{"id":238691,"date":"2025-07-04T23:54:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T23:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/238691\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T23:54:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T23:54:20","slug":"spellbinding-and-addison-rae-was-exalted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/238691\/","title":{"rendered":"Spellbinding\u2026 and Addison Rae was exalted"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young women with flowers in their hair sitting quietly reading poetry. Straight men \u2013 many of them with whimsical, disconcertingly good dress sense! \u2013 doting on their partners. Attitude has never seen an audience in anticipation quite like at Lana Del Rey<\/a><\/strong>\u2018s gig at Wembley Stadium last night. They were just so chilled. And we say this having seen fights break out at both a Spice Girls concert and a Beyonc\u00e9 concert.<\/p>\n

The lo-fi vibes continued as our elegant queen floated on stage. As Lana performed to a mind-bogglingly huge crowd \u2014 Wembley Stadium\u2019s 90,000 capacity marking, by our calculations, the biggest coup of her career \u2013 spectators stood dumbfounded. There were surprisingly few of the incessant histrionics you might find at a Taylor Swift show. (For that matter, there were few overwrought pyrotechnics, either.) Instead, during the quieter songs, fans swayed gently in strange, reverent silence; during others, they sang along in perfect, voluminous harmony. At times, it felt less like a blockbuster pop concert and more like being at a vast, outdoor cinema \u2014 and all the more refreshing and arresting for it.<\/p>\n

I remember reading a LDR review of old, and within it a hot-take (make that a piss-take) that the star sings the line \u201cI\u2019m feeling electric tonight\u201d from \u2018Summertime Sadness\u2019 with comical reverse energy, as if the song didn\u2019t explore heavy themes; as if it weren\u2019t performed with restraint and vital self-consciousness; as if the sombre directness were not delivered with tongue firmly in cheek. She does exactly this tonight, and it feels so right.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m lucky: I\u2019ve seen her in countless venues of multiple sizes \u2013 the 500-capacity Jazz Cafe in Camden in 2012; 45,000 people at Latitude in 2019 and beyond \u2013 and as a diehard fan, I know exactly what to expect from her and am never disappointed. She is the last person who would change who she is just because her live offering happens to be reaching unprecedented highs, and thank god for it. Pop needs artistic vision of this purity.<\/p>\n

\"Lana<\/p>\n

Lana Del rey (Image: Gareth Cattermole)<\/p>\n

So it was that last night\u2019s setlist was heavy on latter-day ballads \u2013 the overwhelming \u2018Did You Know That There\u2019s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd\u2019, the surprisingly minimal newie \u2018Henry, Come On\u2019 \u2013 over Born To Die bombast. Although \u2018Born to Die\u2019 and \u2018Video Games\u2019 \u2013\u00a0the latter the genetic blueprint of so many of her more delicate songs \u2013 wisely get an airing. (One of my only criticisms of last night\u2019s show was the gigantic porch swing she sits on for her signature song \u2013 I\u2019ve seen it too many times. The holograms also didn\u2019t work for me.) <\/p>\n

But it was cheering beyond words to see tens of thousands singing along to the later, more challenging works you\u2019re less likely to hear on the radio \u2013 the hazy, languid \u2018Venice Bitch\u2019; the solemn \u2018Chemtrails Over the Country Club\u2019 \u2013 as if they were the global number ones Wembley is used to hearing. Her listeners are very much still with her, and this reception bodes well as she ventures further into uncharted waters, with her hotly anticipated country era gathering pace \u2014 a shift underscored by her cover of Tammy Wynette\u2019s\u00a0\u2018Stand by Your Man\u2018, slotted pointedly third in the setlist.<\/p>\n

That said, the epic \u2018Ride\u2019, slightly rearranged with country twangs stepped up a gear, is epic, and \u2018Ultraviolence\u2019 stops me dead in my tracks. This dark, daring and widely misunderstood gem of her discography is performed tonight with a chilling, searing conviction I haven\u2019t seen from her in years. It\u2019s elevated by the staging: Lana spends much of the set drifting around a cute little cottage; during \u2018Ultraviolence\u2019, it glows blood red from within as a retinue of seemingly possessed dancers clamber through the windows and onto the roof like demons. It was giving\u00a0The Virgin Suicides, it was giving\u00a0Carrie, for crying out loud, it was giving\u00a0The Evil Dead\u00a0\u2014 a haunting, cinematic fever dream climaxing with strobe lighting.<\/p>\n

\"Lana<\/p>\n

Lana Del Rey (Image: Gareth Cattermole)<\/p>\n

She communicates so much with so little. Facial expressions stoic, body language understated, a costume change from gold\u00a0Valentino dress to (broadly similar, at least from where we were standing) lemon\u00a0Gucci\u2026 she leans amusingly into consistency rather than spectacle. Then there\u2019s her voice \u2013 thick, heavy and astonishingly beautiful, but unfussy. Its originality pierces your heart much as it does on record, especially her low tones.<\/p>\n

A lesser star might wilt in the presence of such powerhouse backing singers (Porctia Symone, Jasmine \u2018Jazzy\u2019 Rose Chelsea \u2018Peaches\u2019 West bring the house down on more than one occasion) but Lana knows what works. On 2023 album track \u2018The Grants\u2019, her deep control and birdlike beauty proved the perfect counterpoint to such pure gospel force, and it\u2019s much the same tonight. What\u2019s more, there\u2019s a touching humility about her when the others sing; she looks as bowled over by them as the rest of us.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s similarly uplifting when bringing support act Addison Rae on for a duet of the Lana-coded \u2018Diet Pepsi\u2019. Rae looks beside herself with excitable deference, and yet it\u2019s plain as day that Lana is herself a super fan of this rising star. (For the record, Addison\u2019s blood-curdling scream on \u2018Fame is a Gun\u2019 earlier that night was one of the most thrilling things we\u2019ve witnessed in popular culture this year.) Basically, a star was born \u2013 and Lana was the midwife.<\/p>\n

All in all, this is probably my favourite Lana show to date, and the only reason this review is four stars rather than five is because of the set\u2019s brevity. At just 16 songs, many of them shortened, the show was over before you knew it. But you get the feeling she\u2019s just warming up. If she does another round of stadiums in the future, she\u2019ll surely build on this solid foundation.<\/p>\n

After all these years in the game, Lana is reaching new peaks. For those of us who have been with her from the beginning, it\u2019s a joy to behold.<\/p>\n

The post Lana Del Rey at Wembley Stadium in London review: Spellbinding\u2026 and Addison Rae was exalted<\/a> appeared first on Attitude<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young women with flowers in their hair sitting quietly reading poetry. Straight men \u2013 many of them with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[78486,748,885,393,92878,4884,30568,257,92879,16,15,12735],"class_list":{"0":"post-238691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-addison-rae","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-chelsea","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-gareth-cattermole","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-lana-del-rey","15":"tag-london","16":"tag-reading-poetry","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-wembley-stadium"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114797665638180501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}