Ariana Grande concert review
By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist
5/5
On Friday, March 24, Ariana Grande came back to Vancouver with her second major tour, the Dangerous Woman Tour, which is one of the biggest concerts in this year’s Vancouver concert calendar. Grande performed to a sold-out audience that consisted of mainly teenagers and a few men, including me, and she definitely gave the fans what they wanted.
The concert began with a 10-minute countdown in which we saw Grande getting ready for the show and various people touching her hair. Also, we saw two of her backup dancers, and when they tried to hear the audience, the audience cheered.
She performed the first song in the concert, “Be Alright,” which had choreography and graphics that were reminiscent of the music video of the Madonna song “Vogue,” and during the song Grande and all of her backup dancers had rainbow tears. A few seconds after Grande began performing, the curtain fell down to reveal a big screen that was very wide and bigger than the screen that was in her previous tour, The Honeymoon Tour.
She performed every song on her recent album Dangerous Woman except for the bonus tracks in the deluxe version or the Target Exclusive version of the album, though she performed “Jason’s Song” at her New York show. She also performed songs from her previous album My Everything.
The graphics and transitions in the concert were visually brilliant, and there were even sometimes graphics on the floor. After she performed “Let Me Love You,” the graphics took us forward into a room with colourful windows, we saw her with a light shining on her, and she sang a new song that was either made for the concert or maybe a hint of a song from her next album.
There was then a transition where we saw Grande with white hair and various words were shown on screen including “divine,” “don’t want it,” and “human,” leading up to “female,” relating to feminism, a theme in Dangerous Woman.
For the first half of the concert, the audience sang along with her, but in the second half, they did not sing a lot and only sang quietly. This was so that everyone could hear her sing. The highlight of the concert was when she sang “Greedy” and confetti shot out into the air.
There were other interesting moments in the show. When she sang “Sometimes,” balloons fell into the audience. During one song, she twirled the straps that were in the coat that she was wearing like a baton. At one point, one of her backup dancers accidently hit her and she kept on going. When she sang “Moonlight,” outer space was shown on the screen and the floor.
Before the actual concert began, there were two special guests. Victoria Monét was there, who seemed a lot like Janet Jackson, and Little Mix was there as well, which was interesting because they sang a lot of songs that I’ve heard on the radio.
Overall, the concert was better than Grande’s previous concert, and after the concert I found out that she performed while having a cold. Also, I could have seen her and talked to her if I’d won in the What Would You Do? contest in her fan club on Bkstg (Formally Fahlo). Unfortunately, I did not check the app and I missed the deadline to enter the contest. Maybe I’ll see her on her next tour.
