Lorde performed the song at the 2014 American Music Awards on 23 November 2014. She began the performance by singing inside an "orange-lit box". Halfway through the song, the box was lifted, revealing Lorde wearing a white crop top and black pants outfit to the audience. She was accompanied by a group of white-clad dancers. She ended by smearing her lipstick on-stage. The performance was highly praised, particularly Lorde's stage presence and was considered one of the night's best by several publications. Miles Raymer of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the performance an A, writing that despite being the show's "most awkward moment", Lorde delivered a "dose of bracing weirdness". "Rolling Stone" compared her "thrashing and headbanging" to the music video of Nine Inch Nails' 1994 song "March of the Pigs". The publication also praised the singer's "exquisitely intimate and intense" moments inside the box in which she performed.