Lana Del Rey Details Behind-The-Scenes Chaos Leading Up To Coachella Performance
Lana Del Rey has revealed that disaster struck in more ways than one before her Coachella headline performance over the weekend.
The singer closed the show on the main stage at the California music festival on Friday (12 April), where she performed fan favourites like Summertime Sadness, Chemtrails Over The Country Club, and Video Games, which featured a surprise appearance from Billie Eilish.
However, the Grammy nominee has since revealed that behind the scenes, the fate of her performance was very much up in the air, telling fans that she was struggling with laryngitis just hours before taking to the stage.
Opening up about her set in an Instagram post, Lana said she rehearsed for her Coachella show in a chilly warehouse, where “it was so cold that I caught laryngitis that literally left just a few hours before I hit the stage”.
Lana also accused her former tour manager of 15 years who of quitting around a month before her performance with seemingly no notice.
The alt-pop star thanked her singers and guest stars like Billie, Jon Batiste and Jack Antonoff, along with a team member called Emily for “stepping up as tour manager when Pete quit for no reason” after 15 years.
Elaborating on the falling out, Lana claimed her old tour manager was “butt hurt that I got 10 comped bikes for free” from stunt coordinator Wally Crowder, and “randomly decided he was more of a stage designer than a tour manager”.
The artist made her entrance and exit to the stage on a motorbike, under Wally’s watch.
She continued: “Never got a phone call probably never will. Still grateful for the 15 years though. No worries – 37 days was more than enough time to put together an entire headlining set all by ourselves. Not stressful at all. Way to go Emily you fucking killed it with Grace.”
Lana also thanked her managers, Ben and Ed, for “making me laugh the entire way through everything for my whole freaking life even though none of it ever makes any sense”, before adding: “PS please send me an email If you decide to quit this year – 15 years is a long time for us too.”
“Love you,” Ben responded in the comments, before joking: “No emails, you don’t read them.”
On Friday, Lana’s headline set receivedmixedreviews from both fans and critics, with some attendees reporting sound issues and low energy from the alt-pop star.
The singer first played Coachella 10 years to the day before returning to the stage for this year’s performance.
During the show, she introduced Billie to perform the star’s own song Ocean Eyes as well as a duet of Video Games.
In other Coachella news, Grimes issued an apology to her fans after her Coachella set was plagued with technical issues, while Blur frontman Damon Albarn had some choice words for the crowd after a lukewarm reception.