Lana Del Rey's Endless Summer Tour an 'Artistic Masterpiece'

Singing into the crowd with the voice of an otherworldly angel, Lana Del Rey has been stunning crowds during her performances for her Endless Summer tour which kicked off May 7 in The Woodlands, Texas and will continue until her final performance on June 16 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The croony and sultry singer has just finished her 3 shows in California and is now on her way to perform her next two shows in Washington. I was lucky enough to attend her show in Chula Vista (San Diego), California and listening to her performance was one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard with my own ears. The star definitely attracted a younger crowd, a majority of them being girls who all adorned hand-crafted flower crowns on their heads. The smell of marijuana was prominent in the air, but that didn’t detract from the gorgeous set that had been set up for Del Rey’s performance. Two New York style buildings glowing in a blueish light were set up on either side of the stage, while “Del Rey” was lit up in glowing Hollywood style lights.
Before Del Rey even performed however, her tour partner Courtney Love played a few songs to get the crowd ready for Del Rey. Just compared to Del Rey herself, Love was a bit of an ear sore to listen to as most of her songs were screamed loudly into the microphone. Love seemed either drunk or supremely high because when she talked to the audience it was with a slurred type of speaking and quite a few naughty words were said.
However after waiting what seemed quite a while to see Del Rey, she finally came onstage dressed in a pretty red dress and immediately went straight into her first song which happened to be “Cruel World” from her most recent album Ultraviolence . Del Rey didn’t speak to the audience as much as Love did, however there was no need because all the audience kept craving from Del Rey was her voice.

Every time she began a new song, the crowd would scream with delight once they recognized which one of her iconic songs it was. Del Rey sang popular songs from her albums Born To Die, Ultraviolence and even her extended play Paradise. The songs that got the most love from the crowd were of course her most popular “Summertime Sadness,” “Born To Die,” “Blue Jeans,” “Cola,” and from her newest album, “West Coast,” and “Brooklyn Baby.”
Del Rey surprised the crowd with two cover songs and one of her unreleased songs that had never been sung live before. One of the cover songs was Leonard Cohen’s “Chelsea Hotel No. 2.” This slow and soft song suited her voice perfectly and you could hear her emotions coming out through her singing.

The other cover she performed was “ Why Don’t You Do Right.,” by Peggy Lee, however it is mainly popular from the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? where the sexy Jessica Rabbit sings the song to the night club. The song was a perfect fit for Del Rey because she almost embodies Jessica Rabbit herself with her sultry, seductive and bluesy voice. Hearing her sing that song was a nice surprise that no one was expecting from her and fit perfectly in the mix with her other songs.

Her unreleased song “Serial Killer,” was leaked before it was ever to be released, so true fans of Del Rey were going crazy once they heard her begin to sing the song.

Perhaps my favorite part of the concert, besides Del Rey herself, was the way in which the videographers captured live footage of her singing and mixed it with some of her music videos to create a gorgeous compilation in the background. They mixed the footage of Del Rey and then added special effects to it, to make a very “drug-trip” feel and honestly it was beautiful to look at while simultaneously listening to Del Rey’s voice. In a way it was almost like one was in a dream state.
Overall, the concert was amazing. Anyone who doubted whether Del Rey could sing or not will certainly be proved wrong by this amazing tour she is doing throughout the country. The only downside was that I wish she could have sang more of her songs. I could have listened to her for much longer than just one hour. Maybe next time less opening act and more Del Rey.