Lana Del Rey Glastonbury 2023: Watch footage of ‘Young and Beautiful’
Lana Del Rey played her hit ‘Young and Beautiful’ as part of her eagerly anticipated set at Glastonbury Festival 2023.
Lana Del Rey, who was due to play on the Other Stage between 22:30 and 23:45, was unexpectedly delayed by 30 minutes as the crowd were forced to wait. The result, as we now know, was that the show would be cut short due to the delays and Glastonbury’s strict curfew. Performing a career-spanning set that features old songs and more recent efforts, at one point in the short show, Del Rey played her 2013 track ‘Young and Beautiful’.
The song, which saw Del Rey join forces with hitmaker Rick Nowels, was originally used for the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s film The Great Gatsby. Upon release, the track was received well with various nominations, which included ‘Best Song Written for Visual Media’ at the 56th Grammy Awards.
The song was not without its controversy at the time, however, with a reported “outrage” from fans after the Academy Awards overlooked Del Rey for an Oscar nomination that year. Multiple reports at the time discussed speculation Del Rey’s effort was “sabotaged” rather than simply missing out on merit.
“It was an honour to work with Baz Lurhmann on his amazing adaptation of one of the most extraordinary books ever written,” Del Rey would later reflect. “He asked me if I could write a memory cue for Daisy. So I sang him a chorus of ‘Young and Beautiful’ that I had already—just a chorus—and he thought that’d be good for her. I wrote the whole thing after I watched her garden scenes. The movie is highly glamorous and exciting; Rick Nowels and I were thrilled to write the song for the film.”
Del Rey chose to look back on this time in her career for her performance at Glastonbury, which was met with rapturous applause and loud screams.
In March this year, Del Rey was forced to clarify the confusion surrounding her performance at Glastonbury Festival 2023. While Del Rey was confirmed as being on the line-up by the organisers, she cast doubt on her role in the event following perceived bewilderment caused by the official poster. “Thanks for announcing that I was headlining the other stage. Thumbs up,” she sarcastically wrote on social media.
“Well, I’m actually headlining the 2nd stage,” she added. “But since there was no consideration for announcing that we’ll see.” The issue was quickly rectified when Glastonbury released a revised poster, with Del Rey’s name higher on the bill alongside the likes of headliners Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses and Sir Elton John.
Del Rey’s return to Worthy Farm has been a long time in the making, with the American singer revealing that she rejected the chance to play at the festival three times before this year, feeling she wasn’t ready for such a notable performance. “They had asked me to play Glastonbury the last three years but we just weren’t ready. I didn’t want to say yes before we had a big band,” she BBC Radio 1’s Clara Amfo.
When discussing the performance, Del Rey added: “I’ve been excited to tell people, so I wanted to tell people because, as we started to announce some festivals, its unfathomable to me to headline the second stage of Glastonbury.”
Watch the performance of ‘Young and Beautiful’ below.
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