On Sept. 25, award winning artist Lana Del Rey held a concert at Tampa’s MidFlorida Credit Union Ampitheatre, gracing everyone with her angelic vocals and beautiful background dancers. Featuring songs from a wide range of albums, she did not hesitate to put on an unforgettable performance.
Lana Del Rey first started releasing music in 2008 under the name Lizzie Grant, but it wasn’t until 2012 when her sophomore album “Born to Die” was released that she started gaining recognition, especially with the album’s first song “Video Games” which ended up becoming her breakthrough single. Now, she is known all over the world with 10 albums released including Honeymoon, Lust for Life, and her most recent release, Did You Know There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.
The concert started at 8 p.m. with American country singer Nikki Lane opening. Most known for her country sound and aesthetic, Lane played songs such as “Highway Queen” and “700,000 Rednecks”. During her set a black and white display of Lane played, matching the mood of many of her albums.
About 45 minutes after Lane finished her set, Lana Del Rey made her entrance. The stage was set up with a piano, two white silk arches for the dancers, and of course the iconic flower swing. Lana came onto stage wearing a gorgeous white dress with black cowboy boots and subtle white bows in her signature beehive hairdo. She opened with a shortened version of “Norman F***ing Rockwell,” lead song from her 2019 album and “A&W,” a hit from her most recent album. During the intro, she mixed a variety of lighting colors, with a background display of the ocean and roses that seemed to flow with the energy of her first two songs.
As the concert continued, she sang “Young and Beautiful” a song featured in the 2013 movie rendition of “The Great Gatsby”. The song gives a sorrowful depiction on whether young love will last and wanting to be loved forever. She followed “Young and Beautiful” with the song “Bartender” from her 2019 album Norman F***ing Rockwell, another song that takes listeners through the world of love and desire. Later she played “The Grants”, the opening song from her most recent album that includes the vocalization from three women who appeared in “20 Feet from Stardom”: Melodye Perry, Pattie Howard, and Shikena Jones.
Moving forward, she performed heart-wrenching songs like “Chemtrails Over the Country Club”, “Pretty When I Cry”, “Cherry”, and “Video Games”. Throughout the set, a variety of videos were played on the screens that mirrored the song’s aesthetic. Lana Del Rey’s dancers also did multiple costume changes throughout the show, starting in all black bodysuits with fishnet stockings and ending a denim corset with flower detailing, denim shorts, and boots.
Towards the end of the concert, Lana surprised the crowd by performing “Florida Kilos”, a song not on the original setlist but highly requested by the crowd, as many members in the pit had signs requesting her to perform the song. The crowd roared as she played Florida’s tribute song twice, promising to come back to Florida to perform the song again saying, “I’m just gonna have to come back and do an even bigger show”.
Overall, the concert was an almost spiritual experience as Lana beautifully performed her songs, with almost no difference from studio versions of her music. The environment overall was amazing, and it was an experience I will remember for a long time.
To listen to all the songs on Lana’s setlist and more, visit the Spotify playlist below.