Less than a year after their previous show in the Netherlands, Norwegian twins Marcus and Martinus Gunnarsen (known simply as Marcus & Martinus) made their way back to the country on the 11th of January. This time, the duo played a show in Tilburg’s 013 as part of their European Tour. While the show was not sold out, fans had been waiting out in the cold and icy weather for over 24 hours to try and get as close to the stage as possible. As soon as the doors opened at 19:00, the fans rushed in and could finally warm up.
Inside the venue, it took one more hour of waiting before the boys would finally show up. A DJ filled the silence by playing a lot of iconic songs, including Zara Larsson’s ‘Lush Life’ and Joost’s ‘Europapa’ – the Dutch 2024 Eurovision entry that the twins themselves love a lot. Finally, at 20:00, the lights went out, and the intro started playing over the speakers while a video played on the LED screens visible at the back of the stage. A bunch of clips were displayed, including ones from the twins as little kids, which led to loud cheers, and clips of fans from previous concerts. “The Room is not only a story you watch, it’s a space you enter,” were the words spoken and displayed at the end of the video, referring to the twins’ latest album, The Room. As soon as everything went dark again, Marcus and Martinus came on to open the show with ‘We Are Not the Same’. Halfway through, the boys were joined by two dancers, Jennifer Pacaanas and Miinaa Kjellbom, who would be performing a lot of the choreography with them tonight. As soon as the song was over, the twins also took the time to introduce their band: keyboardist Olle Tidblom, drummer Gurkan Lannebjer and guitarist Anton Ramsö. They then continued with the unreleased song ‘Bad’ and the 2016 hit ‘Girls’.
After performing ‘Gimme Your Love’, which included a dance break where the two girls could shine on stage without the fans being distracted by Marcus and Martinus, another video played on the LED screen. This time, a series of screenshots displaying hate comments was shown alongside a blurred video of someone ranting about how they dislike how the boys have changed. This transitioned into them playing an older song of theirs, ‘Bae’, during which a fan was brought on stage for about half the song. Afterwards, it was time for another video to play on the screen. This time, it was accompanied by a voice-over of Marcus speaking about how great the past three years with his girlfriend have been, which was used to introduce the next song, ‘Die for You’. While Marcus has been happily in love, the same can’t be said for Martinus. After playing two slower, sadder songs, ‘Heartbeat’ and a cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’, which already left many fans sobbing their hearts out, he stated that he “loved that girl, but I messed up”. He then left the stage, while Marcus stayed to sing the first verse of ‘When All the Lights Go Out’. Martinus, of course, came back halfway through to join his brother on the vocals.
It was then time for a massive mood switch, as “When All the Lights Go Out, you should Follow Me”, so stated Marcus before playing that, much more upbeat, song. Both boys went off stage afterwards to change their outfits for ‘Jinx It’. In between, another visual interlude played on the screen. While before then they had been in fully white outfits, they came back wearing full black. The dancers also joined them on the stage once more. However, the real highlight for many fans during this song was probably Martinus taking off his tank top to show off his bare chest (and back tattoos). The top was thrown into the crowd, leaving many fans fighting to catch it. The show continued with ‘Sugar Rush’, for which Martinus put on a new shirt, and ‘Love Flow’.
Toning the energy down again, the brothers continued with ‘Saturn’. “When she left me, I was hurt, all alone. That’s when I realized I had to let her go,” Marcus stated before sitting down together with his brother and the boys’ guitarist to perform the song. “Everything felt so empty, until I realized what I got and that’s you guys,” he said afterwards, which led to loud cheers. Martinus stated how their “grandma always told [him] to stay true to [himself]” which led to even louder cheers. After playing ‘With You’, during which the audience held up their flashlights, a video played of the grandmother the twins had lost when they were just 9 years old. To end this sad sequence of songs, which again left many people shedding tears, the twins played ‘You Make Me’. All three of these songs can be found on The Room. After another outfit change, the dancers took to the stage once more to perform ‘Air’ and ‘Diva’.
In between, Marcus and Martinus took their time to thank the crowd, even speaking some Dutch: “You guys are really amazing, ik houd van jou”. They also took a picture with the fans and a huge Dutch flag before continuing with ‘Diva’ and ‘The Room’. For the latter, two chairs had been placed on the stage for the boys to sit on as the female dancers danced around them. Possibly a bit too suggestive for the relatively young audience, but it did look really slick. Funnily enough, they then moved on to the older, way less mature song ‘Elektrisk’, the only Norwegian song on the setlist tonight. Tonight’s encore consisted, of course, of the twins’ Eurovision song ‘Unforgettable’. At the end of the show, the twins, their dancers, and their band took a bow, as Marcus kept repeating the word “Dankjewel!”. The boys seemed truly happy to have been able to play this show tonight, and the fans were just as happy to have been able to see their favourite twins perform.
