Lana Del Rey live at Rock en Seine in Paris: a perfect late-summer return to Europe

The dust has barely settled on the city of love and light, but its residents were off to the races again last night to witness another great taking centre stage. Having been dazzled by the sublime acrobatics of Simone Biles and buoyed by the meteoric rise of local-boy Leon Marchand, impressing a notoriously nonchalant crowd on the verge of an Olympic comedown is no mean feat. Unless you’re Lana Del Rey that is, whose own brand of old-Hollywood nonchalance has earned her a fair share of critics over the years. Evanescently ethereal as dusk descends over the western suburbs of Paris, her brilliance is no longer up for debate.

2024 has been a momentous year for Del Rey. From headline sets at Coachella and Hangout Festival in Spring, she delighted sold-out crowds at I-Days in Milan and Primavera Sound in Barcelona and Porto, before returning to America for a debut stadium show at Fenway Park. As fans awaited in anticipation, the heavens opened and gale force winds swept through Boston, resulting in a frenzied evacuation of the Red Sox stadium. Eventually she took to the stage at 10.30pm, weathering the thunderstorm with a brilliant albeit shortened set and an appearance from rapper Quavo on their new track ‘Tough.’ All in a day’s work for the dreamy chanteuse from Lake Placid. There must be something in the water.

When Del Rey returns to Europe for the opening ceremony of this year’s edition of Rock En Seine, it feels more like a victory lap. From the eerie opening notes of ‘Body Electric’ to the last billowing chorus of ‘Young and Beautiful,’ her vocals are rich and true, delivering a narrative spanning 13 years and 9 albums with otherworldly elegance. Adorned with poetic lyrics and enough artistry to fill the Louvre, she carries the torch of past greats like Nancy Sinatra and Harry Nillson, her cinematic romanticising of Americana and America itself, both ironic and iconic in equal measure. There’s great humility too, she addresses the crowd with genuine appreciation and a rare vulnerability not befitting for a star of her stature. For one of the world’s greatest living songwriters, it’s a highly seductive formula. Even when 20 minutes late.

Taken from Del Rey’s critically acclaimed third album ‘Ultraviolence,’ the breathy, blues grind of ‘West Coast’ sets the tone early on, and the insatiable slow waltz of ‘Summertime Sadness’ prompts the first mass singalong. ‘National Anthem’ is missing from the set, but ‘La Marseillaise’ has echoed through these streets so often this summer, there’s no sadness here. She radiates old-school movie-star glamour on ‘Ride,’ before dialling back the grandiosity for an intimate rendition of ‘Chemtrails over the Country Club.’

Flanked by 3 backing vocalists and featuring a nod to some of music’s greatest uncredited singers, gospel-inspired namesake ‘The Grants’ is a moving tribute to treasured family moments, past and present. There’s a beautiful, cascading version of ‘Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd,’ a poignant, piano-driven rendition of ‘Arcadia,’ and then there’s ‘Video Games.’ A song that sounds as perfect today as it did when you first heard it on the radio in 2011, and even better with 40,000 devotees crooning it’s every syllable in unison. Heaven is a place on earth for a few short minutes, and as the crowd disperses and trickles out the aptly named Parc de Saint-Cloud, it’s better than we ever even knew. Rare moments to savour in increasingly bleak times.

Lana Del Rey played:

‘Body Electric’
‘Without You’
‘West Coast’
‘Doin’ Time’
‘Summertime Sadness’
‘Cherry’
‘Pretty When You Cry’
‘Ride Monologue’
‘Ride’
‘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’
‘Video Games’
‘hope is a dangerous thing for a women like me to have’
‘A&W’
‘Young & Beautiful’