"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.

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.

[1] In an interview with Tavi Gevinson's podcast Rookie, she revealed that the song's piano part was inspired when she went to a Florence and the Machine concert with Jack Antonoff.

[7] Realizing that top 40 songs usually have key changes reserved for amplified final choruses, Lorde herself called "Green Light" a "strange piece of music.

"[6] "Green Light" was written by Lorde (credited under her birth name Ella Yelich-O'Connor), Antonoff, and Joel Little, with production handled by the former two and Frank Dukes.

[9][10] Spencer Kornhaber from The Atlantic stated that Lorde was singing about the transitional phase of a breakup and obsessing over her ex "misleading" his new partner in the lyrics, "She thinks you love the beach, you're such a damn liar".

[11] Pretty Much Amazing writer Danilo Bortoli noted a change in perspective in Lorde's songwriting compared to her debut album.

[16] The BBC described the chorus that follows this section as "euphoric", while Forbes deemed it as power pop,[17] featuring hand-claps,[18] bass,[9] and strings.

[19] The track begins with her singing solo with a lone piano playing "slow, steady" power chords consisting of a root note and the fifth above.

[20] Subsequently, in the first of the song's two pre-choruses, a "throbbing beat" plays amid "tongue-twisting lyrics, eerie background vocals, and bubbling electronic effects."

[11] "Green Light" received widespread acclaim from music critics upon its release, with many publications placing the song in their respective year-end lists.

"[22] In his favorable A review, Nolan Feeney of Entertainment Weekly praised the song's production, stating that it sounded "like nothing else on the radio or in your Spotify playlists.

"[24] Patrick Ryan of USA Today said the song is "unlike anything she—or frankly, any pop star in recent memory—has put out before", noting its diverse production and "heartfelt lyrics", going on to call the track an "earworm.

"[25] Writing for The Atlantic, Spencer Kornhaber said that at first listen, the track "comes off as an EDM remix" of Lorde's past material, but after several spins "reveals its tricky logic—and drops a payload of emotion."

"[12] In a mixed-positive review, Craig Jenkins of Vulture said the song "locates the universality in a very specific experience, as a truly effective pop gem should" but also noted its conventional "radio fare" production, being "too faithful to the style of its predecessors.

"[26] In an interview write-up, Time editor Sam Lansky commended the track for being a "cathartic sing-along that takes an eerie vocal introduction and builds into a thunderous chorus."

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.

[53] 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.

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.

[55] Grant Singer directed the music video for "Green Light", and shot the visual for Lorde's follow-up single, "Perfect Places" (2017).

I want to feel like I could be any one of the young people who listen to my music.”[57] One particular scene where Lorde takes a "payphone off the hook for no reason" was improvised and went unnoticed during the filming process.

Alexandrina Hemsley, from the performance duo Project O, drew a comparison between Madonna's "Ray of Light" (1998) and Ciara's "Oh" (2005) for featuring dancing on top of a car.

[67] After part of the video was screened on television in New Zealand, a man in the country filed a complaint with the Broadcasting Standards Authority, the national media regulator, claiming a scene in it "encouraged reckless driving".

[69] 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.

"[75] 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".