Footage posted to the star’s Instagram showed her performing live to the delight of her audience.

Newstalk ZB reporter Jordan Dunn told the Herald there could be roughly 300 people queuing, trying to get into the venue.

“It’s totally packed on the road.

“Organisers were letting roughly 30 people in at a time, at 15-minute increments.”

Dunn said a rumour going around in the crowd was that Lorde was performing in a toilet cubicle with only a small group of fans at a time.

“People will be let in, see her perform and ushered out the back,” he said.

“Lots of people have shown up who may not have received an invite, hoping for the best or hoping she may come outside.”

Just after 1pm Wednesday, the Melodrama singer – born Ella Yelich-O’Connor – posted a cryptic photo to her Instagram story showing the top right of a cracked iPhone peeking out of a pair of jeans.

The picture was captioned “Auckland” and included a hyperlink to Lorde’s WhatsApp Business Account.

Messages sent to the singer received a link to sign up to her database and then received a message from the singer that read: “Auckland I wanna play you something.. Meet me in the city tonight? Message me if you’re keen”.

A police spokesperson, responding to questions about Lorde’s earlier message, told the Herald: “Police are not immediately aware of anything at this stage.

“We will monitor and respond to any issues that might arise accordingly.”

Tomorrow, Lorde is due to release Man of the Year, the second single off her album Virgin, due out on June 27.

Lorde released What Was That, the first single from the album, on April 24. A pop-up event hosted by the singer in New York’s Washington Square Park before the song’s release was shut down by police less than an hour beforehand because of large crowds.

In 2017, before the release of her song Green Light, the singer tweeted a map to three locations around Auckland that displayed a green-lit, smoking car in Ponsonby, green lights at a Herne Bay beach, and a projection of her performing the song in the city centre.

Earlier this month, in a Rolling Stone cover story, the singer recounted how she wrote Man of the Year in a period where she had stopped taking birth control, been diagnosed with premenstrual dysphoric ­disorder and was exploring her gender identity.

The article outlined the single’s inspiration coming to Lorde as she was “sitting on the floor of her living room, trying to visualise a version of herself ‘fully representative of how [her] gender felt in that moment’”.

“What she saw once again was an image of herself in men’s jeans, this time wearing nothing else but her gold chain and duct tape on her chest.

“The tape had this feeling of rawness to her, of it ‘not being a permanent solution’.”

Lorde’s local meet-up comes weeks after the singer faced criticism for not including Aotearoa in dates announced for her upcoming Ultrasound World Tour.

Earlier this week, Auckland restaurateur Albert Cho posted a picture of Lorde holding his pet chihuahua in Ponsonby eatery Blue.

On May 21, Lorde posted a reel to her Instagram account showing the singer wading waist deep in water on an Auckland beach with Rangitoto in the background.

The video was soundtracked by a short clip of the upcoming single with lyrics that say “Let’s hear it for the man of the year, hear it for the man of the year”.