Girl In Red may have started out making tender, revealing bedroom indie but by the time she released 2021’s debut album If I Could Make It Go Quiet, she was all about riotous alt-pop. Following support slots with the likes of Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift, her swaggering second album Doing It Again Baby was even more outlandish. It featured country-tinged breakdowns, radio-friendly hooks and a wink-wink appearance from Sabrina Carpenter on the giddy You Need Me Now? without losing any of the relatability that first made her a Gen-Z star.
That ability to balance cocksure ambition with heartfelt intimacy really came in handy when she took to Wembley’s sprawling OVO Arena on Tuesday night. “It feels endless”, she said after looking out at the cavernous venue. “But that’s not going to stop me”.
From euphoric opener Doing It Again Baby through the scream-a-long smirk of Bad Idea! via the chaotic and blunt You Stupid Bitch, Girl In Red (real name Marie Ulven) championed the sort of giddy recklessness that inspired the same from the crowd.
In the quieter moments, it was her confessional storytelling that was allowed to shine. The twinkling Girls remained a defiantly queer anthem while a piano-led Pick Me wrestled with desire and heartbreak. After showing off an impressive British accent, Girl In Red explained how the jaunty I’m Back was orignally written about “being really depressed, coming out of that and realising the life you have is actually worth living”. During the uplifting song, she told the crowd “there is so much hope, and it’s right in front of me”.
Backed by a five-piece band and performing on a stage that was part ‘70s game show, part garish Lego model, Girl In Red clearly put a lot of thought into elevating her shows to fill arenas. She walked through the crowd to a stage in the middle of the venue for a cutesy, stripped-down rendition of We Fell In Love In October as leaf-shaped confetti rained down from above before she appeared 18-foot in the air on a scarlet platform for the twisting Phantom Pain. Girl In Red was clearly out to make the most of this grand playground.
Flickering between passionate declarations of romance and nightmarish moments of self-doubt, Girl In Red songs are the perfect balance of comfort, confrontation and power. Live, she used them to create urgent community, putting on a huge show with a lot of heart. After playing the gentle 4am at the request of one fan, she split the entire crowd in half for the friendliest wall of death in the history of rock & roll, soundtracked by the closing hammer of I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend. And of course Girl In Red was right at the heart of that swirling, joyful chaos.
