“E aua,” sings Lorde intently, eyes scrunched shut, a familiar melody playing beneath, “Kohore ana pea aku mata.” This is her single Stoned at the Nail Salon – one of the most thoughtful and moving cuts from her 2021 album Solar Power – as many people will not have heard it before: sung in Te Reo Māori, the indigenous language of Aotearoa (latterly, New Zealand). Duetting alongside her countryman and support act Marlon Williams, this is the first time Lorde has performed the track, titled Mata Kohore, live. And it’s just one of a series of shiver-inducing moments in a set replete with emotion.
Tonight’s sold-out Alexandra Palace date marks the very end of Lorde’s UK tour. This time last week, she played the same song – in English – at Glastonbury, flanked by Arlo Parks and Clairo. In this vaulted greenhouse of a north London venue where the midsummer evening light gradually fades into dusk, there is a palpable sense of a performer reaching some kind of sunny upland. But it’s a hard-won victory.
