
Music video[edit]
Background[edit]
Grant Singer directed the music video for "Green Light", and shot the visual for Lorde's follow-up single, "Perfect Places" (2017). Lorde contacted Grant a couple of months before the video's release, and the pair later met for dinner in New York City.[68] Struck by Lorde's "passion, sincerity and thoughtfulness," a collaboration between the pair ensued. Having not released a music video of her own in several years, both Lorde and Singer wanted to take a new direction from her earlier works. This led to him choosing 16 mm film to shoot the video, a technique rarely used in modern videos, which generally use 35 mm film.[68] Singer explained that the idea of choosing 16 mm film felt timeless and was intentional to make the video feel like it was not made in 2017. When explaining the new direction of her videos in a behind the scenes shoot with Vevo, Lorde said:
Live performances and promotion[edit]
Lorde first promoted "Green Light" by posting a link to her Twitter account, which led fans to a website called imwaitingforit.com.[82] The site featured a short video clip of Lorde sitting in a car while eating fries and drinking from a styrofoam to-go cup as a piano-backed track plays on in the background. The screen then flashes the dates "3.2.17 NYC" and "3.3.17 NZ".[83] According to Fact magazine, the clip was also broadcast on major TV channels in New Zealand.[84] The singer further promoted her first single by broadcasting the location of three mysterious installations, which featured an abandoned car illuminated in green light, a projection lit in green playing a 5-second music video clip and a neon sign with song lyrics. The installations were held in her hometown of Auckland.[85]
Lorde first performed "Green Light" on Saturday Night Live on 11 March. The singer wore a sparkle shirt-clad as stage was lit in red with a trio of young sisters serving as backing vocals.[86] Lorde's performance was met with positive reviews by critics, although viewers criticised Lorde's dancing.[87] The singer later responded by saying, "One day I will do a normal dance choreographed by a nice person and I will look more like your other favourite performers but we have not yet reached that day."[88] In an analysis from The Fader, the publication defended Lorde's dancing, stating that Western top 40 pop music has centred around "pristine choreography" but the artist's body movements are "more freeform and spontaneous, and it speaks an entirely different expressive language".[77] Entertainment Weekly wrote a positive review, stating that the performance "held true" to Nolan Feeney's 'A' review of the track. The publication described Lorde's dance moves as "delightfully wacky".[89] Paste writer E.C. Flamming described it as "energetic" and commented on her "patented spastic dance style".[90] Lorde also performed "Green Light" at Coachella Valley Music Festival in California.[91]
The television shows New Girl and Quantico used the track on their soundtracks.[92] "Green Light" was also featured on the third season of the reality television show RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars, in which drag queens Kennedy Davenport and BenDeLaCreme lip synced it.[93]
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Melodrama.[96]
Recording and management
Personnel