Te Ao Mārama - EP Tracklist
Te Ao Mārama is Lorde’s third EP, released two weeks after her third studio album Solar Power and acts as a companion piece to it, as it includes 5 songs from the album sung entirely in te reo Māori, the indigenous language of Aotearoa New Zealand.
The song’s lyrics were translated by several Māori artists, with the lyrics altered to reference notable themes or beings in Māori culture. The EP’s title directly translates to “world of light.”
Lorde revealed that all the proceeds from this project will go to Forest and Bird and Te Hua Kawariki Charitable Trust, two New Zealand charities.
“Te Ao Mārama - EP” Q&A
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Is Lorde of Maōri descent?
No, she is not. In an interview Lorde explained:
I’m not Māori, but all New Zealanders grow up with elements of this worldview. Te ao Māori and tikanga Māori are a big part of why people who aren’t from here intuit our country to be kind of ‘magical’, I think. It’s also just a crazy beautiful language— I loved singing in it. Even if you don’t understand te reo, I think you’ll get a kick out of how elegant my words sound in it.
