A fun night with pop's new favourite poet
Lucy Harbron
11:27 29th April 2022

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Baby Queen knows how to put on a show. Despite being a new star in the grand scheme of things, the indie-pop artist commands the stage like she’s being doing it for years. From the first second to the last, the movement between big hits and intimate moments feels like watching a recipe for success come together, like Bella has figured out the formula for being the world’s biggest pop star.

Supported by Kayla grace and Phoebe Green, the two sides of the headliner are perfectly catered to. Balancing big hitter catchy choruses with intensely lyric-heavy, poetic verses, Baby Queen has one foot firmly in pop and the other in avant-indie as she manages to climb the ladder in both. Even some of her biggest singles such as 'Wannabe' and 'Buzzkill' have the crowd reciting lyrics like they’re at a slam poetry competition, as Bella struts round the stage confident in her brand of pop’s new favourite intellectual. 

But that isn’t to say she’s pretentious. Leaning into the crowd to demand introductions from her audience members and even appearing on stage way after the lights have come up to say a heartfelt thank you to long-standing fans that have come to several shows on the tour - the south-african singer isn’t letting the sudden boom of her success affect her ego, and her fans seem to have a near para-social obsessive love for her as they eat up and cheer on her every word. As she sinks into a stripped back version of her latest track 'Colours Of You' from the show Heartstopper, the cast storm the stage like her number one fans. Audience members grab their friends and sing along as the pride anthem is screamed at the top of their lungs despite only being a week old. Love seems to bounce around, filling the room with the kind of excited yet respectful admiration that you want to feel at every gig, the kind that makes you clutch your chest in awe then clap even louder.

While intense fandoms can often make a room feel weird for an outsider, it’s hard to imagine anyone not having fun at a Baby Queen show. Whether you only know 'Want Me', or you’ve memorised the lyrics to every album cut, her undeniable excitement on stage and the strong-grip hooks that make every song as catchy as the last mean that everyone and anyone is dancing along. And our sore feet felt like a souvenir from an all-round good time.

See photos by Katie McLellan-Salisbury Below:

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Photo: Katie McLellan-Salisbury