Back in May, Romanian singer-songwriter Alexandra Căpitănescu represented her country in the Eurovision Song Contest with the rock anthem ‘Choke Me’. She finished in third place, her country’s best result to date, and gained a solid fanbase across the continent. Thanks to that fanbase, her team was able to book the artist’s first-ever European tour. On the 16th of October, the ‘Here to Obey Me Tour’ made a stop at Amsterdam’s Toekomstmuziek.
Doors to the venue opened at 20:00, with the show starting about an hour later. The show was unfortunately not sold out, and the venue filled up only about halfway. However, this wasn’t noticeable at all from the front of the crowd, as the energy there was definitely through the roof even when the artist they’d come for hadn’t even taken to the stage yet. When it was due to start, the adoring fans repeatedly chanted “Alexandra!”. One by one, the singer’s bandmates took to the stage first. Her band consists of guitarist Bogdan Stoican, bassist Matei Cohal, keyboardist Thomas Cîrcotă, and drummer Luca Șofron. As soon as Alexandra Căpitănescu herself appeared, donning a black bodysuit and sunglasses, she and her band immediately started the show with ‘HEAT’, followed by the Romanian song ‘Umbra ta’. Căpitănescu showed off incredible stage presence right from the start, performing flawlessly, even adding choreography for most of the songs. The singer took off her sunglasses during the second song so that she could take a proper look at her fans for the rest of the night. Before continuing the set, Căpitănescu spoke about how a year ago, they had no idea they’d be here tonight, as she didn’t even know she would be participating in Eurovision yet. She expressed her gratitude to the fans for listening to her music and coming out to see her show. “I want to be yours tonight!” she exclaimed as she moved on to the song ‘CMYM’, which stands for “Can Make You Mine”.
‘HEAT’ and ‘CMYM’ can both be found on Căpitănescu’s debut album Choke Me, which happened to be released on the same day this concert took place. Of course, her fans had already taken the time to listen to it in full, and she exclaimed they’d now be hearing some songs from it live. Afterwards, she’d like to hear from everyone which song on the album they like most. First, it was time for ‘UTOPIA’, a song perfect to jump and headbang to. To contrast this, she followed the track with ‘I NEED YOU’, a slower rock ballad that Căpitănescu wrote about being able to “go on stage and do your thing even if it’s really hard,” as in the end, she’s doing this for her fans, to feel connected to people and to feel free. The crowd enthusiastically waved along to the rhythm and sang the words they’d managed to learn in the few hours since the song’s release. The crowd continued waving during the next song, this time holding up their flashlights, as Căpitănescu sang ‘Doi imperfecţi’. This, she wrote about having “to love ourselves just the way we are”. A simple but important message, and one that resonated with the audience even though a lot of them couldn’t understand the Romanian lyrics.
Halfway through the set, Căpitănescu decided to include a cover of another Eurovision song, namely Eleni Foureira’s ‘Fuego’. The singer made this track completely her own, with her band providing the necessary instruments to create a more rock-inspired version. This she followed with more songs from her debut album: ‘HEAL’ (not to be confused with ‘HEAT’ and ‘GUILTY’. Both of those tracks include very high, opera-esque notes that Căpitănescu had no struggle reaching. The singer herself stated that both songs mean a lot to her. ‘HEAL’ because it took a lot of time to get its recording perfect, and ‘GUILTY’ because it’s her personal favourite. She admits she is guilty of feeling many things, but likes to feel that way because she gets to express herself and be herself. Nearing the end of the night’s set, Căpitănescu felt the need to do a vocal warm-up with the crowd before the next song. This warm-up consisted of “la la la” and “na na na” as she prepared the crowd for the poppier ‘Dilaila’. Finally, Căpitănescu ended the main set with ‘HOLLOW HEART’ and, of course, ‘Choke Me’, the song everyone had come to hear and was thus sung along to the loudest of all. After leaving the stage, Căpitănescu and her band did surprise the fans by playing two more Romanian songs for the encore, which were ‘Căpitanu’ (which translates to ‘The Captain’) and ‘Tare’. Alexandra Căpitănescu and her four bandmates delivered a perfect performance tonight that deserved a bigger audience than they got. Here’s to hoping that many more people listen to her debut album so that next time, the five of them can grace a bigger stage.
