New Zealand singer Lorde has worried her fans after wiping her Instagram feed before sharing several photos of herself sporting a black eye.
The cryptic post, shared to her social media account on Tuesday, featured a handful of selfies of the 27-year-old sitting in a car with a bruise under her eye.
Another photo, shared to the same post, showed Lorde sitting at a restaurant, where her black eye was also visible.
The caption read, “DYHTS?”.
The acronym was followed by several symbols, in which the letters ‘L4’ were among them, which some have deemed as a hint Lorde is preparing to release her much-anticipated fourth album.
Others, however, expressed confusion and fears for the Grammy winner, with her post racking up thousands of concerned comments.
“GIRL THIS IS SO CONFUSING,” one fan wrote.
“So concerning,” another wrote.
“Posting this with no context is crazy. It’s probably all for aesthetic, but hope you’re okay girl,” a third added.
“WHAT DOES IT MEAN,” another begged.
“Help what happened?” a fifth wrote.
Lorde, real name Ella Yelich-O’Connor, shot to fame as a teenager in 2012 with the release of her hit single Royals.
Fans of the singer have been eagerly awaiting an announcement on new music, with Lorde teasing her upcoming fourth album several times over the past year.
She released her third studio album, Solar Power, to much fanfare in 2021, with the album marking her first drop in four years following 2017’s Melodrama.
There’s not yet word on when she plans to release her next instalment, though she seemingly hinted it was coming soon in a now-deleted Instagram post shared back in June, in which she had also written ‘L4’ in the caption.
Lorde has maintained popularity in the decade since rising to fame, despite living a largely private life.
In October last year, she shared a rare, lengthy blog post about her personal struggles, saying she was “living with heartbreak again.”
While Lorde didn’t specify the cause of her heartbreak, the Green Light singer suggested she had broken up with her long-term boyfriend, music executive Justin Warren.
The pair had been linked since 2015.
“I’m different but the same. I ache all the time, I forget why and then remember,” Lorde wrote in a note titled ‘How I’ve been, revised’, which was shared with her subscriber fanbase.
“I’m not trying to hide from the pain, I understand now that pain isn’t something to hide from, that there’s actually great beauty in moving with it. But sometimes I’m sick of being with myself.”
It was thought the couple, who shared a 17-year age gap, were engaged in 2021 after Lorde was seen wearing an engagement ring.
They were last seen together in Sydney in May 2023, while Lorde was embarking on the Australian leg of her Solar Power tour.
Elsewhere, Lorde went on to discuss the role social media played in triggering her negative thoughts.
“Everyone looks very thin,” she wrote.
“Just thinking that makes me feel tired and far away. I’m not sure if it’s having an effect on anyone else.”
