Anyone that knows me knows that I love Lana Del Rey.
I distinctly remember the moment I first heard her song “Radio” one fateful summer, and this discovery—to put it lightly—changed my life. I became a fan of hers after that moment, but my true obsession began in 2021 with the release of her album Chemtrails Over The Country Club.
Since then, she has been, without exaggeration, my all-time favorite artist. I have successfully indoctrinated both my sister and my best friends into falling in love with her music, and for the past six years, she has been my number-one artist on Spotify. Even more than that, each of those years I have been anywhere between the top 0.1% and 0.01% of her listeners on Spotify; this past year alone, I listened to 19,441 minutes of her music.
All of this is to say that her music truly means the world to me; therefore, as you can imagine, the news that she was headlining Coachella this year sent me into a literal spiral.
While I did not have the chance to attend Coachella this year (even though I would have given anything to go), I did watch Lana’s entire set on the YouTube livestream last Friday, which was an incredible experience nonetheless. My best friend back home is one of the first people that I got into Lana’s music, and it was such a full circle moment to be frantically texting one another throughout the entire livestream, freaking out over each new song and guessing what she might sing next.
From the get-go, I knew that Lana’s performance, which came exactly ten years after her first show at Coachella in 2014, was going to be a statement. Debuting her new blonde hair and wearing a sparkling blue dress, she and her background dancers rode to the stage on motorcycles—a quintessentially Lana Del Rey entrance—with an unreleased song called “Jealous Girl” playing in the background. Featuring a gothic Gatsby-esque mansion, stripper poles, and nods to Old Hollywood glamour, Lana’s stage design was also a perfect complement to her multi-faceted aesthetic and unique setlist.
On that note, for those of you who are also obsessed with Lana or for those wanting to get into her music, her Coachella setlist was as follows:
- Without You
- West Coast
- Doin’ Time
- Summertime Sadness
- Cherry
- Pretty When I Cry
- Ride (with the Monologue!)
- Born To Die
- Bartender
- Chemtrails Over The Country Club
- The Grants
- Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
- Norman fucking Rockwell
- Arcadia
- Candy Necklace
- ocean eyes
- Video Games
- hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but I have it
- A&W
- Young And Beautiful
Not only did Lana perform songs that I never would have anticipated her singing at Coachella (“The Grants,” “Arcadia,” and “hope is a dangerous thing…”), but she also brought out three guests: Jon Batiste, Billie Eilish, and Jack Antonoff. Jon Batiste joined Lana in singing their song “Candy Necklace,” Billie Eilish and Lana both sang Billie’s song “ocean eyes” and Lana’s song “Video Games,” and Jack Antonoff played the piano for Lana’s hologram version of “hope is a dangerous thing…” This setlist, coupled with the incredible guest performances, was simply magical.
Speaking of magic, as I mentioned earlier, Lana’s album Chemtrails Over The Country Club holds a special place in my heart, and the titular song on that album is my favorite Lana song ever. So, hearing her sing “Chemtrails Over The Country Club”—even through a livestream 1000 miles from the actual show—brought me to tears.
The incredible background dancers, the callbacks to her heavily-criticized 2012 SNL performance, and the eerie music that she exited the stage to (“A1 – It’s just a burning memory” by The Caretaker) are just a few of the hundred other things I could mention about her awe-inspiring performance. However, if you’ve made it this far, then I suggest you instead tune in to the YouTube livestream tonight, April 19th, as Lana takes the stage for her second weekend as a headliner!
I hope you have all enjoyed my thoughts on LANACHELLA! And, if you aren’t a fan already, go listen to some Lana Del Rey songs! Like, right now. I mean it.