Much has been made over the last few years of singer PinkPantheress’s stage presence, or – to her critics – the lack thereof. Her Capable of Love tour shows just how far she’s come.
In early 2021, in the beginning stages of her career, PinkPantheress was something of an enigma. Despite being among the first artists of the 2020s to be catapulted to fame via social media, she hid her face in early videos and posted her music on TikTok and SoundCloud under her stage name. Far from the image obsession often ascribed to social media stars, for a long time it was hard to even find a photo of her, and her real name was private up until recently .
Since then, as pandemic restrictions lifted, and the artist has increased in output, visibility and popularity, so too has the criticism: her songs too short, her writing and production too lazy. If you’ve heard of her then you’ll have heard the jokes and seen the viral tweets mocking her performances.
One reads: “Love how PinkPantheress performs with her lil bag ’cause she knows she’s about to be done in 18 minutes.” Clips of the singer walking serenely around the stage, clutching the famous handbag she keeps glued to her side, her singing deafened by playback, frequently do the rounds online, normally posted with cruel captions such as “TikTok can only take you so far.”
Fast forward to 2024, however, and you can see how far TikTok has taken her. An hour before Pink (as her fans affectionately call her) is due on stage, the O2 Ritz is packed, and a 45-minute set by her DJ, full of viral earworms and chart-toppers, has got the crowd (mostly Gen Z but not exclusively) suitably warmed up.
A huge freestanding mirror adorned with white doves – matching the cover of her debut album where the tour gets its name – is brought onto the stage before the lights dim and a narrator launches into a Vincent Price, Thriller-esque monologue.
You can only catch half of the words over the roar of the crowd but there’s a vague Alice in Wonderland/Willy Wonka theme. It feels disjointed from the rest of the show, and not properly fleshed out or necessary. It’s the one thing about the production that doesn’t really work, but that can be easily forgiven as shortly afterwards PinkPantheress herself bounces out onto the stage and the real show can begin.
She launches straight into Break It Off, her second ever upload to Soundcloud now sitting at 260 million streams on Spotify, and it’s clear at once that she has come on leaps and bounds since those first awkward festival appearances.
There is a beaming smile on her face as she sings, live, her trademark sweet, clear and girlish tone ringing out and contrasting against the throbbing bass and frantic breakbeats categorising much of her catalogue, which spans a number of genres including bedroom pop, jungle, noughties drum and bass and UK garage.
Flying through her setlist, a mixture pulling from her first mixtape To Hell With It and other single releases as well as the recent album, she is clearly enjoying herself, backed by a fantastic live band made up of drums, keyboard and guitar, and taking every instrumental as an opportunity to dance, throw her shoulders back, shimmy her hips.
To see a young artist who has talked of her struggles with shyness and anxiety – who for a long time uploaded her music anonymously for fear of scrutiny – sway, twirl, throw her arms above her head unselfconsciously, nothing remotely choreographed but just having fun, is utterly affirming and joyful, and it is met with cheers of encouragement and approval from the audience every time.
As you might expect, especially for Manchester, the majority of the crowd are students or belong to Gen Z, and most of them loyal fans judging by how they sing every word and scream with recognition at the first chord of every song.
There is a lot about PinkPantheress, herself born in 2001, that this generation can relate to: growing up on TikTok, coming of age during the pandemic, suffering anxiety and awkwardness in an increasingly insular online world where everything is recorded and identities are judged as much by their aesthetic value as by their authenticity or honesty; the generation that, for all its purported social freedoms, is having less sex and going out less than ever before.
Despite PinkPantheress’s wealth, stardom and enormous reach – the tour will continue in the spring with 12 stops across North America and a stint opening for Olivia Rodrigo – her music, with its themes of melancholy, isolation, listlessness and relationship strife, remains fundamentally relatable.
Pink herself has good rapport with the crowd, stopping to talk to them after nearly every song. She is down-to-earth, relaxed and genuinely funny: when doing battle with her onstage wind machine, “I really just wanted my RnB girl moment with the fans but it just doesn’t work when you have a fringe and you’re wearing a skirt – I’m going to flash you all.”
She has perfected that Gen Z blend of humour and candour too: to someone on the front row whose phone she grabs, “let’s take a BeReal. You check it…nah that was shite.”
Early in the set she says her heart is pounding – not surprising given the high energy of the music – and later confesses she was trying to nip a panic attack in the bud: “If I have a panic attack right now…”. She signs a fan’s Brazilian flag and takes a piece of art offered to her by another fan, saying she’s going to put it in her bedroom.
Known for her relatively lowkey Y2K style (labelled variously as ‘supply teacher core’ or ‘young auntie’ aesthetic), today she is dressed simply in a black hooded crop top and grey tassled midi skirt. The famous handbag is back – a red one this time – but it was quickly set aside after the first song.
After almost exactly an hour, the concert wraps up with a final encore – a rousing rendition of her smash hit Nice to Meet You featuring rapper Central Cee, complete with a troupe of 4 dancers that burst onto stage. The song ends, PinkPantheress takes her final bow to rapturous cheers and then disappears.
The buzzing crowd pours out onto the street, unperturbed by the Manchester drizzle. The songs may be short but her popularity is cemented; Pink Pantheress isn’t going anywhere.
Featured Image: Angelinca Yin
Special thanks to Angelinca Yin | https://www.instagram.com/a5aba.h1t0mii/?g=5
