Baby Queen sparkles at London headline show
After the release of her debut record, Quarter Life Crisis, only a week ago, Baby Queen has been riding on a high. Heading for her first UK Top 10 record, she took to the stage at London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town for an end of tour show that checked a few items off her bucket list.
Starting the set list off strong with the album’s title track, Baby Queen, aka Arabella Latham’s electric stage presence immediately brings the energy to the room. She bounces across the stage, filling the space with her excitement and gratitude for being able to perform in the space. After the first few tracks, she stands centre stage, soaking up the screams and cheers of the Baby Kingdom before her.
She tells the story of how when she first moved to London, she created a list of everywhere she dreamed of playing – the O2 Forum Kentish Town was on that list, and she was rejected when she said she could bring a crowd of three people. Now she dances around the stage, a sold-out venue of 2,300 people jumping up and down before her. This last show of the tour marks the culmination of all those years of hard work; she gazes out at the crowd, saying “This has been the most insane and incomprehensible week of my life. This is the crowd I always dreamed of playing to.”
The setlist is a mix of old favourites (which are on the deluxe version of the album), like the fizzing self-deprecating pop song “Buzzkill”, and the new tracks on the record, which feel like a look into the darkest corners of Baby Queen’s brain, including “Love Killer” and “Die Alone”.
There was a point in the night where there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Before performing “a letter to myself at 17”, Baby Queen spoke about her journey to this point, and how playing this venue was something she only imagined in her wildest dreams. As she sat down at the piano, the audience lifted up signs that said “If only you knew your wildest dreams came true.” Baby Queen’s eyes were wide, overcome with the realisation that this was it - this was the moment she’d been dreaming of since she was a teenager writing songs in her childhood bedroom.
After a quick dash off stage (most likely to grab some tissues to wipe her eyes), came an electrifying second half of the show, with Arabella taking us into her world with “Grow Up”, “Internet Religion”, and the tear-jerking “Obvious”, where she explores her move from South Africa to London, and the losses that came with living so far from home. The final songs of the main set, “i can’t get my shit together” and the fan favourite “Dover Beach” were a spectacular end to a well-curated set.
The night came to a dazzling close with an encore featuring two of her most successful singles so far, “Want Me” and “We Can Be Anything”. With her saying, “I think of the teenage version of myself looking at this now, and I don’t know what she would do,” the show ends as a celebration of Baby Queen, as an artist and as a person. Now that she’s ticked this goal off her bucket list, we can only imagine what she’ll achieve next.
Baby Queen’s debut album is out now.