“My body is a map of LA,” Lana Del Rey sings softly on “Arcadia”, the second single from her 2021 album Blue Banisters. From her debut album, Born to Die (2012), through eight subsequent records, Del Rey’s music has traversed the US, bouncing between New York – Coney Island, Brooklyn – and Los Angeles, with a slight detour to Florida for 2014’s Ultraviolence. Both her lyrics and aesthetic offer a romanticised nostalgia for an America long past: the US flag, muscle cars and the fashion of Old Hollywood, JFK, Marilyn Monroe and Norman Rockwell. On 3 July, Del Rey brought this brand of Americana to a sold-out Wembley Stadium, the first of two nights.
Del Rey is known for her lateness – whether it’s arriving on stage or delayed album releases – and this, combined with the lack of any acknowledgement of upcoming shows on her social media, led fans to joke about whether she even knew she was touring. But the 90-minute performance didn’t disappoint. Blending songs old and new in her signature melancholic tone, from the breakthrough “Video Games” to her version of the jazz standard “Stars Fell on Alabama”, she brought the audience under her spell.
Del Rey’s delayed next album – which these shows were initially planned to promote – is a country record. At Wembley, the influence of the Deep South was unavoidable, even on pop-soul ballads such as “Ride”. The set was a whimsical farmhouse, complete with white picket fence and rustic furniture, in front of a projected backdrop of a star-spangled sky. In full-circle Southern belle dresses, Del Rey swayed by the veranda as piano chords blended into the soft guitar twang of the country-inspired “Henry Come On”.
“I have 57.5 million listeners on Spotify,” she sings staccato on “57.5”, which will appear on the new album. But Lana Del Rey’s stardom has already overtaken her: 59 million people now stream her music on the platform each month, as she shapes the cultural scene of the country that shaped her.
Lana Del Rey
Wembley Stadium, London HA9, 3 July
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This article appears in the 09 Jul 2025 issue of the New Statesman, The Harbinger