Singing the body electric with Lana Del Rey

Singing the body electric with Lana Del Rey. Image Gareth Cattermole

Best known for her hypnotic vocals and Americana aesthetic, singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey’s UK and Ireland Tour 2025 broke records. We catch up with the team behind the tour’s AV tech

Words Katie Kasperson

Lana Del Rey has been churning out hits for over a decade, with her melancholic, Americana music finding its audience both at home and abroad. After releasing her latest studio album – Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd – Del Rey brought her distinctive sound across the Atlantic, marking her debut as a UK and Ireland stadium headliner and making her the region’s biggest-selling touring solo artist of 2025.

The singer-songwriter, best known for tunes like Summertime Sadness, Video Games and Young and Beautiful, bases her brand on a retro, American aesthetic. Her lyrics linger on themes like money, drugs and desire, while her music videos take on a vintage, filmic style akin to old Hollywood – and often incorporate religious imagery, too.

Her live performances extend this look even further, with her latest tour featuring a major set-build: a Southern gothic-style, slightly weathered house, complete with a porch swing and an Eden-esque garden where the band was stationed. An evolution of her previous stage design that debuted at Stagecoach Festival earlier in the year, the set played nicely with her more recent music, which has strong roots in country and folk. Del Rey’s husband comes from Louisiana, so it’s likely she’s been spending more time – and finding greater influence – in the American South.

Blue banisters

Tour manager Emily Holt asked Stufish’s Ric Lipson (the company behind Adele's Munich residency) to lead the stage design and creative direction, collaborating with lighting designer Darien Koop and video designer James Lockey in order to develop a cohesive visual experience. Creative Technology supplied the LED screens, projections and holograms; while Nlitedesign Ltd, Green Hippo and Motion Impossible contributed to the tour’s final output too.

“We were involved early on this year, when the show design was being dreamed up,” begins Tesni Kerens, project manager at Creative Technology. “The main part of the brief that applied to us was the on-stage screens, which made up the backdrop and surrounded the house with custom visuals and content. We also thought about the projection elements, as there was a desire for the house to be brought to life using projection, as well as some hologram sequences.” In the end, they opted for LED and IMAG screens, built using Roe Visual 5Q6.2 panels, with CB3 screens delivering the holographic video.

LED screens were used on either side of the stage to stream live footage. Image Stufish

At various points throughout her set, Del Rey would briefly leave the stage for an outfit change and a hologram would replace her in the upstairs window, performing Bluebird, Howl, Arcadia and/or Norman F*cking Rockwell –depending on the date. Holographic technology has an increasing presence in live music, bringing both living and deceased musicians back on stage.

“We did some previsualisations,” continues Kerens, “looking at different ways of doing the wraparound of the on-stage screens and projection studies for how we would light up the house with projected content.” Creative Technology’s adaptability enabled additional holographic projection and LED elements. “We helped the creative team and talent execute the show they had so carefully designed.”

Lipson and Del Rey planned the tour’s look, parsing pictures of homes across America and noting their architectural similarities and differences. They landed on a blue and green house that looked lived-in, decorated with vintage pieces – like a rocking chair, lantern and rake – accessorising the porch and lawn. The house’s front steps led all the way to a short catwalk with a splash pool at the end, while willow trees and a white trellis adorned either side of the stage.

The set suited the country and folk influences in her music. Image Stufish

Lipson and his team at Stufish designed the staging so that it wasfully functional – as it would be in a Tennessee Williams play, perhaps. Del Rey and her singers and dancers could move freely about the property, going inside the house and even onto the roof. The lights, supplied by Christie Lites and designed by Koop, could be flipped on or off, flickering with the music at times, while the backdrop revealed a starry night sky, a thunderstorm or a cloudy haze. Rotating lamps lined the stage’s edge, and LED screens on either side streamed live video footage.

Million dollar moves

As per Chelsea Fearnley, head of marketing and brand at Motion Impossible, this video content was captured and fed to ‘those huge LED screens that now dominate modern gigs’ by the camera movement company’s Agito modular dolly system, which proved to play a pivotal role during the UK and Ireland Tour 2025. “Without it, the fans in the nosebleeds would’ve been squinting at a dot in a dress. It powered the experience in real time,” explains Fearnley.

“With Agito, the audience received panoramic camera moves – coasting in front of the stage one second, rising over dancers and pyros the next – throwing angles onto the screens that were justas alive as the show itself,” she continues.

Agito’s modular dolly system offered panoramic camera moves. Image Stufish

Agito’s modular dolly system offered panoramic camera moves

Agito’s modular dolly system offered panoramic camera moves. Image Roberto Ricciuti

In sports mode, Agito can move quickly and hit its mark with absolute accuracy – which proved to be the case during Del Rey’s performances. The dolly also features MagTrax – “which uses a simple strip of magnetic tape to guide the camera,” Fearnley shares – allowing Agito to repeat moves and sync with lights, cues and choreography. “All of this is done safely, without disrupting the artist,” Fearnley confirms. What’s more: “The audience – whether they’re at the back of the stadium or not – gets to experience a concert that feels more like a film.”

Video games

Nlitedesign Ltd’s Phil White specified and supplied the tour’s media servers, selecting Green Hippo’s Hippotizers to handle the job. Having worked with Lana Del Rey for 15 years, White opted for two Hippotizer Tierra+ MK2 and two Boreal+ MK2 servers to support her and the production team’s lofty goals.

“The original brief called for a three-part stage LED wall and IMAG screens, but we quickly expanded that,” he said in a press release. “To achieve this ambitious range of visuals, the Tierra+ MK2 handled playback of four full 4K outputs, including HD feeds from the camera team for live IMAG displays. The Boreal+ MK2 powered the on-stage hologram projectors, LED screens and the set’s house window TV.”

The lights, by Christie Lites and designed by Koop, could be flipped on and off. Image Stufish

Integrating the Hippotizers with a GrandMA3 console and controlling everything via DMX, White used Green Hippo’s SyncManager technology to create timecodes. He also turned to the company’s OutputMapper, VideoMapper and LiveMask features to configure and manage camera feeds.

Off to the races

Lana Del Rey’s concerts are shaped more by their sound than anything else. While her soft voice wouldn’t necessarily stand out as a stadium contender, her music has an epic quality that lends itself to large performances.

Sound Image, a Clair Global brand, handled all things audio, recruiting front-of-house mixer Dani Munoz (Enrique Iglesias, Snoop Dogg) and system engineer Chris Demonbreun (Imagine Dragons, Zac Brown Band) to lead the team. Sound Image president Jesse Adamson called Munoz and asked him to sign on, while Demonbreun was already involved and on the ground. “A couple of hours later, I was on the way to Europe,” recalls Munoz, who immediately accepted the offer.

After he arrived, Munoz “headed straight to the site and built a showfile using the previous show’s multitracks,” he says – the ‘previous show’ being April’s Stagecoach Festival in Indio, California. “I had a decent mix ready within a few hours. Soundcheck was nerve-racking for everyone, but the first show went well, so they asked me to stay!”

Del Rey was the biggest-selling touring solo artist of 2025 in the area. Image Joe Okpako

Meanwhile, Demonbreun “started with Lana back in the spring of 2024 for her headlining Coachella performance,” he shares. “This tour was different; it was not a conventional stadium show. There were a lot of scenic elements, plus a fast-paced schedule.”

Kerens agrees. “The schedule was tight, so moving a show of that scale between venues presented its own challenges.” To mitigate any hiccups, “we had an advance team who went ahead of us to ensure we’d be on track with our build. This definitely helped – it was a great call made by the production team,” she concludes.

With the UK and Ireland Tour 2025 also being Del Rey’s first stadium run in the region, “it was a big task for everyone involved,” admits Munoz. “Emily Holt is a powerhouse who has previously stepped up to enormous challenges. She was supportive and always made sure we had what we needed, as she knows how complex our jobs can be.”

Stadium arcadium

The UK and Ireland Tour 2025 included stops at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, Glasgow’s Hampden Park, Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium and Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, ending with two sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium in London. “We knew we would have to cover every possible seat in these huge stadiums,” recalls Demonbreun. “Lana is a delicate singer, but we needed to use speaker hangs that would cover the audience. With help from Sound Image, Britannia Row Productions and L-Acoustics – plus Dani’s mixing skills – we pulled it off.

The Boreal+ MK2 powered the on-stage hologram projectors, LED screens and window TV. Image Stiffish

“When choosing what to use for the PA, Dani and I discussed a few options,” Demonbreun continues, “but we felt L-Acoustics was the best choice with the wide variety of speaker elements, the control we were able to have with Panflex technology, the ability to run the whole system with AVB (audio-video bridging) and, with L-Acoustics, you get a true Hi-Fi audio system. Lana’s music deserves the best system available,” he concludes.

Munoz echoes this. “A PA’s signature sound is most evident when you have to mix on different systems, especially when it comes to vocals,” he explains. “To me, it was clear that L-Acoustics suited her best. That was the biggest piece of the puzzle.”

With every arena being its own acoustical beast, the audio team had to carefully consider how each one might impact Del Rey’s sound. Munoz relied on plug-ins, noise-reduction processors and other techniques to keep her microphone stable “amid so much sonic chaos,” he describes.

During each show, Del Rey sang atop a 20-foot platform that happened to sit directly in front of a stadium-sized PA system – “which meant that her mic was getting hit by the longer-throw boxes,” explains Munoz. L-Acoustics’ Soundvision software allowed the audio team to minimise reflections, while the Panflex technology reduced spill and enhanced throw. The crew also used L-Acoustics L2 and L2D speaker arrays to balance delays across the audience; dozens of X8s, Kara IIs, A10s and A15s as fills and, finally, P1 processors for time alignment and precise system tuning.

Living legend

Munoz and Demonbreun both agree that working with Del Rey was unique – she’s a talented singer, sure, but “she has an incredible ear,” says Munoz. “It’s uncanny how she can hear the slightest changes that I make on my mix while she’s on stage.”

L-Acoustics was considered to be the best choice. Image Gareth Cattermole

L-Acoustics was considered to be the best choice. Image James Lockey

“She is attentive to detail and knows exactly what she wants,” Demonbreun adds. “I love that she tells us what she feels, and she is always right about the sound of things.”

According to Munoz, “she’s particular about her vocal effects, so I make sure her sound and vision are presented 100% the way she intends. I rely on classic FX units like Bricasti Design and Eventide. Sometimes, she will even send me screenshots from her studio sessions in order to recreate a specific sound with plug-ins,” he reveals.

“Dani was able to give her exactly what she wanted,” shares Demonbreun, “and I was glad to be there for support. Every stadium tour is a lot of hard work. The audio team stepped up and made these shows happen,” he concludes. “We were able to deliver her signature sound.”

Once again, Munoz concurs. “It was definitely a challenging tour; I am my own worst critic, so I will always be working to improve, but it was a win for everyone.”

This feature was first published in the Winter 2025 issue of LIVE.