On the 7th of March, Norwegian twins Marcus and Martinus Gunnarsen (who are known under the simple stage name Marcus & Martinus) came to Amsterdam to play a headline show in Melkweg Max. The show, which was a part of their ‘We Are Not the Same Tour’, named after the song they made with Canadian rapper bbno$, sold out very quickly. It was no surprise then that fans waited in line the entire day to get a good spot in the venue, especially considering that this was their first headline show here since the ‘Together Tour’ in 2017, when they played the smaller room across the hall.
Doors to the venue opened at 18:00 when the sun was still out, fans rushing in as fast as possible to get to the front. The room filled up quickly and at 19:00, support act Medun took to the stage to hype the approximately 1500 fans up. Medun is an Austrian DJ and good friend of Marcus & Martinus. They made the song ‘Gimme Your Love’ together, with which Medun opened his DJ set to much enthusiasm from the eager crowd. While a DJ set is not a very common opener, the fans seemed to enjoy the half hour that he got to be on stage. He played many songs that everyone could sing along to, including remixes of Adele’s ‘I Set Fire to the Rain’ and Lady Gaga’s ‘Bloody Mary’ mashed up with ABBA’s ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’. The crowd fervently clapped along to ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)’ and waved along to Gigi Perez’ ‘Sailor Song’ before shouting out the lyrics to the bridge of Gracie Abrams’ ‘That’s So True’. Medun also took the time to let the audience hear his new song that will be coming out next Friday, so make sure to check that out if you are into EDM!
After Medun left the stage, the fans did not have to wait long before it was time for Marcus & Martinus themselves. At 19:45 an intro started playing on the screen behind the stage; lots of screaming could be heard from the crowd every time either of the boys were shown in this video. Afterwards, the band came on stage to play an instrumental intro as well. The band consisted of a drummer, guitarist and keyboardist all wearing the tour shirt. When the twins themselves came on stage, they opened their set with ‘Like It Like It’, originally a collaboration with Silentó. Both of them were dressed in mostly black, with Marcus wearing simple pants and a tee and Martinus a bomber jacket, rhinestone turtleneck and blue jeans. Halfway through the first song, the boys were joined by two dancers, who also stayed for the songs ‘Die for You’ and ‘Gimme Your Love’. In between the songs, Martinus stated how they were “so excited to be here” and thanked everyone for coming, which led to a lot more screams from the crowd. After ‘Gimme Your Love’, the boys continued with ‘Follow Me’ without the dancers. It was then time for ‘Wonder’, the boys’ most recent single. Unfortunately, they had a little mishap starting the song as the drummer had some technical issues – they dealt with this effortlessly though, and the fans did not mind at all. During the choruses, Marcus & Martinus motioned for the crowd to wave along to the rhythm – which everyone did.
After five energetic songs, it was time to tone the set down a little. Mic stands were placed on the stage, with Martinus’ on the right side (as seen from the audience) and Marcus’ on the far left. Flashlights were shining from the audience as they played ‘When All the Lights Go Out’, which the boys wrote about growing up in the spotlight. After the song, Marcus asked the audience if they were familiar with a show called The Masked Singer. They participated in and even won the Swedish edition and decided to play one of the songs from the show on the tour. Their cover of ‘Wicked Game’ by Chris Isaak can also be found on their recent album Unforgettable. The boys’ voices perfectly match this song, but the slowness of it mostly gave the passionate fans the opportunity to audibly voice their love for the boys. Fortunately, for the next two songs, they used their voices to shout along again. Marcus & Martinus sat on stools to perform some of their older tracks, namely ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘Together’. Both are from the album titled after the latter song, which was released back in 2016. It must be noted how much their voices have grown since then. While in the studio versions their voices were still very high-pitched, the boys have obviously matured since and it has really worked out positively when it comes to them singing these songs live years later. During ‘Together’, the fans held up little signs that said “We’re proud of you”, which was adorable. Before the final part of the song, Marcus said how “this is the part where I tell you guys to sing along but you’re already singing along!”, letting the audience sing on their own.
After the stools were taken off stage again, the boys continued with their Norwegian song ‘Plystre på deg’, followed by ‘Wild Love’. Both of the boys keep thanking the audience in Dutch, going “dankjewel” a lot, with Marcus also telling the crowd “ik houd van jou”. After ‘Wild Love’, Marcus talked about Eurovision, but stated they would not do “the song” yet. He talked about how they came second in the Swedish national final Melodifestivalen the year before, but were “not able to clear Loreen”. They performed ‘Air’ with the choreography to complete it. All the dancing made this show so much more fun; it really elevated each and every song.
Both twins left the stage then and the screen showed the intro to the so-called ‘second act’. The screen did break for a minute, but it was fixed very quickly and the boys were ready to come on stage right after, in new outfits. Marcus was now wearing a mesh top and black vest, while Martinus was wearing a tank top, showing off his tattoo sleeve. They had mic stands on stage again to perform the song ‘Love Flow’ and made use of these stands to perform the matching choreography. They were taken off stage right after so the boys had all the space again while performing ‘We Are Not the Same’. As this is normally a collab with bbno$, Martinus rapped his part, which he did an amazing job at. The boys then asked the audience if they could take a picture with them and the Dutch flag that was full of names of the fans who had been in the queue that day. Someone in the front asked the boys if they could not stand in front of her, which left the boys a bit flabbergasted and led to Marcus deciding to lie down instead so this fan would be visible on the picture. After the picture had been taken, the boys continued their set with ‘Another Life’ and unreleased track ‘The Room’, for which the dancers finally came back on stage. It has to be said that this song is an absolute banger that will hopefully be released soon!
At this point, the twins had arrived at the final four songs of the night. They performed ‘Girls’ first, which was released as a collaboration with Madcon years ago. They had decided to not sing Madcon’s part live, but instead let the backing track play. Then the boys sang ‘One Flight Away’, with the dancers leaving again to make room for a solo from the guitarist – he deserved his time to shine! When he had gone back to his platform at the back of the stage, the boys stated how ‘they actually have another Norwegian song to perform tonight”, with Martinus testing the audience on their knowledge of the lyrics by making them sing the chorus. They enthusiastically did, and kept singing through the entirety of ‘Elektrisk’. Halfway through the song, Marcus went down to the crowd to hold the fans’ hands, which many of them had been hoping for the entire show. Finally, after jumping back on the stage and finishing this second to last track, Marcus stated how he “mentioned Eurovision earlier” and that it was time to “end with the song you have all been waiting for”: ‘Unforgettable’. The dancers came back one final time to perform the choreo with the twins, who absolutely nailed this performance yet again. It was an eventful night filled with dancing, singing, and high-pitched screams from a lively audience that have had to wait for this show for years – and surely, they were definitely glad they got to see this show.
