Lorde delivered a passionate, energetic performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on the Gentilly Stage during the event’s first weekend. She blended elements of her past and more recent albums in a concise 75-minute set.
In her third studio album, “Solar Power,” Lorde sang about her love for the earth, the sun, and all things beachy. In music videos, she’d dance barefoot around sandy beaches, singing about throwing her phone in the ocean. Her fourth and most recent album, “Virgin,” shifted to a colder metallic tone, its album cover a sterile blue x-ray photo of her IUD. Songs discussed her eating disorder, her breakup, her fears, and her indulgences. Lorde’s performance at Jazzfest seemed to combine these two eras.
The fairgrounds baked in the sun, and the audience was bathed in the haze that results from springtime pollen + disturbed racetrack sand (very “Solar Power”). The audience had a high density of Gen Z women dressed in the Jazzfest uniform-boho-cowboy attire (very “Solar Power”), yet the crowd was pretty quiet during the Solar Power songs, joining in to sing for bigger hits like “Royals” and “Green Light.” Lorde’s lack of set pieces or background dancers, while pretty standard for most artists’ festival performances, was very “Virgin.” The band, dressed mostly in blacks and whites and clad in sunglasses, was locked in on their instruments, not playing up to the audience for attention. This minimalist, avant-garde attitude? Very “Virgin.”
This casual air defined Lorde’s look at the festival, braless in a baby tee and slouchy white jeans that hung just below her briefs. Her makeup consisted of streaks of silver paint on her fingertips (not just fingernails, of course, but the skin too), as well as across her eyelids. Her accessories were limited to a carabiner of trinkets hung from her belt loop and her signature water bottle, a $170 stainless steel bottle that she’s posted about several times.
At the beginning of her career, Lorde often got into drama for her opinions on the messages in other artists’ music, and she recently faced controversy for her mention of the Pamela Anderson/Tommy Lee tape in the creation of “Virgin.”
In 2022, videos of her shushing the audience at live shows for a moment of micless acapella vocals on her song “Libaility” went viral. Some felt she was being rude, some thought it was embarrassing for her, and many thought both. Lorde responded to the drama by sending a video to a fan account to post.
“That dramatic ass move was literally for an album called Melodrama, so don’t stress too hard,” Lorde noted in the video, which she recorded in bed with her sleeping mask still on.
There is something refreshing about the fact that Lorde is a celebrity entertainer who doesn’t seem like she’s performing all the time. So many live pop shows are a fine-tuned production with choreography, perfectly coiffed hair, and tailored sequin outfits (a la Sabrinachella or the Eras tour), which, to be fair, are awesome and very fun to watch. However, this show felt like Lorde was communicating to the audience through her art, rather than trying to sell a character.
The singer didn’t perform many speeches or moments of audience interaction during the set, only a quick quip about loving New Orleans and missing out on a meal at a local restaurant: “Everyone told us Lil Dizzy’s was where it’s at, so we showed up. Only to find out it was closed.” The performer laughed in her Kiwi accent. It wasn’t really a joke, nor a deep message–it felt more like the first thing that popped into her head.
Lorde has spoken about feeling intense anxiety around performing earlier in her career, yet she feels more comfortable in front of audiences at this stage of her life. She even tried to arrange an impromptu concert in Central Park last year, and instead of her fears stopping her, it was the New York City police doing crowd control.
Towards the end of her Jazzfest performance, she pressed herself right up against the barricade, grabbing the hands of fans in the front row. For the final song, “Ribs,” she appeared at a smaller platform, more in the middle of the audience, doing her signature thrashing dance moves just feet from fans.
Mic in hand, dark curls flying, this was the most evolved version of Lorde that audiences have seen yet, still singing about youth and passion, insecurity and love, but with a confidence in her stripped-down self that the culture desperately needs right now. At this moment in time, Ozempic is everywhere, every celebrity has a makeup brand, and no one dares to step on a red carpet or stage without a spray tan, veneers, and My-Little-Pony-level hair extensions. Seeing someone sing about their deepest, darkest feelings, with acne scars on their face and their original teeth in their mouth, and receive so much support from the crowd, showed that authenticity just may be ready for a comeback.
