Lana Del Rey says sorry for truncated Glastonbury showon July 10, 2023 at 12:21 pm

Lana Del Rey has apologised to fans for the abrupt ending to her Glastonbury show last month.

The US singer-songwriter arrived half an hour late for her set and had the plug pulled when she broke the curfew.

Despite begging Glastonbury bosses to let her play “one more song”, Del Rey had to leave without finishing.

Playing London’s Hyde Park on Sunday, she introduced the song Diet Mountain Dew by saying: “This is where I got cut off last time – sorry about that.”

Del Rey later toyed with breaking Hyde Park’s own curfew, by stretching out the final section of Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd?

“I don’t want it to end,” she told her band, indicating they should keep playing, as the gospel ballad approached its conclusion.

And when it finally drew to a close, several minutes later, Del Rey added: “It’s worth it. Even if you get the power cut, it’s worth it.”

Thankfully, she was still able to finish her show before the strict 22:30 curfew, leaving fans with a blissful version of Video Games performed on a garlanded swing suspended from the rafters of the stage.

The 19-song set was the same show she had intended to stage at Glastonbury – a highly conceptual, ultra-stylised performance, with Del Rey surrounded by a swirl of dancers who drift around her, showering the stage with glitter and performing improbable feats of gymnastics, adding a theatrical element to her wistfully baroque music.

She emerges to ear-splitting screams, in a floral-print dress and towering heels, smouldering through the achingly cool A&W, before segueing into the ethereal Young and Beautiful.

“Damn, this is a big crowd!” Del Rey says, to even more ear-splitting screams, as fans hold up signs – “Marry me,” “Lana Del Slay” – in the hope of catching her eye.

Even in the era of “stan culture”, Del Rey inspires an unusual level of devotion. People queued for a whole day to secure a place at the front of the BST Hyde Park show and her every move is greeted with feverish awe. Even when she takes a puff on a vape, there is an almighty roar of approval.

It would seem disproportionate for anyone else but no other modern artist has so successfully created a mythology and a sound of their own.

When Del Rey first arrived, with dreamy, hip-hop infused songs such as Born to Die and Video Games, people called her a fake. They said she was a Brooklyn hipster with artificially inflated lips and carped her father was a millionaire who – allegedly – bankrolled her career.

But those critiques, dripping with misogyny, have not aged well.

Del Rey’s atmospheric, orchestral pop has inspired a generation of female singer-songwriters – Olivia Rodrigo, Lorde, Halsey. As Billie Eilish says: “Lana raised us.”

And last year, before inviting Del Rey to duet on her latest album, Taylor Swift said simply: “She’s the best we ever had.”

Over the years, Del Rey’s music has evolved and become more nuanced, while never quite departing from the twin topics that obsess her, toxic relationships and America – and, by proxy, America’s toxic relationship with itself.

Her high-water mark, 2019’s Norman… Rockwell!, an album painted in the palette of classic Californian rock, produced by frequent Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff, saw her take full control of her narrative. And on the sublime Mariners Apartment Complex, she even addresses the people – critics, boyfriends, record-industry bigwigs – who “mistook my kindness for weakness”, the not-exactly-hidden subtext being: “That won’t happen again, schmucks.”

Del Rey has released three albums since then, with this year’s Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd? marking a detour into more confessional territory – she frets about having children, the imminence of death and her family’s history of cancer. Filled with gospel harmonies and softly building pianos, it challenges Norman… Rockwell! as her best album yet – and the title track was one of the biggest highlights of her Hyde Park set.

Del Rey is an intriguing performer – sometimes fully present, at others seemingly lost in the music. Often, she will mouth words off-microphone, as though singing a private melody to herself.

It is mesmerising to watch, like peeking through the window into her apartment as she writes. And that sensation is only heightened when she sits at a dresser while a stylist tackles her hair – “done up real big, beauty-queen style,” to quote Summertime Sadness – freeing her tresses to tumble over her shoulders.

This too could be interpreted as a dig at Glastonbury, where Del Rey jokingly blamed her delay on her hairdressers – except, she staged the exact same interlude at Worthy Farm.

But for all of the shenanigans, the focus remains on the songs – from big hits Born to Die, Ultraviolence and Blue Jeans to beloved album cuts Pretty When You Cry and White Mustang.

Del Rey’s voice is better than it has ever been. Throughout the show, she plays with her melodies, exploring new harmonies and breathing fresh emotional life into well-worn songs, And although she never touches an instrument, Del Rey is totally in control of the music.

A tiny gesture to her pianist lets him know she wants to vary the tempo of Candy Necklaces – performed while perched on top of a gold-plated grand piano, naturally. On Arcadia, a lovelorn letter to LA, Del Rey trades riffs with her backing singers, again teasing out the song’s ending.

Fans’ ears prick up when she changes the lyrics to 2021’s Chemtrails over the Country Club, seemingly taking a venomous swipe at her ex-boyfriend Sean Larkin.

“He was born in December and he got married while we were still in couple’s therapy together,” Del Rey sings over the outro. “Sometimes I wonder what his wife would think if she knew.”

If her heart is broken, the audience is there for her. One fan has even turned up with a picture of Mr Larkin on his T-shirt, a giant red “X” superimposed over the top.

The affection is mutual, As Ultraviolence ends, the singer walks to the barriers to meet the faithful, spending several minutes talking, hugging, posing and signing autographs.

After the show, Del Rey spent time with fans backstage. And at 01:30, when she finally left the venue, she stopped to greet others who had waited at the exits.

“You’ve always got to take your chance to say hello, because you just never know,” she said from the stage, blowing a kiss.

It is something fans know only too well – BST and Glastonbury were her only UK dates since a 2019 performance at Latitude Festival and Del Rey has not toured in England for 10 years.

But based on this magical, luminous performance, she would be welcomed back any time – even by Glastonbury.