MARINA AT THE MET IN PHILADELPHIA
If you are a fan of Marina at all then you know that you can’t miss her when she comes around to tour. After dropping her newest album “Love + Fear” back in April this year, she has embarked on the US leg of the “Love + Fear” tour, bringing along a fresh new mindset to her performance. Previously known under the name “Marina and the Diamonds” she’s dropped the Diamonds from her name to connect more with who she is as a person, and that really comes through in her performance on stage.
Starting the night off was singer/songwriter, Daya. She started her set off with her massive hit “Sit Still, Look Pretty” to familiarize the audience with her music. From there on, she bounced around the stage performing other songs in her catalogue while being backed by an all female band. Daya got the audience dancing and ready for the rest of the night before performing what is arguably the single she’s most well known for, “Don’t Let Me Down”.
When Marina hit the stage there was an explosion of energy from the audience. The last time the US had seen Marina for a full tour was back in 2015 for her “Neon Nature Tour”. You could only imagine how exciting it can be for her fan base (who’s known to be quite diehard) to finally get to see one of their favorite artists for the first time in four years. Marina started her show off with “Handmade Heaven”, the opening track to her newest album. From there she threw it back to earlier work with “Hollywood” and had the entire venue screaming her lyrics as she flitted around the stage, all smiles. Different from before, Marina used a backing track as opposed to the live band many might be used to seeing, but she now has a bunch of back up dancers to fill the stage, performing beautiful ballet-like routines as well as the poppy dances you’d expect to see from her music. She played through hits such as “I Am Not a Robot”, “Froot”, and “Baby”.
For this tour she’s split her set into two parts, the first being the “Love” half and the second being the “Fear” half. The setlist has a great mix of newer and older tracks to appease any era of Marina fans. While performing she has a screen backdrop to play clips from music videos, as well as to add visuals to her performance. Back up dancers brought out many different props such as pom poms or lights to frame Marina throughout the performance. Visually, it was so beautiful and fun to watch. In addition to a visually great performance, Marina has such an angelic voice. She delivered a vocally flawless performance while also sitting down to play piano for certain songs.
Marina ended her set with “How to Be a Heartbreaker” and the entire venue erupted into applause and shouts for more. If you get the chance to see Marina on this run of her tour, I highly recommend that you do not hesitate to make it out to see such a talented artist.
Nicole DiBenedetto is a photographer based out of New Jersey. She likes making new friends and meeting new people so catch her out in the pit and say hi!