Lenny Kravitz performs on stage for his globally praised Blue Electric Light Tour at Spark Arena, Auckland. Photo / Anna Heath
Varsha Anjali watched the American rock god do something unexpected at his first New Zealand show last night – pour his heart out to one Kiwi woman. Again and again.
There were only two questions I thought I needed answering as I headed to Lenny Kravitz’s debut show at Spark Arena in Auckland on Saturday. Has he still got it? And will the new stuff be any good live?
His bangers were bangers when I was a kid. Some before I was born. Aside from the infamous 2015 wardrobe malfunction in which he accidentally exposed himself to a crowd in Sweden, I hadn’t heard much from the music legend in some time.
It turned out these questions at Kravitz’s first show in New Zealand couldn’t be less important. The 61-year-old has nothing to prove.
After a spectacularly mesmerising 45-minute set by local star and Kravitz-idoliser Troy Kingi, the silver-bangled American rock god appeared through a mist of electric blue. The colour of the night.
Clad in light denim bell bottoms, a backless tank top, an electric blue leather jacket and those iconic round sunglasses, Kravitz kicked off the Blue Electric Light tour with the high-energy of Bring It On.
He exuded heat. He dripped 70s swag. Sometimes, he tugged down at his jeans with his thumb. At one point he took the knee. No one in that packed stadium, full of members of the 35-and-over club, had a choice. You could only swoon.
When Kravitz finished the fourth song, Always On The Run, he spoke to the audience for the first time.
“What! New Zealand! All I can say is, what is wrong with me that it took me my whole life to get here? New Zealand, I feel your love. I feel your power. I needed this. I’m in love already. There really is nothing like love at first sight, is there?” he gushed.
“You’re not going to be able to get rid of me now. My friends, my family, what a blessing it is to be here with you, after 37 years.”
Kravitz was the snake charmer. We were thousands of swooning snakes. Albeit really shy ones? Whenever Kravitz prompted an audience sing-along (the first one happened during Stillness of Heart), Kiwis failed him. It was hard to watch. It was harder to listen.
Still, Kravitz knew this was a well-meaning crowd. Reserved but keen as anything. The showman quickly warmed us up after throwing in hits like It Ain’t Over ’til It’s Over, Again, American Woman, Fly Away and Are You Gonna Go My Way, traversing through the rim of the ground floor, touching hands of fawning fans.
But what stood out most of all at this profoundly brilliant show was someone who wasn’t on the stage. The camera never showed her face. But we know her name.
“This is for Sophia,” Kravitz said, before taking to the piano and performing the loving track I’ll Be Waiting.
He was talking about Sophia Malthus. A Kiwi lawyer and disability advocate in her late 20s. Malthus suffered a spinal cord injury and became quadraplegic after a horse-riding accident when she was 19. In 2023, she started documenting her life in the reality show series This is Wheel Life.
After throwing in this beautiful one-liner “I’m Lenny Kravitz and I’m never leaving New Zealand”, Kravitz brought up Malthus again at the end of the night.
“I am truly humbled. This has been one of the most incredible nights of my life. Just to come somewhere I’ve never been. And to feel so much love and beauty from you. We are all one people. And I feel you so, so deeply,” Kravitz said shortly after the crowd stamped their feet in demand for an encore.
“Another reason that I’m so happy to be here is, there’s someone here in the audience tonight who is a huge inspiration to me, a huge source of strength and power.
“We just met for the first time a couple of days ago. We have been DMing for eight years and I would like to dedicate this evening to you, my friend, Sophia Malthus. I love you. And now the time has come to sing our mantra, our prayer, our desire for planet Earth.”
He closed with Let Love Rule, a magnetic 20-minute number that showcased the deep ocean of love and care between Malthus and Kravitz. We felt it. We swam in it.
“It felt very special to have Lenny say such kind things about me so publicly, he is an incredibly lovely and generous person and I am so grateful to have him in my life,” Malthus told the Herald.
“We connected eight years ago and will definitely continue to stay in touch.”
There’s so much in this masterfully polished show that made your heart burst. One of the world’s greatest rock stars dedicating his first show in the country to an impressive Kiwi woman doing amazing things was unexpected. And bloody cool to witness.
Varsha Anjali is a journalist in the lifestyle team at the Herald. Based in Auckland, she covers culture, concerts and more.