Review: Sigrid in Manchester

 

☆ By GRACE DODD

 
 

Last night, hit-maker and our previous cover star Sigrid graced the stage of Manchester’s O2 Apollo, offering up a setlist of punchy pop gems set to an explosive, energising light display. 

Clearly inspired by world-famous Coldplay shows, every song has its own striking and carefully crafted light display, there is confetti, colour, energy. The whole venue seems to explode in vibrancy and sound, the crowd insatiable for more. Presiding over it all, Sigrid dances freely around the stage in jeans and a white t-shirt, sipping herbal tea between sparkling performances, waltzing through complex vocals with impressive ease. This is a true masterclass in pop and the energy in the room is electric. 

An expected, yet initially jarring, change of pace comes in the middle of the set with a handful of slow ballads, there’s a spotlight, a piano. It could all so easily be cliched, forced, but Sigrid's world-class vocals and knowing looks to the audience stop this from happening. Between ballads she shares quips with the audience, creating inside jokes, making the room feel connected. It’s clear Sigrid is incredibly self-aware, she knows this piano section could all be so easily indulgent, but she’s charming, she’s down-to-earth, she’s relatable. ‘I feel like I’m fourteen again’ she admits with a smile, retelling stories of being a young teenager learning Adele and Coldplay on the piano. 

Sigrid seems truly unafraid to be her complete, genuine self on stage. She breaks a sweat, she tears up as the crowd roars, she is a genuine presence. This is someone who understands how seriously their job should be taken, but also knows how to have fun with it. She jokes she doesn’t know the setlist yet, dances through every song along with the audience, recalls how the last time she was in Manchester she needed a bucket beside the stage as she was horrifically hungover. It would be so easy for the young artist to come across as clean-cut, pretentious, boring even. But Sigrid is a professional, a showman. An undoubtedly talented vocalist with a catalog of bright pop hits under her belt. During the show, she proves herself as a sheer talent, sure to stand alongside pop heavyweights like Robyn, Coldplay, even Elton John. It is certain nobody in the room wanted the night to end.

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