As reported Limit date, Lorde has been forced to cancel his performance scheduled for next weekend’s MTV Video Music Awards, with VMA’s official Twitter account citing “a change in production elements.” The tweet went on to say, “We love Lorde and we can’t expect him to perform on the VMA stage in the future,” which is nice, but doesn’t really explain what happened. A “change of production items ” could mean any amount of things, but the amount of things that could mean would force Lorde to leave the show, where his video “Solar energy” is nominated for Best Picture, it looks like a shorter list. After all, he not only does something different than he had originally planned, but he doesn’t go there. Maybe he intended to do something remote that wouldn’t work, technically? Maybe the “production change” is boring, like programming? Maybe it means that someone who produces the show has changed and Lorde … don’t you like it?
One thing that seems like a possible theory is COVID, as “production change” is a good artificial euphemism for the Pressing Issue of our times, but we know that getting sick has never left Lorde in the past. In fact, Limit date notes that her performance at the VMAs in 2017 was replaced by an interpretive dance routine after she fell ill with the flu. Instead of singing, he danced on stage while his song played in the background, confusing home viewers and once again raising the annual possibility that the MTV VMAs would be a great waste of everyone’s time. (Lorde theorized at the time that people did not feel comfortable with their dance because “it is so private to see someone experience so much joy publicly”). Again, the fact that it was so controversial might convince her not to do it again, so maybe she thought it would be easier to do nothing than try to do something smart. Whatever the reason, we’re sure we’ll never know.