This Is What P!nk’s Beautiful Trauma World Tour is Really Like

Written by | Entertainment, Music, Stage

Pink on her Beautiful Trauma World Tour

It’s often said that Ginger Rogers had to do everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in heels. A similar analogy can be drawn between P!nk and her diva peers.

Who among them can belt out such vocally and emotionally demanding songs while flying through the air doing aerial acrobatics? P!nk seems to do it all without breaking a sweat. She’s bringing her one-of-a-kind showmanship as part of her Beautiful Trauma Tour. The artist’s powerhouse vocals are backed by a multimedia light show and dancers fierce enough to nearly pull focus from the rebel diva.

Julia Michaels Charms as P!nk’s Opening Act

You might have caught Julia during the duets segment on American Idol as she sang her hit “Issues” with top 10 finalist Alyssa Raghu.

Having written a string of hits for people like Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Gwen Stefani, and Shawn Mendes, Julia Michaels is doing double duty as P!nk’s opening act (for select shows) while headlining her own “Inner Monologue” tour to promote her own album.

With her girl-next-door So-Cal looks and commercial pop voice, this 25-year-old from Davenport, Iowa seems to check all the boxes. Nevertheless, it’s another thing to command the Staples Center when the audience is amped for a hard-hitting rebel rocker diva like P!nk. Michaels tried her darnedest to engage the audience, asking them to turn on their cell phone lights during one of her songs.

Michaels’ set included seven of her own recordings as well as a medley of the familiar hits she wrote for others. The highlight was when she brought out James Bay for a duet of their new song “Peer Pressure” which was as ear-candy accessible as many of her other hits. The two seem to have stepped straight out of a rom-com where the emo-rocker dude (Bay) and the girl-next-door with tattoo sleeves (Michaels) find true love. Something magical happens when Julia duets with singers like Bay, as it did when she joined Niall Horan on The Late Late Show with James Corden. And while she’s adorable and mega-talented, she’s not P!nk.

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P!nk Turns up the Heat in a Spellbinding Show

P!nk took the stage in a black sequined cat suit suspended from a chandelier, singing her face off to “Get This Party Started.” Girlfriend knows how to make an entrance. And over the next 2 hours, P!nk took us on a thrill ride through her extensive body of work. The hits came one after another, along with a cavalcade of dance, animation, puppetry, pyrotechnics and aerial work.

In a little trip down memory lane, we get some early P!nk at the start of her career, expressing her philosophy on difficult subject matter with no apologies. “My pain is helping your pain,” she explained. People are drawn to P!nk for that kind of unflinching honesty in a pop music world which can easily gravitate toward mindless ear-candy.

P!nk worked the stage like a true diva, going through enough wardrobe changes to make Cher dizzy. She kept the energy high, burning through power ballads like “Try” and “What About Us” and then shifting gears into new material like “Hustle” and “Walk Me Home.” And then the artist brought us in for a landing with stripped down ballads like “Barbies” and “Glitter in the Air.”

One of my favorites of the night was the revival-tinged gospel number “I Am Here.” Before the song, P!nk told the audience this was the part of the show to cast off stuff they need to let go. She was in full rock-goddess mode, jumping and leading this spiritual purge alternating between steely grit to divinely ethereal vocals. It was cathartic and healing, a much-needed antidote to the surreal political climate.

P!nk’s Heartfelt Advice

In one particularly moving segment, P!nk shared an exchange between her and daughter Willow. Notably, P!nk shared this very personal story when she accepted the Video Vanguard Award in 2017. You can read the full text, which landed her at the top of our annual list of People We Love.

At the concert, the words were projected on screen as P!nk recounted how she reacted when her daughter explained how she felt ugly for being androgynous compared to her peers. Protective as a mama bear, P!nk was ready to attack whoever made her daughter feel this way. But instead, she took a deep breath and considered how to address her daughter’s pain.

P!nk recounts how she prepared a PowerPoint presentation showcasing androgynous superstars (Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Annie Lennox, to name a few). It was meant as a reminder that being different is beautiful and empowering.

P!nk clearly knows from personal experience what it feels like to be judged for not looking like everyone else. In the most eloquent way, the artist acknowledged her daughter’s pain and flipped the narrative. Let us hope she succeeded in instilling a sense of inner confidence that will last a lifetime.

Thinking P!nk

This review was based on P!nk’s performance at the Los Angeles Staples Center. The “Beautiful Trauma World Tour” continues through October 5th. Upcoming stops include Montreal (May 17-18) and NYC (May 21-22), before she continues on to Europe. P!nk’s new album Hurts 2B Human dropped April 26th. Get tickets and more info here.

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Last modified: May 17, 2019