Everyone who listens to pop music must know Anne-Marie (28). With her breakthrough single Alarm released in 2016, I immediately became a fan. Since then Anne-Marie continued releasing hit singles until last year when she has released her debut album Speak Your Mind. Which was rather a collection of all her hits and believe me she still has many tracks with single potential on this album. I enjoyed listening to her music in the last three years and I couldn’t catch her on tour before. Therefore, I immediately bought myself a ticket when she announced her Speak Your Mind Tour. I saw her live in Zurich in Halle 622 on the 2nd of May.
The first thing I noticed when I arrived at Halle 622 was the number of teenage girls. Her fans mostly consist of teenagers, I expected more diversity. My standing ticket coast 57 CHF, which is adequate for this venue. The door opening was at 6.30 p.m. and at 5.40 p.m. I was standing in the queue and was rather in the front. The security let us into the building on time but there was a little long-lasting problem. We had to queue and wait in the entrance hall again for forty minutes. At 7.10 p.m. they let us finally inside the concert venue. It was really annoying since nobody let us know what was going on inside. We could hear a sound-check going on, it was probably Lennon Stella doing hers belatedly.
Support Act: Lennon Stella
At 8 p.m. Lennon Stella opened the night with her half an hour set. I could observe that the crowd wasn’t impressed by her. The audience seemed bored and there weren’t many interactions going on. Lennon’s stage presence wasn’t energetic at all. She was mostly calm and focused on her singing. The first part of her set with songs from her EP Love, it was rather boring. It got a bit better when she performed an acoustic version of Polaroid her collaboration with the artists Jonas Blue and Liam Payne. She also covered her favorite song Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper but her version was slow and too dark. She also had technical issues and couldn’t hear herself several times during this song. The cover was rather a flop. I only enjoyed the end of her set when she performed my two favorite songs BITCH and La Di Da. I was singing along and having a good time. However, the crowd was still static, they were probably not her fans. I’ve known Lennon since 2014, back when she was making mostly covers with her younger sister Maisey. Because of their commercial song Love for Coop, they literally had their breakthrough here in Switzerland. The song even charted at #2 in the Swiss charts.
Anne-Marie Performance
At 9.05 p.m. the crowd got loud and excited for Anne-Marie. First, her bandmates appeared on stage with flashlights and acted like guards then they took their places behind their music instruments. They started playing the chorus of Bad Girlfriend. Then it got dark for five seconds and Anne-Marie was standing in front of us when the lights were on again. She kept performing this rather unknown song, I didn’t know that it’s a fan favorite. The stage decoration was very interesting she used a giant rectangular wall which consisted of LED-screens and shutters. She appeared in white pants and in a white top wearing a black blazer.
For me the opening of the concert was disappointing. I wasn’t expecting her to start with this rather childish track. I mean she could have sung one of her hit singles instead. What came next was more disappointing for me, the next song was Cry, it is literally my least favorite track of hers. She then took us back to 2015 with her single Do It Right, I must admit I didn’t know this song since it was released before her breakthrough, but I really liked it. Anne-Marie kept her high energy during all of the songs, she jumped around, kicked in the air and interacted with us.
Before she performed her newest single Perfect, she played a video, in which many people and some other singers like Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes and James Arthur defined what perfect means to them. I literally couldn’t hear out any definitions since the crowd was screaming during the entire video. However, there was a fan-project going on for this song. As we were standing outside of the building a group of girls distributed printed sheets with the words I’m a mug on it. During the video, everyone took them out and put them high in the air. Anne-Marie was sitting on the floor with her back towards us and watching the video very focused, therefore, she didn’t notice anything. She turned around with closed eyes and was singing the first lines of Perfect. Then as she opened her eyes and her reaction was unforgettable, she couldn’t focus on the lyrics and had to laugh several times during her performance. She was very happy about it. The fan project worked out very well thanks to the fans. With this song, I could finally find myself into her setlist and start singing and enjoying the rest of the night. Afterward, she only performed her energetic songs like Trigger, Can I Get Your Number. And of course her singles Ciao Adios and Don’t Leave Me Alone. In between, she had a quick costume change and came back with a white shirt instead of the black blazer.
I can only describe the second half of the concert with the words teen party. Anne-Marie made everyone jump and sing along with her remaining chart-topping tracks. She also performed her collaboration Let Me Live with the English band Rudimental. Then she introduced to us her breakthrough single Alarm. She told us the story behind the song that she was really cheated on and that writing this song was therapeutic for her. The crowd had much empathy for her during this song. With the next track, Anne-Marie got very emotional and almost cried while performing her pop ballad Then. This song is definitely one of my favorite songs by her. Since she didn’t have an encore on her setlist she performed her hit singles Rockabye, 2002 and Friends straight away before leaving the stage. I actually would have preferred if she kept the final two songs for an encore.
All in all, it was an enjoyable and well performed one-hour concert. Her setlist was strong the order of the songs could have been better. Unfortunately, she didn’t perform my favorite ballad Some People from her debut album. Two girls were even holding a poster asking her to sing it. She had great chemistry with her bandmates and they all did perform very well even though it was the first night of the tour. Anne-Marie proofed her British roots with her adequate humor and funny jokes. One thing I have to criticize about her is that she looked way too much to the floor when she was singing. She definitely should look much more into the crowd or straight ahead. A highlight, especially for two of the fans in the front row, was when she interrupted her performance just to sign two albums. I really hope to see her again at a bigger venue. I can definitely recommend to you to see her live on stage. Check out my Instagram for some concert videos.
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I really enjoy listening to her ‘2002’ 🤗
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