Last night was a bit of a special night for us. We set out to go to a concert, thinking it would be just another artist we could check off of our bucket list, another evening filled with some decent entertaining. We thought it would be just another gig on just another night.
Luckily, we were proven otherwise. Luckily, it really wasn’t just another night.
See, the thing we forgot to mention is that we were heading out to see YouTube sensation, fashionista extraordinaire and pop music savior Poppy live for the first time. So obviously it couldn’t just be another anything.
It was Poppy, after all. And she was about to bless us and invite us into her Church.
We were lucky in so many ways.
First of all, the location itself was adorable. Called Badehaus (“bathhouse”) and located in the centre of the RAW-buildings in Berlin, we found ourselves in a cute little wooden house, made to host not more than about 100 guests. We immediately enjoyed the alternative vibe and the cozy feeling.
Second of all, there were no security barriers between the stage and the audience. We could literally touch Poppy if we wanted to. Our breath was taken away. Our hopes and dreams of being up close and personal with Poppy: they inched closer and closer and became increasingly real with every passing second.
Luckily, we arrived a bit early so we comfortably stood in the third row in between other die-hard Poppy fans who arrived all dressed up in Poppy masks, hats saying “Make Poppy Great Again” as well as long white coats with the Church of Poppy logo embroidered on it. Baring gifts such as teddy bears and hand-painted portraits of their idol, all they could focus on was the small stage in front of their eyes.
Poppy once mentioned in an interview that she wanted to create a space with her music where everyone feels included, where everyone has a place. We loved the fact that this message was a hundred percent visible by looking at the audience: we stood in the middle of people of all kinds of ages, backgrounds and sexualities and everyone was getting along, mingling, being happy. And feeling safe.
Slowly, the room started to fill up and once the lights dimmed, you could feel the tension rising. When would Poppy enter the stage?
Before the Queen herself made her entrance though, we were presented with an opening act of a slightly different kind: a human-sized blow-up doll suddenly stood behind the DJ counter and Charlotte’s face appeared on the big screen in the middle of the stage. A light and movie show, sound-tracked by a wild best-of of the most popular songs of the last four decades. In between, sound bits of a dialogue between Charlotte and Poppy were intersected. And some cute little inside jokes found the light of the day. The mix certainly got everyone hyped and in a good mood.
When it was finally time for Poppy to arrive, she did so in style. Following her background dancers and taking her time to position herself on stage, the crowd began to scream with joy. Poppy opened her performance with her brand new song “In A Minute”. To everyone’s surprise: she even danced. And she did so quite well. Dressed in a cute pink outfit with a microphone that is typical for pop stars such as Britney Spears, Poppy showed us her perfectly choreographed dancing skills paired with some flawless vocals. She even perfected the hair flip!
For the next hour, she gave us her best: either joking with the audience, or singing and dancing her way from her old bops to the ones that have yet to be released. In between, we saw some of her YouTube clips which were used as some form of break so she could catch a breath.
What we adored most about her performance was the fact that she actually seemed to enjoy what she was doing. We have been to so many concerts where the artist simply does not seem happy whereas Poppy always had a little smile on her lips. You could tell she was feeling pretty good about being able to perform her songs in front of a crowd. Especially when the concert goers partied hard with her, gave her gifts or yelled that they loved her. She seemed so humbled by all of these emotions. Grateful that she could share the evening with us.
Then, after premiering songs like “Fashion” and “Chique chick”, after living her best life while performing bops such as “Interweb”, “Time Is Up” and “I’m Poppy”, it was almost time to go. But not before singing her classic tunes “Lowlife” and “Money”. Those took us by surprise: Poppy’s vocals were as strong as never before. Crowd participation was obviously a must, when the chorus hit at the latest. And then, during “Money”, we even got a small dance break.
Poppy truly is the next big pop star.
All in all, Poppy’s concert was an experience we wouldn’t have imagined possible. Her Am I A Girl tour stop in Berlin was weird, fun, uplifting and simply a joy to witness.
“P-O-P-P-Y, I’m Poppy!”
Three words, 12 letters. She said them. And we were hers.
Be sure to follow Poppy on Twitter and on Instagram.
Have you seen Poppy live yet? What did you think about her? Tell us all about it by reacting down below or by tweeting us @CelebMix.
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