LORDE MAKES A TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO SYDNEY WITH HER 'ULTRASOUND TOUR'

Image: Sam Penn.

From the moment Lorde appeared on stage at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena, shrouded in lasers that cut through the darkness, she had the arena in the palm of her hand. The singer performed the first of two shows at the arena last night, marking her first shows in Sydney since 2023.

There was no bombast for its own sake; every movement, every lighting cue and every camera angle felt deliberate. Her voice, earnest and unwavering, carried the confessional intimacy that has long defined her songwriting. The pairing of her raw vocal performance with her diaristic lyricism created a sense of closeness that belied the scale of the arena. It felt less like thousands of people in a room, and more like old friends catching up after years apart. “I’ve been looking for ward to playing in Sydney for so long… you guys just get it,” she told the crowd, smiling as waves of cheers washed over her. 

The stage production elevated that intimacy rather than overshadowing it. Screens and live video were the true starts of the visual design. Throughout the performance, Lorde interacted with the cameras as if they were scene partners, her dancers doubling as roaming camera operators. Cameras were stationed everywhere - on stage, down in the pit with her band, throughout the arena - feeding split screen visuals that layered perspectives in real time. At one point, a rectangular stage prop transformed into a mirror through clever camera work, reflecting the singers image back at herself and the audience simultaneously. It was dynamic, immersive and refreshingly innovative. 

Lasers beamed across the arena ceiling and int the stands, while lights flooded the crowd in perfect syncopation with each songs peak. 400 Lux was accompanied by foghorn-like beams that sliced through the darkness, amplifying the songs droning into with a sense of vastness. Blue dominated the performance - cool, clinical, X-ray-like in tone - before Green Light detonated into a wash of vivid emerald, bathing the arena in the colour. 

Whilst the setlist centred largely on Lorde’s fourth studio album, Virgin, it was curated to reflect the full arc of her catalogue. Breakout anthem Royals drew one of the loudest sing-a-longs of the evening, its minimalist swagger undiminished by time. Green Light was as euphoric and feral as ever, while new material like What Was That and Man of the Year slotted in seamlessly alongside fan favourites Buzzcut Season, The Louvre and Liability. In a nod to the Australian summer, she added Solar Power into the set - performing the song alongside her band in their pit. The balance of all these songs was meticulous: nostalgia without stagnation, evolution with alienation. 

As always, Lorde’s physical presence was magnetic. Those signature, sporadic dance moves rippled through the show in the most self-assured manner. She moves like someone enraptured baby their own music, chasing its rhythm wherever it led. There were moments of more choreographed movement too. She was also reflective, repeatedly thanking Sydney for “twelve years of love and support” and for allowing her the space to grow and change. 

Later in the evening, she articulated that growth in a speech that encapsulated her ethos: “I really feel like Sydney is such an open city. You’re kind of down to fuck around and find out, you know? And that’s why you’re my people, because I’m not the kind of woman who is gonna proceed upon one straight path her whole life. I’m gonna take a zig, I’m gonna take a zag. I’m gonna not really know where I’m going for quite a long time and be kinda freaked out about it and then find the path again, you know? And I think that’s what we’re doing here Sydney. I think that’s why we’re still meeting up like this after twelve years. Because it’s my job to reach really deep inside myself and excavate all the sort of secrets that are locked in my soul, and I offer them up to you with one eye closed kind of like “I don’t know, is this too much?” And you say no and you take them, and you make them your own.” 

It was a reminder that the mythos of Lorde has never been about spectacle. It’s about excavation - of youth, of womanhood, of doubt and desire - rendered in language so specific it becomes universal. Though she is proudly Kiwi, tonight felt like a homecoming - a thought she herself admitted. Sydney embraced her not as a visiting icon, but as an old friend returning with new stories to tell. Looking around the arena, there were tears, laughter, and the kind of collective experience that feels like a shared memory being rewritten in real time. 

Few artists can capture life minutiae so intricately, yet make them feel so widely understood. Fewer still can evolve so boldly while bringing their audience with them. On the Ultrasound Tour, Lorde proved once again that her art doesn’t simply soundtrack growing up - it grows alongside you.