When Lana Del Rey announced her first stadium headline tour last year, you would be forgiven for thinking it might not be a combination that would work. On paper, her music isn’t the most obvious fit for such cavernous venues, her material often too quiet, soft and beautiful to sound like it wouldn’t get lost trying to reach all corners. Nor does the nature of Del Rey’s output lend itself to a typical stadium production of pyrotechnics and high-octane choreography.
As she kicks off the tour in Cardiff tonight (June 23), though, Del Rey proves once again that she knows best. Throughout the set, she’s a compelling force in her own gentle way, and while there’s no actual fireworks, she brings plenty to the stage that feels just as attention-grabbing and exciting, and at times more innovative than her fellow stadium-filling peers.
The staging for this tour transforms Principality Stadium into a Southern idyll. The iron-wrought mansion of her festival run for the last two years is replaced by a modest house with a porch swing and white picket fence, a small pond out front and, down some steps and at the end of a small runway, a gently rippling moat strewn with white flowers. Trees and poles designed like lampposts flank the building, all becoming props for her dancers as they glide and twirl from rooftop to branches, porch swing to lamppost.
It’s the perfect setting for the new setlist she’s curated for this run – a country-leaning selection that would have showcased her 10th album, if its scheduled May release hadn’t been delayed. Del Rey vaguely acknowledges this after an early cover of Tammy Wynette’s ‘Stand By Your Man’, telling the audience: “We’re basically running through the new album without the album.”
In reality, that means four new songs scattered among some of her most beloved work. ‘Stars Fell On Alabama’ provides an emotional opener, its lyrics refusing to let anything come between her and her “husband of mine”, leaving Del Rey in tears and briefly walking off stage to share a kiss with her partner, Jeremy Dufrene. “They’re good tears,” she assures us as she makes her way back to the middle of the stage. “It’s just actually funny to think about in front of so many people. This feels good to get that out of our system.”
‘57.5’, which got its live debut at Stagecoach earlier this year, already feels like a fan-favourite, the crowd already word perfect without an official release. But it’s ‘Quiet In The South’, which appears in the middle of a glorious run of older material, that’s the most striking. Soundtracked by swooping pedal steel and acoustic guitar, a miniature replica of the house Del Rey sits in front of is wheeled on stage, and her dancers open it up to marvel at tiny furniture.
Behind them, the singer asks, “Are you coming home tonight? / Should I turn off the light or burn down your house?”, foreshadowing her companions bringing out petrol bottles and dousing the stage, before lighting, projections and smoke make it appear as if the house – and its miniature – is ablaze, that Southern idyll of the early set crumbling in real time.
It’s part of a longing and a search for answers that pervades the whole show, save for a handful of tracks, ‘Stars Fell On Alabama’ among them. It’s there in ‘Ride’’s quest for peace and reprieve on the open road, in ‘…Ocean Blvd’’s wondering of “When’s it gonna be my turn?”, and in ‘Young And Beautiful’’s hope of still being perceived as worthy of love in decades to come. Before the latter, a hologram version of Del Rey and her dancers flickers in and out of view, adding to the feeling of searching and a life in disorder.
Earlier, a digital version of Del Rey appears in the upstairs window of the house, sitting cross-legged and looking out at the sea of people as versions of ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell’ and ‘Arcadia’ play over the PA. It’s undoubtedly inventive, but also ever-so-slightly disappointing not to get full, live renditions of two of Del Rey’s best songs.
She makes up for it later by adding a touch of spontaneity to the end of the show. “I’m just trying to think of one little thing that I could do that I didn’t plan,” she ponders before walking down to the front row of the crowd and conversing with one fan. “We were thinking maybe I’d do a little bit of ‘Salvatore’ a cappella,” she explains moments later, getting a reminder of the song’s lyrics through a crew member’s phone.
What follows perfectly sums up the Lana Del Rey stadium experience – she doesn’t need gimmicks and flash to conquer such enormous venues. All she needs is her exquisite voice and beautifully written songs, delivered with as much heart and emotion as she shares tonight. It might not have seemed obvious at first, but once you’ve witnessed it, Del Rey the stadium headliner feels like a very natural fit after all.
Lana Del Rey played:
‘Stars Fell On Alabama’
‘Henry, Come On’
‘Stand By Your Man’
‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’
‘Ultraviolence’
‘Ride’
‘Video Games’
‘Norman Fucking Rockwell’
‘Arcadia’
‘Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’
‘Quiet In The South’
‘Young And Beautiful’
‘Summertime Sadness’
‘Born To Die’
’57.5’
‘Salvatore’
‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’