Ariana Grande just wrapped up the Melbourne leg of her Australian tour, and while she can’t do any wrong in the eyes of true blue Arianators – and boy, no one was lying about her amazing voice – Monday night’s show did lack a few arena show essentials. Here are our observations...
- There was no support act. The lack of a warm-up act seemed a little strange considering Grande had Brit pop act Little Mix on the ill-fated European leg of her world tour. And sure, everyone was there for the pint-sized popstar, but the lack of a warm-up did mean that the crowd didn’t seem as pumped as the could have been when Grande showed up on stage.
- She really does have great pipes. Girl might be little more than five feet tall even in her signature super high thigh-high boots, but when you pull impressive improv vocal acrobatics over screaming fans for close to two hours, you’re doing something right.
- There was a definite lack of banter. Hey Ari, we get that you’ve probably spent many months doing the same show over and over again, but when thousands of people have paid upwards of $150 to see you in all your glory it’s nice if you can say a bit more than "Give me some noise Melbourne!"
- The crowd loved her little nod to the same-sex marriage campaign. It was lovely to see a row of queer teens, twenty-something fans, and knee-high boot-clad teeny boppers and their parents sitting near the front of the stage react when the screen showed animations of same-sex couples during her performance of ‘Thinking ‘Bout You’. It wasn’t purpose-made for her Australian tour (she’s used the same imagery throughout her global Dangerous Woman tour), but it’s a nice touch.
- Things got teary halfway through. It was impossible not to feel for those killed and wounded in the Manchester attack – and Grande herself – when she sang ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’, her chosen tribute to the victims.
- What, no encore? When the show finished with the coquettish title track 'Dangerous Woman' and wasn’t followed up by a curtain call, many in the audience lingered because it felt more like a pause than the end of the show. Ariana, we love you – but we needed more.