It’s been 11 years since Madison Beer started releasing music, and at this point it’s almost criminal that she hadn’t visited Australia. But that’s all changing with “The Encore Tour”. Finally making her way down under for a run of highly anticipated sold out shows, there was a vivid excitement pulsating throughout Hordern Pavilion ahead of the show which had you eager for what was about to unfold. 

With the crowd packing themselves into the venue during Kita Alexander’s opening set, they were screaming for the Byron Bay singer-songwriter like she was the headliner. Performing tracks like “Queen”, “All Night”, “Date Night”, and “Zodiac” from her debut album “Young In Love”, she also treated them to older favourite “Hotel” and the viral collaboration “Atmosphere” with Fisher which had its own big singalong. Her brief set was breezy and euphoric, and was tied together with the infectious closer “Best You Ever Had”. 

It’s no secret that I love a big pop show. And for a while I felt like we had lost that buzz, but there’s a new wave of rising pop stars who are bringing it back with a vengeance, and one of those artists leading the pack is Madison Beer. With a production ready for an arena, she’s created a show that feels grand, theatrical, exciting, and is a genuine celebration of music and emotions. The stage design was elevated with staircases on either side of a giant platform that came right up to the front of the stage allowing everyone to see her no matter where they were standing. She was accompanied by only two band members, who perfectly helmed this cinematic sound that felt like a big band was in our presence.  

With a timer counting down to the beginning of the show, she appeared on top of the stage to deafening screams for opening track “Home To Another One”. The setlist saw her performing every song from her most recent album “Silence Between Songs” except “At Your Worst”, and it felt perfectly cemented aesthetically in that world too. Standouts from the record were “Spinnin”, “Ryder”, “Reckless” and “Dangerous”, which saw some of her best vocal moments showcased. But some of the biggest singalongs and production moments came from recent standalone banger “Make You Mine”, as wells as songs from her debut album “Life Support” like “BOYSHIT”, “Baby”, “Follow The White Rabbit”, “Good In Goodbye”, and the stunning “Selfish”. The only song missing from the setlist that would’ve gone down as a special treat for the long wait would’ve been “Dead”, but we will forgive her. The show had a really strong flow, with a brief lull in the middle which could have been tidied up with the removal of 2 songs, but she quickly came back on track with the viral video interlude bringing her into the final stretch.

The predominantly young female crowd were screaming every word of every song throughout the 90 minute show, making her feel all the love they’d saved up for her while they patiently waited for her to make it to Australia. Her interaction with them throughout the show felt very genuine and pure. She thanked them for patiently waiting so long, and wore cowboy hats and waved pride flags they threw on stage, and read signs they passionately held in the air. There was a minor technical issue that saw a pause happen on the show for 7 minutes, and instead of walking off stage she sat and just talked while her crew were sorting out the issue, and it felt very natural.  

As a whole, the show was a celebration of pop music and her growth as an artist, and cemented the fact that she is one-to-watch and that her next step is going to be onto arena stages. 

Photo by Brayden Smith