On Tuesday night, the 16th of September, 2025, Haiden Henderson was back in Utrecht for the second time during his first headline tour through Europe, the ‘Tension Tour’. The 175 capacity venue was sold out in no time, and while walking up to the venue outside it was hard to miss the fans. Despite the day’s cold and windy weather, excitement was high and could be felt like electricity in the air.
Not long after everyone had gotten inside and warmed up with the pre-show playlist, it was time for the opening act of the night: FLAVIA. She entered the stage looking like an anonymous bride, with a lace mask covering her face and a glittery veil that matched her red and black outfit. This veil and the mask came off after her first song, revealing her bright red hair and eliciting cheers from the crowd. FLAVIA set the tone for a space full of positivity and love, as she repeatedly called the crowd beautiful throughout her set. She even encouraged everyone to take a moment to breathe and listen to what their bodies are saying, before going into her song ‘Body Speaks’, a song about how our bodies tell us what we need but we don’t always listen.
FLAVIA ended her set by giving away merch to three lucky fans through a raffle people could sign up for during her set. After announcing the winners, she went for one more song: “For this last one, let me see you shake what your mamma gave you!” she yelled out, before starting her song ‘Ripe’. The crowd went wild, and it’s safe to say that FLAVIA successfully warmed up the crowd for Haiden Henderson.
Right before Henderson finally came on stage, the pre-show playlist played a song that made everyone go wild: ‘Baby’ by Justin Bieber. During his earlier tour through Europe as the opening act for Emei, Haiden came out during her set to sing ‘Baby’ to prank her, in a way, so this song being on the playlist definitely gave many fans a throwback to this moment.
As Haiden finally took the stage, he started his set with the song both the tour and his newest EP were named after: ‘tension’. As the title track, both new and older fans knew all the lyrics, and thus the crowd was loud and singing along. The same went for the next song, ‘Lovesucker’, after which Haiden challenged the crowd: was the Sunday or Tuesday night in Utrecht louder? Determined as that made everyone, the cheering and singing got even louder from this point.
Haiden provided for a good deal of fan service, as he tried his best to read all the signs people held up. A fan yelled out to call him a diva, and he popped out some model-like poses, prompting the crowd to scream out for him. “I wore a suit for you guys!” he said, explaining how he told himself he needed to impress the “beautiful girls in the crowd tonight.” He asked for the lights to be pointed at the crowd for a second so he could see everyone, and asked a fan with bright coloured hair for their name. “Well, this is awkward, because I know we just met – but I’ve been thinking of you all day, and I wrote a song for you.” Haiden said, before going into his song ‘good side’.
There were numerous birthday people in the crowd tonight, prompting the Dutch crowd to immediately start singing “lang zal ze leven” (the Dutch happy birthday song). However, Haiden had a different plan: “We have our own birthday tradition around here,” he said with a good amount of sass – and then ‘FE!N’ by Travis Scott started blasting out the speakers. While only a very short part of the song was played, the crowd cheered and laughed at this unexpected moment.
Of course, Haiden had to play most (if not all) songs from his new EP – before ‘sweet tooth’ he explained: “This song is about how difficult it is for me to be nonchalant – I’m like, the most chalant person.” He also teased a new unreleased song, called ‘Chemicals’, “because I’m such a tease.” Throughout his set, he had a disposable camera go through the crowd so fans could take photos while at the concert, asking them to give it back to his photographer at the end so he could see all the fan photos after the tour.
An emotional moment happened before his song ‘killed the kid’. Haiden stepped into the crowd for this song, and he explained that he never expected any of his songs to mean so much to his fans, but that he had been told numerous times that this song saved fans’ lives, and that moments like that made the song mean even more to himself as well. As he stood in the middle of the crowd for this song, everyone surrounded him with a sea of phone flashlights, while fans hugged each other for this beautiful moment.
After ‘hell of a good time’ it was time for the show to end – however, not before coming back for an encore, of course. The encore started with ‘sweat’, the song a fan project had been set up for – all fans held up a paper drop of sweat, with the word ‘sweat’ on it. During this song, as well as the next and very last one, ‘one track mind’, fans danced the night away for the last time, ending the concert on a very high note.
Both FLAVIA’s and Haiden Henderson’s set were steaming hot, with plenty of sweet and emotional moments in between, giving fans the night of their lives and creating a feeling of friendship and unity. We already can’t wait for Haiden to come back next time!
