Photo Courtesy of NME
Sunshine season has a head start this year, but it’s not because of the weather. On Sunday, April 3, Kiwi singer-songwriter Ella Yelich-O’Connor, better known as Lorde, embarked on her third world tour in support of her 2021 album “Solar Power,” bringing out all the stops and getting the United States ready for an early start to the summer season.
The 25-year-old singer first came into the limelight after the success of her 2013 single “Royals,” a worldwide sensation that charted at No. 1 on four different continents and in nine different countries. Ever since, Lorde has spoken to the hearts of adolescents all around the globe through her on-the-nose lyrics about growing up and what it means to be on your own in the world for the first time. Like many singer-songwriters, Lorde’s discography acts as a mirror of her life, almost like a public record of her adventures and life lessons in the form of song. The Solar Power tour is just that – a journey through the transition into adulthood presented with the mystical power of song.
The second night of performances at Radio City opened with the ethereal “Leader of a New Regime,” a song about the climate crisis and the population’s desire to leave the planet in the age of global warming. Shortly after, the stage exploded with the boisterous “Homemade Dynamite” from Lorde’s sophomore LP “Melodrama.”
Other high energy tracks included “Buzzcut Season,” “The Louvre,” “Supercut” and “Green Light,” which lit up the audience and stage with vivid, colorful visuals and on-point vocals from Lorde and her team of backing vocalists. However, Lorde didn’t forget her brand of being a queen of heart-wrenching ballads on the Solar Power tour; she even teased the audience by saying “Are you ready to cry?” before delivering a teary-eyed performance of “Stoned at the Nail Salon.” Other somber tunes included in the setlist were “California,” “Big Star” and fan favorite turned TikTok sensation “Ribs.”
Lorde also reinvents songs from other artists’ discographies, such as Latin pop sensation Rosalia’s “HENTAI” and “The End Has No End” by The Strokes. During the performance, preceding her cover of the hit by The Strokes, Lorde joked with the audience, saying she “can’t get this f—ing song out of [her] head.”
In addition to having a sensational selection of songs for the hardcore fans, Lorde also created a visually stunning set to perform on. The stage was modeled after an ancient sundial, with a tall staircase sitting in the middle of a rotating circular platform. Throughout the performance, the stage morphed into different colors and styles in order to reflect the mood of each song performed. Lorde also packed a plethora of stylistic and eloquent outfits in order to fit the show’s warm, summertime feeling.
Lorde’s Solar Power tour emphasizes the greatest thing about the singer-songwriter’s career – her ability to relate to people on a different level than most famous artists say they can. Every audience she has performed for highlights how she connects with the concertgoers through her songs and how her fanbase has grown up with her over the last ten years. For longtime fans of Lorde, the Solar Power tour is an absolute treat: brilliant visuals, a setlist with all the hits and intimate moments with the headlining star which create memories that last for a lifetime. For non-fans, the show may be a bit harder to appreciate, but it would be unsurprising if a new fan of Lorde was created from the show that she has put so much heart into performing.
