Every facet of Lana Del Rey’s performance carried a delicate feminine touch that assured you were in secure maternal embrace to feel all the emotions she evoked.
If the United States were a monarchy, could Lana Del Rey be its queen?
It was hard to dismiss the thought as the singer descended the stairs onto the Bud Light stage after performing “Ultraviolence,” greeting her fans, taking selfies, trying on sunglasses, blowing kisses, and receiving bouquets. (How do you manage to bring a bouquet of flowers to Lollapalooza?)
It was like something out of a royal procession, with some fans crying, others screaming, and others streaming. It was a wild reaction, but not entirely unexpected, for the cultural icon who has grown in stature over the past 13 years, evolving from a crucible of American symbolism.
She’s Jackie O and Marilyn, she’s Frank and Nancy Sinatra; one day she’s working at a Waffle House, and the next she’s headlining the nation’s biggest festival. She’s everything comprehensible and unattainable about the American Dream, and her fans adore her for it.
Lana Del Rey is clever and cunning; while she feeds off drama, she always provides intrigue. On Sunday night, she started the show looking like a bride in her short white Priscilla dress with a long train; by the end, the oversized fabric transformed into a sheet, literally carrying her as if we had all just witnessed a dream.
If Del Rey’s music weren’t so good, it might seem truly extravagant, but one can’t deny that the star, born as Lizzy Grant, has crafted some exceptional songs throughout her nine incredible albums, all with the pomp and circumstance befitting the grandeur of noir pop.
In her Lolla performance, Del Rey’s impassioned rendition of “Blue Jeans” was overwhelming, while the live dancer accompanying “Ultraviolence” was so beautiful it became moving. The way Del Rey slowly lingers over each lyric and movement in “Pretty When You Cry” made it easy to fall into a trance.
Every element of the performance carried a delicate feminine touch that assured you were in a safe maternal embrace to feel all the emotions she evoked. The butterfly clips placed in her hair during “Bartender,” the Midsommar-style scarf dance during “Chemtrails Over the Country Club,” the additional details of chandeliers, floral swings, a troupe of whimsical dancers, and a backing choir—all befitting a sovereign. For an hour and a half, we were all in LaLa Lana Land, and what an escape it was to conclude the weekend.
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