RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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All it took was hearing the world “Girl” repeated a few times to know what was coming next. Rumors had been swirling all day that Charli xcx was going to pop up in Lorde’s set, especially with the “Brat” star teasing as much in a Reckless Records in-store appearance earlier in the day.
Still, no one seemed prepared for it to actually happen.
As the two electro pop queens launched into a hot take duet of “Girl, So Confusing,” the crowd absolutely erupted with shock and awe.
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When it was released in 2024, Charli’s song was an open letter about being compared to another woman in the music industry, specifically Lorde, but tonight it took on new meaning. Seeing the two join forces on the track and end with a sincere embrace was symbolic of the whole Lollapalooza weekend.
With a bill dominated by women artists, the collab was the ultimate display of girl power and set the standard for all the other unexpected bits to come over the weekend.
For Lorde, it was also one more way to help “complete the circle” of her Lolla journey that began in 2014 when she was just 17. Then, in 2017, she returned for a set that got cut short due to weather. Nearly a decade later, she finally owned the moment Thursday night with a masterful performance that showed how far she has come.
Lorde performs in the rain on day one of Lollapalooza in Grant Park, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017.
Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times
Lorde slipped in abbreviated takes of the songs she knew she had to, like “Royals,” to allow time for the other material she wanted to really focus on, particularly from her latest album “Virgin.” The record is a stark body of work about bodily autonomy and personal rebirth, and Lorde laid herself bare on songs like “Broken Glass” (about an eating disorder), pairing it with a set that was just as raw and stripped back.
She also went "way back” with early cuts like “Buzzcut Season” and “Ribs.” And she also had the opportunity to finally do “The Louvre,” the song she was apparently “most looking forward” to performing at Lolla in 2017 before the weather interrupted.
Beyond the well-curated set list, at the heart of the performance was a rumination on humanity trapped in a world that seems to keep wanting to sterilize existence. The New Zealander started the 20-song suite hooked up to machines that were monitoring her vitals while video screens took a bird’s eye view of the dizzying amount of electronics on the stage that produced the night’s synth explosion. Symbolically, though, the juxtaposition felt like the ultimate clash of people vs. robots.
Lorde has often talked about her disdain for AI — taking Meta Glasses and Spotify to task in recent diatribes — and she opened up on her stance in her Lolla set, too.
“The future looks a little bit different than I imagined. It’s harder and darker. I dream about fire all the time now, and I’m scared. But us meeting up and dancing and crying and singing to each other, that is one of the best ways I have to feel alive,” she told the crowd. “I’m sorry to say it’s going to get harder and darker, but we can stay awake, we can stay alive . . . I want you to ask yourself every day, am I acting trapped or do I wish I could be acting free?”
The speech was part necessity — Lorde was trying to buy time and give security a chance to attend to fans in the crowd who kept passing out from a combination of the day’s high temps and the wall of bodies that were pressed up near the stage.
But it also felt right on cue as a takeaway for caring about each other in these dire times. “We gotta stay awake in this moment . . . it’s ours and it’s beautiful,” she added. “And I promise I’ll keep singing to you through all of it.”
For more on Lollapalooza:
Lollapalooza 2026 kicks off in Grant Park — Day 1, what to know
Photos: Lorde, John Summit headline Lollapalooza Day 1
Ahead of Lollapalooza performance, Charli xcx meets fans for a chat at Reckless Records
Review: Sombr , with margarita in hand, struts into Lollapalooza like he owns the place
SET LIST
Royals What Was That Broken Glass Perfect Places Shapeshifter Buzzcut Season Favourite Daughter The Louvre Current Affairs Hard Feelings/Loveless Oceanic Feeling Liability Hammer Supercut Team Man of the Year Girl, So Confusing (with Charli xcx) Green Light David Ribs
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