Lana Del Rey debuted at Glastonbury on the Pyramid Stage in 2014. The weather had been hot and sunny, but with her kohl-smudged eyes and film noir aesthetic, Lana dragged an air of doom and gloom onto the stage (which I personally LOVED!). This was her Ultraviolence era, an album that signified a more electronic, melancholy sound from the singer, so it’s understandable that her performance made waves for being so sad! At this point in her career, Lana had been ridiculed a lot in the press, so it’s natural people were quick to judge her performance, and you can tell there was a distracted, faraway nature to her performance. Perhaps she was suffering from a mid-music career crisis? Many fans came to her defence after the performance, citing that her close friend and collaborator, Bobby Womack, had passed away a mere few hours before her performance. However, I thought it was a very angelic and charming performance, but, as is the fashion with Lana, the performance wasn’t for everyone.
In March of this year, Lana was revealed to be headlining the Other Stage in her return to Worthy Farm, but she threatened to cancel after upset over the poster. The Pyramid Stage headliners, such as Elton John and Arctic Monkeys, were given top billing, and Lana’s name was featured on the seventh line down due to the alphabetical ordering of performers. She wrote ‘Well, I’m actually headlining the 2nd stage. But since there was no consideration for announcing that we’ll see.’ Luckily nothing came of that and she did in fact perform… thirty minutes late! Her hair-related delay meant she sped through an outstanding setlist before the sound was cut off after an hour. This meant she was unable to perform her biggest and most anticipated hit, ‘Video Games’. After looking genuinely devastated and apologising to her devoted fans, Lana joined the crowd in a very sweet rendition of the hit! It was a beautiful set but overshadowed by the wait time.
I’d love for Lana Del Rey to return to Worthy Farm in the future, but that’s assuming the relationship between Lana and Glastonbury is intact!
