Since her debut tour in 2011, Lana Del Rey’s UK appearances have been sporadic. A mere handful of headline shows, a string of 2020 gigs cancelled, and two consecutive summers of having her set cut off early by major festivals have conjured a feeling that, when it comes to Del Rey and British stages, the stars are never quite able to align.
So when she announced her first U.K. and Ireland stadium shows last year, it’s no wonder that 300,000 tickets promptly sold out. It was assumed, though, that the performances would follow the release of her highly anticipated 10th album Lasso, which has since been renamed The Right Person Will Stay and currently remains a bewilderment.
Yet rather than frustrating, for the legion of fans descending on Cardiff this week, these twists and turns are part of Del Rey’s charm – integral to the air of mystery that surrounds her like a cloud of her vape smoke. And, for an artist whose enigmatic presence on the charts has shaped modern pop in her image, she’s earned the right to be elusive.
It’s why Cardiff – proud host to her first ever U.K. stadium show – has stepped up to the occasion. Ahead of her performance, the entire city is bathed in a Honeymoon glow. Loose feathers torn from boas dance in the wind, girls in white dresses and veils adjust each other’s flower crowns and the bridge of ‘Ride’ leaks from the open doors of every other bar. It’s a testament to Del Rey’s enduring power and relevance as a songwriter, taking to the stage mere days after her 40th birthday and looking out onto a crowd mostly comprised of soon-to-be school leavers.
These are the best moments from Del Rey’s show at Cardiff Principality Stadium.
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A trip to the American South
Outside the stadium walls, mundane British life chugs on. Yet within them, Del Rey has concocted another world entirely. A nod to the presumed Southern Gothic influences of her upcoming album, the show takes place in the front yard of a full-sized shotgun house – complete with a white picket fence, creaking porch swing and vintage-looking street lamp that, as it turns out, is primed for pole dancing. White roses swirl around a pond before her, and dancers twirl beneath an oak tree embellished with twinkling lights.
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Emotions run high
From the moment she steps on stage, Del Rey’s gratitude to be back in the U.K. is palpable, as she peers at the 70,000-strong crowd through eyes brimming with tears. As opening song “Stars Fell on Alabama” (no relation to the 1934 jazz standard) draws to a close, she hurries to the side of the stage to kiss her now-husband, alligator tour guide Jeremy Dufrane, before re-emerging and promising the crowd: “They’re good tears.” There are undoubtedly more than a few of those on the audience side, too.
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A taste of new material
An album might not have arrived by its initial May deadline, but the songs are ready, and Cardiff bears witness to the U.K. debut of three, including western-imbued “Quiet In The South.” The best received, though, is “57.5”, first performed live in April during her headline performance at Stagecoach and already memorised by many in the crowd. Offering anecdotal wisdom from someone now nearly two decades into the game, Del Rey affirms her tenderly woven advice on navigating stardom by the fact that she has ‘57.5 million listeners on Spotify.‘ Notably, a headline-grabbing line about Morgan Wallen is replaced with a knowing look into the audience.
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Full circle for “Video Games”
For the die-hard fans (many of whom have camped in the Welsh capital over the past few days to get a glimpse of Del Rey arriving and leaving soundcheck), the singer’s catalogue brims with cult classics. Yet it’s still “Video Games”, the 2011 breakout single that propelled her to stardom, that is perhaps her most widely adored hit. Now, overlooking her largest British audience yet, she seems worlds from the brand new artist mumbling the lyrics into her MacBook camera all those years ago.
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A digital doppleganger
Del Rey has never been predictable, and tonight’s theatrics prove there’s no danger of her slipping into that territory any time soon. Perhaps the set’s most decisive creative decision was that, for fan-favourites “Norman Fucking Rockwell” and “Arcadia,” the singer wanders off stage, enlisting a projection of herself to step in momentarily. While the real Del Rey, whom many have spent days queuing to see, is presumably still somewhere within the Principality Stadium, her digital double haunts the porch steps and croons from a crooked window ledge. Bizarre, yes, but somehow it works, and the pre-recorded vocals don’t dissuade a choir of Welsh voices from singing along.
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Taking requests
As the show approaches its finale, Del Rey tiptoes down the stairs and into the crowd, keen to give Cardiff one final moment to remember. “I’m trying to think of one little thing that I could do that I didn’t have planned,” she says, beckoning a chorus of screamed requests from the barrier. One impassioned plea from a front-row fan later, and she’s leading the stadium in an a cappella version of “Salvatore” from 2014’s Honeymoon, the audience as her backing choir.
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Take us home
Del Rey’s admiration of John Denver has been forever immortalised in the lyrics of “The Grants” (“Like Rocky Mountain High/The way John Denver sings”). And, tonight, it’s his classic “Take Me Home, Country Roads” she selects to see us out. “We’re gonna end like we started, with a little bit of country flair,” she says, stretching her world-building magic a little longer into the night.