Lorde - Lollapalooza Chicago - 30/07/2026

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After a sweltering, sunny day at Chicago’s Lollapalooza, more than 100,000 beating hearts eagerly await the culmination of the night: a headlining set by the author of many of our teenage anthems. Lorde’s stage is ready to go, coupled with the Chicago skyline and a setting sun. The Windy City blows a cool breeze through the packed crowd, an apology to soothe the unrelenting heat of the day. As the clock strikes one minute closer to 8:30 PM, the scheduled start of her set, the buzz of anticipation among festival-goers becomes palpable.  Right on cue, the native New Zealander appears on the huge double screens flanking the stage.

In true Lorde fashion, the camera pans to a heart monitor, seemingly connected to her, before a snippet of a rumored unreleased song begins playing. Through the deafening cheer from the crowd, you can hear her transition into a much more familiar tune as she sings the first few lyrics of Royals. After a small pause of disbelief, the crowd joins her in a unified choir. She does not dwell on this hit for long, though, because ahead of her lies an hour-and-thirty-minute set. She seamlessly transitions between hits from her wildly successful debut and sophomore albums, Pure Heroine and Melodrama, and instant classics from her most recent release, Virgin. The songs paint a striking picture of a music career spanning more than a decade, but more importantly, they intimately recount a remarkably human life.

It is not difficult to find oneself in a Lorde song, whether it is in the melancholy recounting of suburbia that Pure Heroine employs, or in the much more intimate relationship with herself that Virgin explores. There are multiple emotionally charged moments throughout the set, but one that will forever exist within my memory occurs about halfway through the show, when she performs one of her most raw and honest ballads, Liability. While singing the first verse, she is suddenly illuminated by a projection of herself, albeit a much younger version. One can venture to guess how much Lorde still resonates with the words she is singing, but in this moment it becomes clear that the person standing before us is no longer the same person that is projected across her abdomen. The song, along with the visuals, transports us to the incredibly intimate and vulnerable space where Lorde resides while performing. It is impossible to attend a Lorde show without feeling like you weren’t part of a very secret and sacred ritual, shared by thousands of willing participants.

Perhaps the most talked-about portion of the show occurs a few songs later, when the iconic chorus of Girl, so confusing begins playing right after a striking performance of Man of the Year, giving the crowd mere seconds to catch their breath before the one and only Charli XCX joins Lorde on stage to work it out on the remix. Charli is set to headline the following day, but she gives the crowd a sneak peek into what they can expect from her own set. As we inch closer to the end of Lorde’s headline set, we are all keenly aware that there is one song missing, and yet as the first note of Ribs echoes through Grant Park, it is difficult to grasp the enormity of the moment.

There exist rare occasions when you realize what you are about to experience will occupy a small corner of your soul forever, and you tell yourself you better make that moment count. So I stood, a single beating heart in a sea of thousands, turning one year older on this exact day, and next to me was the person I had always dedicated this song to. As Lorde wove through the Lollapalooza crowd, we were no longer looking at her, but at each other. You’re the only friend I need; sharing beds like little kids, we’ll laugh until our ribs get tough.