Gordi has made a big splash on US television this week, performing live on The Kelly Clarkson Show.

The first-ever American Idol winner shared a lovely intro for the Australian indie singer-songwriter before she performed Peripheral Lover from her upcoming album, Like Plasticine. Clarkson mentioned Gordi embracing her second career as a doctor during the COVID-19 pandemic and told viewers about the emotional experience behind the making of Gordi’s new album.

An ode to LGBTQIA+ love, Peripheral Lover was released in February. It was born out of Gordi's thinking about the early stages of relationships—the hiding and acceptance of a relationship that you want to go further—and “exploded into being” in just three hours.

You can check out the ripping performance below.

Gordi made her US television debut in 2016, performing with 8 (circle) with Bon Iver. She’s currently touring across the US and will appear at the Summerstage event in New York City this weekend. Following her US run, Gordi heads to Europe next week for a run of shows opening for Foster The People, and will perform at a string of festivals.

Gordi’s new album, Like Plasticine, will be released via Mushroom Music on Friday, 8 August. You can pre-order/pre-save the album here.

Earlier this month, Gordi dropped the latest single from the album, PVC Divide (featuring Anaïs Mitchell). It was written, recorded and produced by Gordi and offers a glimpse into her experiences working in hospitals as a frontline healthcare worker during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said of the song:

I spent the pandemic working as a doctor. These tiny planes at empty airports would take us to remote towns, to restaff hospitals that had been hit by covid. From the airport to a serviced apartment to the emergency room and so on and so forth. Rinse and repeat. I observed the grief of others until eventually it felt like my own.

The lyrics are made up of stories I read, conversations I had, and feelings I tried to contain. They finally spilled over the day I wrote this - I was in the middle of a room called Phoenix Central Park in Sydney and I started playing this guitar line and the words came quickly. I made a drum loop and let it echo around the space, then I started recording and sat down at the piano and just played. It was all captured that day. This song is hard for me to listen to sometimes, but it holds a special place.

This November, Gordi will return to Australia and open for David Gray on his Past & Present tour.