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Lana Del Rey’s Reading headline set opens in paradise. Before the star comes onstage tonight (August 24), clips from her 2013 short film Tropico fill the screens, Del Rey in the Garden of Eden with Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and God. Later in the film, she’ll be cast out of this utopia, but, for now, she’s safe in this divine space.
As the screens change to show the ornate world the singer has created on Reading’s Main Stage – which includes an ivy-covered exterior of a stately home – it feels like Little John’s Farm could become an extension of that heaven. Del Rey walks on beaming and opens with ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell’, its blunt first line (“Goddamn manchild, you fucked me so good I almost said, ‘I love you’”) an iconic starting point.
Quickly, though, there are problems, as the pounding bass from The Chevron stage at the other end of the festival is so loud it competes with Del Rey. ‘Arcadia’ seems stunning and ‘Without You’, the ‘Born To Die’ track she resurrected earlier this year after a decade in the cupboard, could be an early highlight of the set. Both, however, are turned into wobbling, chest-rattling discordance. Even if you position yourself directly under a speaker – or are onstage, it turns out – Sonny Fodera’s house beats are still frustratingly audible. “Can you hear me through the techno?” Del Rey asks the crowd after ‘Ride’.
There are some beautiful moments here – if you can shut out the bass. ‘Summertime Sadness’ finds the star and her backing dancers holding up art deco-style mirror boards, turning Del Rey into a 1920s statue. ‘Ride’ is as exquisite as ever: scenes from its music video, interspersed with shots of Lana in real time, fill the screens and pull you into her gorgeous visual world. ‘The Grants’ and ‘Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd’ give her backing singers a moment in the spotlight, their incredible vocals covering Reading in powerful, poignant emotion.
“Thank you so much, Reading. We’re going to play you a couple more songs for as long as we can,” the star tells the huge audience after ‘Video Games’. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Instead, due to a production error (for which the festival later apologised “unreservedly”) that halts the performance five minutes early, the big screens cut to the festival’s graphics, momentarily coming back on as fireworks explode in the night sky and Del Rey looks pensively out into the crowd. It’s a disappointing end to a set that had the potential to go down as a classic and, following Glastonbury 2023, a second big UK festival moment in just over 12 months that could have been something much more glorious. We’ll just have to wait for Lana Del Rey’s return to truly experience paradise with her.
‘Norman Fucking Rockwell’
‘Arcadia’
‘Without You’
‘West Coast’
‘Summertime Sadness’
‘Cherry’
‘Pretty When You Cry’
‘Ride’
‘Bartender’
‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’
‘The Grants’
‘Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd’
‘Video Games’
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When Lady Gaga steps onto the stage at The O2, towering above the crowd on the wide skirt of a deep red crinoline dress, it’s immediately obvious that this won’t be an ordinary Tuesday night. Known for never holding anything back, the theatrical pop visionary dives straight into world-building, transforming the arena into a surreal, camp horror setting. She faces off against another version of herself, surrounded at different moments by skeletons, witches and plague doctors.
“I must sing and build the walls to cradle my own space, and my own sound will grow the fortress of a home erased,” the two Gagas declare in unison before the grand entrance. What follows feels like a powerful reflection on the refuge and sense of belonging she has carved out with her music since her breakout moment with ‘Just Dance’ in 2008.
Aside from her newest release ‘Mayhem’, it’s the songs from her early records ‘The Fame’ (and its reissue ‘The Fame Monster’) and ‘Born This Way’ that take center stage. Although Gaga has reinvented herself many times over the years, it was those early projects and eras that built the groundwork for her artistic journey and gave her the freedom to experiment however she wished.
Lady Gaga credit: Samir Hussein/Getty Images for Live Nation
Her imagination and creative drive are fully on display tonight. One moment she’s sinking into the folds of her massive skirt, bursting out from a cage as ‘Abracadabra’ echoes around the venue. The next, she’s locked in a fierce duel with her chessboard “white queen” double during a striking performance of ‘Poker Face’. When she sings ‘Perfect Celebrity’, she moves into a sandpit, using it to show the complicated push and pull between love and resentment, gently holding and then violently gripping the skeleton lying beside her.
A breathtaking rendition of ‘Paparazzi’ keeps that feeling alive, as Gaga stumbles down the runway dressed in a white lace look partially covered with metal plates and crutches, like a knight stripped of its armor. The night is filled with imagery and layers of meaning, but she never loses sight of making it pure entertainment.
She also uses the moment to acknowledge the people who have supported her along the way. A triumphant ‘Born This Way’ becomes a tribute to the queer community. Gaga speaks from the heart, saying they have “inspired me for my whole career” and tells them, “You are so precious to me and to the world.” Sitting at the piano during the acoustic segment, she is clearly touched by the audience’s overwhelming love and takes a quiet moment to express her emotions.
Lady Gaga credit: Samir Hussein/Getty Images for Live Nation
“I feel very, very lucky to be here tonight,” she says, looking back at the first time she performed in the UK twenty years earlier. “I feel so humbled that, almost 20 years later, I’m still here.” After emotional versions of ‘Dance In The Dark’ and ‘The Edge Of Glory’, she asks the crowd, “If I come back 20 years from now – I’ll come back sooner – but will you come and see the show?”
There’s hardly a soul in the room who wouldn’t say yes, especially after a night this imaginative and flawlessly executed. Returning to full theatrical energy, Gaga leans into the absurd for ‘Bad Romance’, telling the crowd to “put your paws up” and showing off her hands with ridiculously long, sausage-like fingers, as if she’s stepped into a gothic version of a scene from Everything Everywhere All At Once.
As flames appear on top of the opera house behind her, she walks offstage and reemerges for the encore without makeup, wearing a plain black outfit and a beanie over the hair hidden beneath countless wigs throughout the show. It’s a quiet nod to the person behind all the spectacle, but still part of the performance. Like everything she’s done tonight, it’s executed with complete precision and heart.
