★★★★★

Lorde hit Manchester on her Ultrasound World Tour on November 15th, and what a show it was. Washing the AO Arena in blue hues, she moved artfully through a setlist that spanned four albums.

What unfolded was less a concert and more a collective release; an evening where fans slipped between the eras of the Kiwi pop stars evolution, celebrating each shift in sound and self. Lorde’s performance felt intimate, despite its scale, her voice cutting through the visual haze as she wove together the raw of her teenage years, the ecstatic of her recent late 20’s, and the quietly devastating moments in between that have defined her career so far.

As one of my favourite artists, I have been desperate to see Lorde for years. Like many, it was ‘Pure Heroine’s’ hit ‘Royals’ that reeled me in, but it was her brutal honesty, the thread stitching its way through her entire catalogue, that made me stay. And I was thrilled to find that same honesty in her performance. She interacted with the crowd like she was genuinely excited to be there with us, and to be sharing her music with those who wanted nothing more than to scream her lyrics back at her.

Lorde stayed gracious in her interactions with the crowd, repeatedly professing her fondness for Manchester, and, notably, her happiness in her own life. She opened with ‘Hammer’, her ode to city living, and the arena erupted as they screamed back the line, “today I’ll go to Canal Street, they’re piercing my ears.” It was an early jolt of electricity, the kind of shout-along that set the tone for the night, a night of warmth, loudness, and deep connection.

Lorde’s tour setlist alternates between the nostalgia of ‘Pure Heroine’, the youthful screams in ‘Melodrama’ (with Green Light a moment of pure euphoria), the softer ballads found in ‘Solar Power’ (with Oceanic Feeling a standout), and the empowering, full body release of ‘Virgin’. Her newest album feels happier and freer, a reclamation of her body and soul, and it dominated the setlist. I cried, I laughed, and I was overwhelmingly relieved to be there with a friend, because that is what her music feels like. Friendship, love, and screaming those lyrics with those you feel both for.

Switching up ‘No Better for 400 Lux’ was a smart decision for the Manchester crowd, who were clearly thirsty for something a little more exhilarating. But there was plenty of the expected, too. Who hasn’t seen clips of the New Zealand singer pounding away on a treadmill during ‘Supercut’? It felt as though Lorde struck the perfect balance between the familiar and the surprising, doing whatever she pleased on stage, from whipping her hair and trashing around, staring down the camera she held, breaking a sweat as she ran, or holding a flare above the crowd like a Calvin Klein clad Statue of Liberty.

But it was the emotional arc of the evening that lingered. Manchester responded not just to the hits, but to the catharsis embedded within them. The crowd found release in the soft and the severe, in the cracks of vulnerability and the bursts of euphoria. By the encore, the arena felt unified, and not by spectacle, but by shared understanding.

Toward the end of the show, Lorde parts the crowd clad in a glowing, ethereal jacket to ‘David’, the closing song of her fourth studio album. It was both smart and bold to enter the crowd to such a slow, reflective track. There was a respect in how the crowd let her move through them — a magical energy that simmered rather than surged. And, of course, we all knew what was coming next: the final, full-bodied blowout of screaming along with her still waited.

Ending with ‘Ribs’ and introducing the song with, “let’s sing the oldest and most precious song we have”, was the perfect way to close the night. It felt like a full circle, of the journey the fans have taken with her, with themselves, with the people they entered the AO Arena alongside. It was beautiful and fun and fleeting in the best way, and I would live that moment a thousand times over if I could.

Lorde has always been a curator of feeling – good or bad - and in Manchester she delivered a show that balanced ambition with honesty, euphoria with heartbreak, and memory with the present. ‘Ultrasound’ may be her most visually sculpted tour yet, but its power lay in how human it felt. On a cold November night, she gave Manchester a space to breathe, to remember, and to be together with strangers.

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