Culture Reporter
Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s Grand National tour rolled into London on Tuesday night, setting a new standard in how to create the ultimate stadium experience.
Its an art form that some of the world’s biggest stars are yet to perfect, but the pair breezed through their 52-track setlist at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, stripping back the gimmicks and distractions to focus on their epic back catalogues.
The California rapper and Missouri singer-songwriter have already broken records with the biggest co-headline tour in history, consisting of 39 shows across North America and Europe.
It serves as one big celebration of their recent achievements – Lamar’s hit album GNX and SZA’s deluxe edition of SOS, which both came out in 2024.
On paper, bringing together two of the world’s biggest artists in a joint show – rather than consigning one to a support slot – should be a guaranteed success. Just look at the numbers – they have a combined monthly listnership on Spotify of150 million after all.
But bear in mind that these are two artists with wildly different performance styles and subject matter – SZA is melodic and ethereal, whilst Lamar is punchy and fired up.
SZA sings about her past relationships and her struggles with finding self-worth, whilst Kendrick explores social commentary, his upbringing and ever increasingly, his enemies.
Yet as they switched between sets, offering up five to six songs each in the early stages of the two-and-a-half-hour show, you realised that the shared headline slot was working.
It’s clear the pair worked tirelessly to create a show that feels seamless – Lamar brought an intensity to the first act with tracks such as King Kunta and ELEMENT, which were punctuated by constant bursts of fire and pyrotechnics.
When the pair swapped over, the energy remained high, with SZA tearing through hits such as 30 for 30 and Broken Clocks, which were reworked to feel punchier.
The simplicity of the set design, which featured large moving screens on the main stage and a circular platform, allowed the focus to remain on the two artists.
Parts of the sets are punctuated with dancers, but both artists spent the majority of their sets out on their own, drawing full attention from the audience.
Their 10-year working relationship was certainly evident in the duet sections of the show, in which the pair came together seamlessly to perform All the Stars, one of the evening’s highlights and more recent collaborations Luther and Gloria.
With any tour that features more than one headliner, it’s difficult to determine the audience split, but the London fans greeted both performers with the same adoration.
The crowd’s energy for some of Lamar’s earliest songs was electric, with mosh pits erupting throughout the standing areas for Backstreet Freestyle and family ties.
Lamar was certainly captivating throughout, notably performing without backing vocals to showcase his impressive rap flow and breath control.
Several elements of the stadium show were borrowed from his Super Bowl half-time show from February this year, which was seen by more than 120 million people.
The crowd appeared delighted to see that many of the viral dances from that performance had made it to the tour, with the choreography during the track Peekaboo providing maximum entertainment.
His sets were also interspersed with marching band snippets, which are not only prevalent on Lamar’s GNX album, but also helped to recreate the big American stadium atmosphere that his music lends itself to.
Watching Lamar as he stalked across the vast circular platform, he commanded every single audience member with his presence – there were no costume changes, no dance routines, just a rapper at the very top of his game.
He was at his most intense when he performed his diss tracks, which also elicited the biggest reaction from the crowd.
The 38-year-old’s year-long rap beef with Drake has been incredibly well-documented and whilst he may have showed a little restraint during his Super Bowl show, none of that was on display tonight.
His performance of Euphoria – a track in which he lyrically expresses his hatred for the Canadian rapper, was particularly cutting,
But Not Like Us, Lamar’s most commercially successful diss track and his most vicious takedown of Drake, was by far the biggest highlight of the night.
It came as song 50 of 52 on the setlist and it’s was clear the audience hadn’t just been waiting all night for it, but probably since they booked their tickets many months ago.
Who knew that a track centred around calling Drake a paedophile (something he strongly denies) could create the best atmosphere the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has seen in years.
Whilst Lamar’s stage set-up was understated, SZA got a little more creative when it came to her production elements.
Her individual sets were based around nature, with dancers appearing throughout dressed as anything from trees to giant insects.
SZA also performed several songs on the back of what appeared to be a giant green ant sculpture, before climbing into a harness and ascending the stage with huge butterfly wings.
Despite creating an out-of-this-world environment on-stage, tonight’s performance saw her at her most natural.
After her disappointing Glastonbury headline slot at last year’s festival, much of the discourse surrounded whether she understood British audiences and was able to connect to them.
That doubt was put to bed from the very start of her performance, which displayed her true talents as a confident and multi-talented artist.
The 35-year-old connected with the crowd instantly, serenading them with fan favourites such as Scorsese Baby Daddy and F2F.
In comparison to her Glastonbury headline slot, there was one similarity – she again suffered technical issues on Tuesday evening, appearing to struggle with her in-ear monitors throughout.
However, this didn’t affect her vocals at all, which were beautifully crisp, even during fairly complicated dance choreography.
Her stage presence was impressive, as was her ability to adapt her slower songs so that they dovetailed perfectly with Lamar’s frenetically paced sets.
Perhaps the greatest highlight of her set came towards the end of the evening, as she lulled the crowd into an almost dreamlike state with Snooze.
She then told the crowd how it was “crazy how you can go from being engaged to complete strangers” before she sang ballad Nobody Gets Me.
After performing three of her own separate sets, which included songs from albums Ctrl, SOS and its recently updated deluxe version, SZA appeared once more to end the show with Lamar.
They finished with two love songs – Luther and Gloria, before disappearing beneath the stage in a prop car, basically the production equivalent of riding off into the sunset.
