Modern ‘anti-pop’ music idol Baby Queen kickstarts an exciting new era in her career, with her brand-new cathartic debut album Quarter Life Crisis, alongside a long fan awaited UK tour.
The South African born singer took to the iconic St. Luke’s in Glasgow, with the venue being decorated with a backdrop envisioning Baby Queen’s bedroom, similar to the album cover art, to make it feel as though we were a part of the space where Baby Queen (real name Bella Latham) had spent a lot of her time writing songs, which were to be played to the anticipating Scottish crowd shortly after.
The night kicked off with some endearing indie greatness from Viji (real name Vanilla Jenner), an artist that takes inspiration from hazy 90’s sounds and works them into modernity. The singer played a mix of songs from her very recent first album So Vanilla. The songs had a mix of grunge with soft attitude, with an impressive chill yet emo style pace. The fans were drawn to the singer with full focus on the stage and heads nodding back and forth. Viji’s stage presence was captivating and cool natured, the set was a beautiful performance and a picture perfect warm up for the main act Baby Queen.
The lights dimmed and screams echoed the high ceiling church venue, Bella jumped onto the stage with vigorous energy and joyful charisma, everything that the Glasgow crowd would be feeling for the next hour or so. The setlist began with the album title song ‘Quarter Life Crisis’, the crowd sang back forcefully showing their love and admiration for the singer. Next up was the unreleased song ‘Kid Genius.’ Many of the songs that Bella played throughout the set were unreleased, this was due to a delay in the album release to 3 days after the Glasgow show. However, this clearly did not stop the loyal fans singing, dancing and resonating with Bella’s new exciting and eclectic music upon hearing it for the first time.
After the first few songs Bella took a moment to wholeheartedly discuss the process of the album, explained it as a “Story of the journey through her early twenties” and described the frustration of “being in the confusing phase between childhood and adulthood.” The beauty of Bella’s lyricism strives in relatability, it was clear that the gig goers could relate extensively to the singers struggles and fears with growing up, as the young fanbase sang the songs back to her with such emotion and passion. The adolescent crowd was evident and voiced engaging remarks during the show to which Bella laughed and responded to, showing her pureness and fun-loving relationship with the fans.
Although a portion of Bella’s latest music consisted of upbeat melodies and witty lyrics, she also blessed the crowd with some of her more stripped back and vulnerable songs. Bella took to a discrete piano at the back of the stage and started to sing ‘A Letter to Myself at 17’, a song dedicated to the singer’s younger, confused self. The watchers were silent, taking in the raw emotion so much that you could hear a pin drop. Accompanied by heart touching song ‘Obvious’, which intricately describes Bella’s story of moving from South Africa to London at the young age of 18. Bella obviously contrasted these with her earlier buoyant sounding songs and fan favourites such as ‘Raw thoughts’ and ‘Internet Religion’ which got the wild crowd jumping and clapping. After screaming chants, Bella returned to the stage for an eager encore to sing her anticipated classic ‘Want me,’ a vibrant energetic love song written for actress Jodie Comer. She finished the amazing set with a new album song and single ‘We Can Be Anything,’ a song with compelling crowd involvement and a happy positive aura. The show ended with screeching cheers and wide smiles all around the room. Bella’s set was an array of up and down emotions with enthralling and captivating stage presence and energy, it’s clear that the wild Scottish fans will be eager for the singer to return in due time.
Written by: Amanda MacEachen
Photographed by: Amanda MacEachen
Edited by: Naomi Krauthausen
