Lorde returned to Melbourne with The Ultrasound World Tour, with Lorde transforming Rod Laver Arena into a theatre of confession, connection and fearless reinvention.
by Paul Cashmere
When Lorde first played Melbourne as a teenager on the rise, she was the quiet disruptor from Auckland with a sharp pen and a cool detachment that set her apart from pop’s polished machine. More than a decade on, her return to Rod Laver Arena on Saturday night confirmed how far that journey has travelled. The Ultrasound World Tour is not a victory lap. It is a deep excavation.
Now 29, Lorde, born Ella Yelich-O’Connor, stands as one of the most distinctive songwriters of her generation. From the minimalist bite of Pure Heroine to the widescreen emotion of Melodrama and the sunlit introspection of Solar Power, each chapter has marked a deliberate shift. The current era, framed around her fourth album Virgin, may be the most exposed yet.
The show opened in near darkness with the industrial pulse of Hammer. A low bass rumble shook the floor before Lorde rose slowly from beneath the stage, framed in smoke and a solitary blue laser cutting across the arena. It was stark and theatrical, yet controlled. Within minutes she pivoted to Royals, the song that changed everything in 2013. Placed second in the set, it felt less like a nostalgia play and more like a shared ritual, with 14,000 voices taking over the chorus.
Virgin underpins much of this production. Lorde has described her role as digging deep and revealing the secrets in her soul. The record confronts unwanted pregnancy, eating disorders and gender fluidity with disarming clarity. That candour shaped the entire night. The visuals were intentionally raw. Handheld camcorders operated by Lorde and her dancers projected grainy close ups onto towering screens. The effect was intimate, almost intrusive, as if the arena had been turned into a private rehearsal room.
Her band provided a muscular electronic backbone. The sound design leaned into distortion and weight, replacing the breezy textures of Solar Power with something denser and more urgent.
There was nothing static about the performance. During Broken Glass, deceptively bright in melody, Lorde stripped away her belt to a roar from the crowd, using the moment to underscore the song’s emotional fracture. Later, as Current Affairs bled into GRWM, she shed her jeans and performed in underwear pouring water over herself. She told the audience that GRWM was written in the shower, and if she was going to sing it truthfully, she needed to feel that same environment. Glitter clung to her skin under the lights, the cameras capturing every detail.
Melbourne has long held a special place in Lorde’s touring history. Australian audiences embraced her early, and she acknowledged that bond during a mid set pause, sitting barefoot at the edge of the stage to reflect on starting out as a teenager navigating sudden global attention. That vulnerability extended to reworked versions of Oceanic Feeling and Solar Power. Once breezy and warm, they were recast with darker synth textures that aligned more closely with the high voltage charge of the new material.
The emotional peak arrived with Green Light, still one of the defining pop songs of the past decade. The arena shifted into full release mode as lasers framed Lorde sprinting across the stage. For Supercut she climbed onto a treadmill, jogging while delivering the vocal with striking control, a physical metaphor for the restless energy that runs through her catalogue.
One of the most arresting images came during Man Of The Year. Lorde taped her chest flat with silver duct tape, confronting ideas of gender and identity head on. In the crowd, fans mirrored the symbolism, wearing phoenix pins and custom cyanotype tees, small talismans of this chapter in her evolution.
For the encore she moved to a B stage near the sound desk, slipping into the audience during David before closing with Ribs. When she instructed the crowd to get their feet off the floor, 14,000 people jumped in unison. The room felt unified, breathing as one.
Lorde’s authority comes from conviction, from the willingness to stand exposed and trust the audience to meet her there. The Ultrasound World Tour at Rod Laver Arena was a masterclass in how pop can be both monumental and deeply personal, all at once.
Lorde Remaining Australian Tour Dates
February 25, 2026, Perth, RAC Arena
https://www.frontiertouring.com/lorde
Setlist
Hammer (from Virgin, 2025)
Royals (from Pure Heroine, 2013)
Broken Glass (from Virgin, 2025)
Buzzcut Season (from Pure Heroine, 2013)
Favourite Daughter (from Virgin, 2025)
Perfect Places (from Melodrama, 2017)
Shapeshifter (from Virgin, 2025)
Current Affairs (from Virgin, 2025)
Supercut (from Melodrama, 2017)
GRWM (from Virgin, 2025)
400 Lux (from Pure Heroine, 2013)
The Louvre (from Melodrama, 2017)
Oceanic Feeling (from Solar Power, 2021)
Big Star (from Solar Power, 2021)
Liability (from Melodrama, 2017)
Clearblue (from Virgin, 2025)
Man of the Year (from Virgin, 2025)
If She Could See Me Now (from Virgin, 2025)
Team (from Pure Heroine, 2013)
What Was That (from Virgin, 2025)
Green Light (from Melodrama, 2017)
David (from Virgin, 2025)
Encore:
Ribs (from Pure Heroine, 2013)
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