Wearable cameras have been creeping into live music spaces for years, but rarely has a performer responded quite this bluntly.
On Thursday, July 9, Ella Yelich-O'Connor, known professionally as Lorde, performed at the Mad Cool Festival in Madrid and spoke up against smart glasses. "Increasingly in our world it gets harder and harder to know what is real," the pop star said onstage. "You don't know if someone is wearing sunglasses or if they're wearing those fucked up fucking... Can I just say, for the record, 'Fuck the Glasses.' Don't get the glasses. Not sexy."
While Yelich-O'Connor could have been talking about any of the smart glasses currently on the market, Ray-Ban is a sponsor of the festival and had a presence onsite. Blackpink's Jennie, a global ambassador for Ray-Ban x Meta, performed directly after Lorde on the main stage, having appeared in advertising campaigns on Instagram promoting the glasses and in a promotional video screened between sets at the same event.
That juxtaposition gave the moment a sharper edge than any typical artist sound bite.
Yelich-O'Connor, a New Zealand singer-songwriter known for her unconventional style of pop music and introspective songwriting, has built a career around resisting industry convention. Her breakout single "Royals" spent nine weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and sold 10 million units worldwide. In June 2025, she released her fourth studio album, Virgin. Her skepticism toward tech and celebrity culture is well documented.
What she objected to onstage has real technical teeth. Ray-Ban Meta glasses include a built-in camera, open-ear speakers, microphones, and Meta AI voice assistance that allows users to capture photos, record videos, make calls, and ask questions hands-free. The tension is showing up in more public spaces: unlike a phone pointed at someone, AI glasses look like ordinary eyewear.
In a blog post the same week, Meta said it is updating the second-generation smart glasses so the camera will shut off if the device detects the LED that lights up during recording has been tampered with or destroyed. The update arrived because users were going to extreme lengths to modify the eyewear's built-in privacy light, in some cases paying willing technicians to drill out the feature. At the same time, the Financial Times reported that the company is testing prototype "super-sensing" glasses that would collect continuous audio and take photos every few seconds.
Whether performers can actually stop concertgoers from wearing these devices remains unclear. Private businesses can set conditions of entry and ask patrons to remove smart glasses or leave. Concert tickets almost always contain terms prohibiting professional recording equipment, and using smart glasses to record a performance would likely constitute a breach of contract with the venue and a violation of copyright law. But enforcing those rules against eyewear that looks indistinguishable from standard sunglasses is a different problem entirely.
As wearable recording technology becomes more prevalent, expect more venues to grapple with similar policy decisions. The increasing backlash is reminiscent of Google Glass, which launched more than a decade ago and eventually disappeared due to social stigma. Samsung and Google will release their own pair of smart glasses later this year, in partnership with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster.
There is also the paradox Lorde's critics flagged online: condemning a product on a massive stage can function as free advertising. Every viral clip of her rant doubles as a reminder that AI glasses exist and are culturally relevant enough to provoke a celebrity. She called the glasses "fucked up" and "not sexy," which is precisely the kind of cultural verdict that no amount of influencer marketing easily reverses. Whether it boosts Meta's brand recognition or damages it likely depends on who is watching.
Earlier this year, Meta was named in a lawsuit alleging that intimate moments captured by users' smart glasses were later viewed by workers in Kenya reviewing material to help train the company's AI models. With legal pressure mounting and competing products from Samsung arriving soon, the fight over what counts as a camera at a concert is just getting started.
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