Lorde
Spark Arena, Auckland, NZ
Wednesday, February 11th
The cicadas roared in Tāmaki Makaurau on Wednesday evening, a fitting welcome for Lorde opening the Aotearoa leg of her world tour.
By mid-afternoon, fans lined the outskirts of Spark Arena, clamouring for tuck-taped, dog-collared hats by Ryder Jones and clutching handmade signs: WELCOME BACK HOME, ELLA.
A brief hush fell over Spark Arena before a laser beam shot skyward, slicing the dark. Then came the cerulean-blue glow: an electric wash that turned the full room of 12,000 faces into a sea of underwater light.
Lorde emerged to orbit-shaking screams, opening with a stark, pulsing new cut: “There’s heat in the pavement, my mercury’s raising / Don’t know if it’s love or ovulation.”
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By the second song, she’d already received a standing ovation. The entire arena became her backing choir, every lyric of “Royals” sung back with rib-reverberating pride. (We cannot ignore that Lorde’s lyrics have been the soundtrack to so many moments in all of our lives.)
“Welcome to Ultrasound,” she grinned. “This is our very first show of 2026… and I have such a good feeling about tonight… we have a lot to catch up on.”
Edging us on, the camera caught close-up shots of her unbuckling her belt, symbolic of Lorde finally letting go, taking it all off.
A giant industrial speaker loomed as the show’s monolith, at times swallowing her whole, at others framing her like a relic in a futuristic shrine. An X-ray-like heat map tracked her body across a descending screen; lasers cut through haze; blue light haloing around her head in a visual echo reminiscent of the Solar Power album cover.
From blue hues came red. This was it. She was fully taking them off — her pants, that is.
Kicking off her jeans and pacing the stage barefoot in boxers, she laughed, “Wow, it’s hot in here.” In true Kiwi style, her dogs were out, firmly planted on the stage. She threw herself from side to side, lunging from left to right, before collapsing onto her back and dragging herself across the ground, her forehead glistening in sweat and glory.
Just when it seemed the workout was over, she jumped on the treadmill for “Supercut”, turning the arena into a full-body Les Mills class.
After all that exercise, she grabbed her iridescent chrome water bottle. “She’s more famous than me,” she joked, holding it up to the camera.
Screens lit up with her silver-painted fingers sliding across her dripping torso, silver nails gripping the silver microphone, emblematic of the silver fern.
“On stage at other shows, I say that this song is from a faraway place called Aotearoa. But now, here I am,” she said as “Hine-i-Awatea / Oceanic Feeling” trickled steady through the air.
“This is pretty special, Auckland… I’m always particularly excited and nervous for the Auckland show because — I mean, you know why… I can’t hide anything from you. You know me to my core.”
When “Liability” began, thousands sang “[y]ou’re a little much for me,” belting out a shared wound. Little girls perched on dads’ shoulders, way past bedtime.
And then a glaring beam cast itself across centre stage, as if she were about to be abducted by aliens. But no, Lorde wasn’t taking off to space — she had just landed, her spaced, futuristic sounds echoing through the stratosphere.
The ground shook as the crowd sang “What Was That?” in harmonic unison. It felt like MDMA, pure ecstasy. The collective high was visceral.
Lorde then ran down side of the stage wearing a glowing armour, made out of what looked like solar-powered batteries, making an illuminated path through the sold-out crowd to where she popped up near the controls to deliver her last track “Ribs”.
“Auckland, you have fucked me up tonight,” she beamed. “Thank you for loving me for 12 years.”
This was a homecoming — not just for a superstar, but for the thousands who’ve grown up alongside her. Lorde has soundtracked our coming-of-age.
On Wednesday night in Auckland, she proved she’s not done evolving. And neither are we.
Check out Lorde’s remaining New Zealand and Australia tour dates here.
