A sea of white and pink hair bows have descended on The O2 Arena in London. The accessory has become synonymous with Gracie Abrams (4/5) and her fans, so it’s a sure sign that the ‘That’s So True’ singer is here in town. The venue is packed to the rafters with an audience that skews heavily young and female. If the screams and amount of youngsters on their feet is anything to go by, Ariana Grande’s ‘We Can’t Be Friends’ blaring out over the speakers appears to signal Abrams’ arrival (in the same way ‘You Don’t Own Me’ preempted Taylor Swift’s appearance on the Eras Tour), and sure enough, the house lights are down and Abrams’ shadow appears behind a shimmering veil for opener ‘Felt Good About You’. The singer emerges round the other side grinning from ear to ear for standout single ‘Risk’ with its euphoric hook, which sees a huge screamalong.
That said, almost EVERY track produces a huge screamalong. There are certainly key moments that bring the most cathartic screams – the bridge of ‘I Love You, I’m Sorry’, the line “if she’s got a pulse she meets your standards now” from Blowing Smoke – but the whole crowd seems to know every lyric like it’s taken from the pages of their own diaries, and that is undeniably the biggest part of Abrams’ appeal. Her confessional, angst-ridden songwriting lends itself well to the B stage, set up to resemble a bedroom, where Abrams sits down at a piano surrounded by her rapturous fans. “When I’m writing a song, I see your faces,” she smiles at them, before the debut performance of the poignant ‘Deathwish’, an as yet unreleased track, as well as TikTok sleeper hit ‘I Miss You, I’m Sorry’ which sees perhaps the loudest singalong of the night.
Whilst her music certainly bears more than a passing resemblance to Swift, Abrams’ show does lack the theatrics and polished performance, but it’s perhaps precisely this that makes her even more relatable. It’s like witnessing your mate’s heartbroken group chat messages turned into arena filling anthems. To the young fans here, she doesn’t represent an out of reach pop superstar: she represents a friend. It’s no wonder then, that Gracie Abrams has 20,000 friends here hanging on her every word – hearts on sleeves, and bows in hair.
