In May 2024, Bambie Thug made history by not only breaking the Irish non-qualification streak in the Eurovision Song Contest but also by ending up 6th out of all acts in the finale. A magnificent result that brought the country a lot of pride. Bambie Thug (stage name of Bambie Ray Robinson) is authentically themselves and is known for their “Ouija-pop” which combines elements of many genres, including hyperpunk and electro. On the 6th of September, Bambie Thug took to the Melkweg stage in Amsterdam as part of their European Crown the Witch tour.
It was a rainy evening when the doors opened at 19:30 to let approximately 600 fans into Melkweg’s “Oude Zaal” for this sold-out event. About half an hour later, support act The Darklings took to the stage. This ‘hot new girl band’, consisting of Callum Crighton and Zuzu, came on to give the crowd some “cunty music!”. While they had some small technical issues at the start of their set, this was easily fixed and gave Crighton some time to interact with the crowd. Her lovely personality hyped up the crowd immediately, just in time for her and Zuzu to perform their first song ‘The Clublings’. The duo was wearing red latex outfits consisting of a crop top and skirt and performed choreography to every single one of their songs. During the fourth song on their setlist, ‘Ick’, they asked the crowd to dance the macarena with them. This was a really fun little moment that worked perfectly with this song that everyone could relate to – who in 2024 has not experienced feeling ‘the ick’ because of someone at this point? The duo continued with their song ‘I Still Think of You’, a not-so-relatable track about having poisoned someone, yet regretting it later. It must be said that Crighton’s vocals were flawless on this one; she managed to show some skills that the other songs had not made space for so far. At the end of their set, The Darklings spoke a little bit about the fact that none of the music performed can be found on streaming services yet. However, in about two weeks their new (and thus first) single is coming out: ‘Eat His Heart’, which they performed as the final song of their set. The entire 30 minutes were filled with fun dances and iconic songs written by a lovely queer band that ended it all by chanting “crown the witch!” with the audience.
At 21:00, it was time for Bambie Thug’s own set, which opened with a spoken intro sounding out over the concert hall’s speakers. “Welcome to a place where you can be free to be whoever and whatever you choose to be” it sounded before two dancers wearing leather outfits and spiky masks came on stage. A few moments later, they were joined by Bambie Thug themselves, wearing a black two-piece suit – no shirt under the blazer – and donning spooky make-up. They, together with the two dancers, opened the night with a short choreography before moving into their newest single ‘Hex So Heavy’. Bambie Thug’s concert was a real show, divided into three acts. The first, called “Welcome to the Coven” included not only ‘Hex So Heavy’, but also the more sensual tracks ‘HIEROPHANT’ and ‘Kawasaki (I Love It)’. At the end of this act, Bambie Thug performed the track ‘Last Summer (I Know What You Did’ before leaving the stage for a minute.
The second act of Bambie Thug’s set was “Witches Ballad”, which they opened with the unreleased song ‘Children Should Be Laughing’. A song written for the innocent lives lost due to the ongoing genocide in Palestine, they performed it wearing a Palestinian flag. The dancers joined them halfway through the song as well, both carrying a flag as well. After performing this heartbreaking, yet beautiful song, someone in the crowd started chanting “Free Palestine!” which was an amazing moment that showed how much Bambie Thug and their fans care. Here, in this room, there was no space for discrimination and injustice – everyone should be allowed to be free.
Bambie Thug continued this act with ‘Careless’ and ‘Eternal Sunshine’. While they had been using a head mic for the first act, they had grabbed a hand-held mic for this and the rest of the set, making their voice a lot more clear. Their vocals stood out here, showing that not only is Bambie Thug a great performer, but also an amazing singer. They also took so much time to interact with the crowd, even taking selfies with fans during ‘Eternal Sunshine’. After this three-song act, the dancers performed a small interval to the song ‘Psilocybin’ before it was time for the final act.
The “Initiation” act existed on some of the heavier tracks, starting it all off with the banger ‘Egregore’ which was loudly shouted by the enthusiastic crowd. Bambie Thug performed this track without the dancers, making use of the entire stage to bring across the creepy vibe of this one. The dancers did come back for the track ‘P.M.P.’, which stands for “Pussy, Money, Power” and had the crowd massively yell out these words and the lyrics “I got pussy, I got power”. Finally, Bambie Thug ended the third act with the songs ‘Headbang’ and ‘Tsunami (11:11)’. For their final trick, Bambie Thug and their dancers made use of pink water guns to shoot water at the audience during the ending of ‘Tsunami (11:11)’. Two fans in the front row, who Bambie Thug had already interacted a lot with throughout the set – including giving them the microphone a few times to sing the lyrics – and got massively hit by them with the water. Everyone had already gotten wet because of the rain outside anyway, and one could say Bambie Thug is “a tsunami”!
Finally, Bambie Thug came on stage one last time that night to perform the encore, consisting of their Eurovision hit ‘Doomsday Blue’. They performed this alone on a stage lit up entirely blue like the song title and everyone was singing and screaming along. At the end of it all, they took time to sign things for fans and even drew one of them a tattoo. Bambie Thug is a force to be reckoned with and showed that they are an amazing performer as well as a lovely human being that loves their fans and cares about the world. They’ll be touring around Europe for the rest of the month and are even coming back for a second, even bigger show in Amsterdam on the 8th of October.
