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. <\/p>\n
Lenny Kravitz. Photo \/ Anna Heath.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
When Kravitz finished the fourth song, Always On The Run, he spoke to the audience for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat! 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\u2019m in love already. There really is nothing like love at first sight, is there?\u201d he gushed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Troy Kingi. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n
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\u2019t Over \u2019til It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
But what stood out most of all at this profoundly brilliant show was someone who wasn\u2019t on the stage. The camera never showed her face. But we know her name.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is for Sophia,\u201d Kravitz said, before taking to the piano and performing the loving track I\u2019ll Be Waiting.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Sophia Malthus. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
After throwing in this beautiful one-liner \u201cI\u2019m Lenny Kravitz and I\u2019m never leaving New Zealand\u201d, Kravitz brought up Malthus again at the end of the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am truly humbled. This has been one of the most incredible nights of my life. Just to come somewhere I\u2019ve never been. And to feel so much love and beauty from you. We are all one people. And I feel you so, so deeply,\u201d Kravitz said shortly after the crowd stamped their feet in demand for an encore.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother reason that I\u2019m so happy to be here is, there\u2019s someone here in the audience tonight who is a huge inspiration to me, a huge source of strength and power. <\/p>\n
Kravitz with lead guitarist Craig Ross on the left and bassist Hoonch “The Wolf” Choi on the right. Photo \/ Mia Ross<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt 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,\u201d Malthus told the Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe connected eight years ago and will definitely continue to stay in touch.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s so much in this masterfully polished show that made your heart burst. One of the world\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Varsha Anjali is a journalist in the lifestyle team at the Herald. Based in Auckland, she covers culture, concerts and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clad in light denim bell bottoms, a backless tank top, an electric blue leather jacket and those iconic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[81842,10179,81839,9111,81832,93,9945,2685,61,60,81835,81831,21662,3679,81830,81833,81837,278,45135,81841,640,81834,8166,484,81836,330,18541,81838,81840,16959,9450],"class_list":{"0":"post-142531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-again","9":"tag-american","10":"tag-anjali","11":"tag-auckland","12":"tag-dedicates","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-first","15":"tag-heart","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-kiwi","19":"tag-kravitz","20":"tag-last","21":"tag-lawyer","22":"tag-lenny","23":"tag-lovefilled","24":"tag-malthus","25":"tag-music","26":"tag-night","27":"tag-pour","28":"tag-rock","29":"tag-rocknroll","30":"tag-show","31":"tag-something","32":"tag-sophia","33":"tag-to","34":"tag-unexpected","35":"tag-varsha","36":"tag-watched","37":"tag-woman","38":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}