LANA DEL REY + ADDISON RAE – WEMBLEY STADIUM, LONDON 3.7.25
Upon arriving at Baker Street tube station I’m struck by the number of young women knocking about wearing long white dresses and cowboy boots. In addition, there are more wearing very short white dresses and cowboy boots, red dresses and cowboy boots, short denim skirts and cowboy boots, not to mention ‘Daisy Duke’ denim shorts and, you guessed it, cowboy boots. It gradually dawns on me that all of these people are on their way to the Lana Del Rey gig at Wembley Stadium. I momentarily panic. Am I going to be the only guy there??? That turns out not to be the case, but males in the audience are in a definite minority.
I reach my seat, and note that Lana’s stage set is cloaked in secretive black cloth. What’s under there then? The pre-gig music over the PA is largely countrified. This is no surprise. There are many rumours that Lana’s next album will be very much a country affair. Down below there seems to be some kind of ‘golden circle’ which takes up nearly half of the pitch. This is something that I very much disapprove of. It’s a very visible form of economic apartheid. Nothing wrong with having standing tickets, but at least let getting ‘dahn the front’ be on a first come – first served basis.
Bang on the dot of 7:30pm support Addison Rae takes the stage. I’d received an email to say that she may start her set earlier, at 7:15pm, but this doesn’t happen. It’s lucky that Addison doesn’t have a band: there’d be very little room for them on the small strip of the front of the stage that’s available to her. She is clad in a relatively modest bikini, and is accompanied by a troupe of dancers who are all similarly clad, apart from the sole male dancer, who is later introduced as Patrick. The music and backing vocals in their entirety are on the backing track. Tonight is Addison’s first time performing in a stadium, and she keeps telling us how “crazy” all of this is. However, this is the nearest she comes to showing any sign of nerves.
In terms of melody Addison’s music is a good fit for Lana’s material, although most of Addison’s songs are more danceable. Addison’s first album, the inventively titled ‘Addison’, was released last month, and all of the songs in her set tonight are from it, with ‘Money Is Everything’ and ‘Summer Forever’ receiving their live debuts. All of the material goes down well with the crowd, and Addison gets an unexpectedly rapturous reception. During ‘Life’s No Fun Through Clear Waters’ Addison spends most of the track in a clinch with Patrick, both standing and lying on the stage. This time even Addison’s vocals are on the backing track. They behave as if they’re acting out a promo video, and quite honestly, it’s a bit naff. I mean – get a room!!!
Addison comes back to singing live for ‘Headphones On’, which is one of her best songs. Her dancers are lying on their fronts with their feet in the air, so we can see the red soles of their shoes. Are those Louboutins perchance? The set ends with ‘Diet Pepsi’, which is Addison’s other great song. Doubtless there will be more in the future. This set once again re-ignites the debate about what does, and what does not constitute live music. Does this performance constitute live music? Ultimately no. It might be unkind to describe this as ‘well choreographed karaoke’, but it wouldn’t be inaccurate. However, this is still a very good live performance. Everybody onstage puts in more than 100%, but it ain’t a live music performance.
Addison Rae setlist:
‘Money Is Everything’ (from 2025 ‘Addison’ album)
‘Times Like These’ (from 2025 ‘Addison’ album)
‘Summer Forever’ (from 2025 ‘Addison’ album)
‘Life’s No Fun Through Clear Waters’ (mimed) (from 2025 ‘Addison’ album)
‘Headphones On’ (from 2025 ‘Addison’ album)
‘Aquamarine’ (from 2025 ‘Addison’ album)
‘Fame Is A Gun’ (extended outro) (from 2025 ‘Addison’ album)
‘Diet Pepsi’ (from 2025 ‘Addison’ album)
We’re told that Lana Del Rey will be onstage at 8:30pm, due to the 10:30pm curfew. However, 8:30pm comes and goes, as does 9:00pm. There’s a Mexican wave. The crowd are bored. The stage set is revealed. It’s pretty impressive. It really does look as if a 19th century American homestead has been plonked down on the stage at Wembley Stadium. At 9:05pm a string quintet take up their positions under an arbour stage right. The crowd go bananas. Also there’s a golfer (or at least a guy with a set of golf clubs over his shoulder) standing in the wings. Quite why he’s there never becomes clear. Maybe he was lost. At 9:09pm Lana appears via the roof of the house and perches in a tree onstage, except that’s not her: it’s a dancer in a white dress. A minute later the real Lana appears from the front door of the house. A far more civilised entrance than that of the aforementioned dancer. It’s immediately clear that her voice is superb. It’s certainly been worth the wait.
Lana has a full band with her, comprising a guitarist who also doubles on piano, bassist, pedal steel player, drummer, plus an additional guitarist / pianist, and three backing singers. Unfortunately none of these musicians are introduced to us. For ‘Henry, Come On’ Lana sits on a rocking chair on the porch. She doesn’t hog the spotlight. Indeed, she’s more than generous with it. For most of this song the backing singers are standing in front of her!
Lana’s current enthusiasm for country music is evidenced by the first of tonight’s covers: Dolly Parton’s ‘Stand By Your Man’. It’s very faithful to the original, and features her lead guitarist on Stratocaster. I had doubts about how a Lana Del Rey show would work in a stadium, but it really does. Okay, it isn’t really music that you can boogie to, but the audience sing along to virtually everything. Not only that, the stage set is very impressive, and every detail of the dancers’ performance (and everything else come to that) has clearly been very carefully considered. Not only is there plenty to listen to, there’s always something to look at too. During ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’ the dancers circle Lana. For ‘Ultraviolence’ they’re pole dancing around lamp posts. There’s a lot going on, but ultimately it’s all about the music.
Lana presents herself in a number of different ways too. For ‘Ride’ she comes out on a walkway towards the crowd. Whereas she sings ‘Video Games’ whilst on a swing. For ‘Norman F*cking Rockwell’ a projection of Lana is shown singing from a window. The filmed version of Lana also sings ‘Arcadia’. This is an imaginative way of dealing with a costume change. Lana had been wearing a Gucci dress for the first part of the set. Now she comes out in a gold dress designed by Valentino. For ‘Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’ Lana sits with the backing singers, whilst one of them sings some of the lead.
She’s not shy about giving unreleased songs a live airing either. One such song is ‘Quiet In The South’, which features a really quite awesome pedal steel intro. This is quite possibly destined for Lana’s rumoured country-influenced album. During this song, a doll’s house version of the house on stage is wheeled on. Recordings of ‘Vertigo: Scene D’Amour’ (from the soundtrack of the film ‘Vertigo’) and Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ are played as the house looks and sounds as if it’s on fire, whilst there is also smoke coming from the dolls house. This, my friends, is musical theatre!
Lana comes out of the house for ‘Young And Beautiful’. Her dress has the longest train ever created (probably). She walks out onto a platform in the audience, her train is detached, and the platform rises. From this elevated position she sings ‘Summertime Sadness’. At no point had I anticipated that Lana would indulge in this level of showmanship. Not only does she appear to revel in it, it seems to somehow come naturally too. For some reason I’d thought that ‘Born To Die’ would be the closing song of the set. I was wrong. It’s not the first time that’s happened. ‘Venice Bitch’ gets an airing. It’s the first time that the song has been played on this tour, and that’s not the only surprise, as out trots Addison Rae, this time dressed rather more modestly, to sing with Lana. Not only does Addison stay after the end of the song, she and Lana sing Addison’s ‘Diet Pepsi’. Now if that isn’t giving your support artist your seal of approval, I don’t know what is! Addison stays for ‘57.5’ leaving Lana to close the set with a cover of John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’.
This cover, together with ‘57.5’ takes Lana crashing through the 10:30pm Thursday curfew (it’s 11pm on Friday) but nobody seems to care, least of all Lana. Tonight she has proven herself to be a most generous performer. Indeed, she seems to have enjoyed the show as much as the crowd have. She has also made Wembley Stadium feel intimate, which in itself is no mean feat. Maybe I’m still riding on the high of the gig, but I strongly believe that in years to come, this tour will be remembered as something of a classic.
Lana Del Rey setlist:
‘Stars Fell On Alabama’ (jazz standard composed by Frank Perkins)
‘Henry, Come On’ (a 2025 single)
‘Stand By Your Man’ (Tammy Wynette cover)
‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’ (from 2021 ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’ album)
‘Ultraviolence’ (from 2014 ‘Ultraviolence’ album)
‘Ride Monologue’ (with string accompaniment)
‘Ride’ (from 2012 ‘Paradise’ album)
‘Video Games’ (from 2012 ‘Born To Die’ album)
‘Norman F*cking Rockwell’ (shortened, recorded version was played as a projection of Lana was shown through the stage set) (from 2019 ‘Norman F*cking Rockwell!’ album)
‘Arcadia’ (shortened, recorded version was played as a projection of Lana was shown through the stage set) (from 2021 ‘Blue Banisters’ album)
‘Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’ (extended choir outro) (from 2023 ‘Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’ album)
‘Quiet In The South’ (unreleased, probably going to be on the forthcoming tentatively titled ‘The Right Person Will Stay’ album)
‘Vertigo: Scène D’Amour’ (Bernard Herrmann song)
‘Howl’ (Allen Ginsberg poem – pre-recorded) (video interlude with hologram of Lana)
‘Young And Beautiful’ (from 2013 ‘The Great Gatsby: Music from Baz Luhrmann’s Film’ album)
‘Summertime Sadness’ (from 2012 ‘Born To Die’ album)
‘Born To Die’ (from 2012 ‘Born To Die’ album)
‘Venice Bitch’ (tour debut, contains elements of ‘Taco Truck x VB’ version) (from 2019 ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’ album)
‘Diet Pepsi’ (Addison Rae cover) (with Addison Rae) (from 2025 ‘Addison’ album)
‘57.5’ (with Addison Rae) (unreleased, probably going to be on the forthcoming tentatively titled ‘The Right Person Will Stay’ album)
‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ (John Denver cover)
