Karate Moves & Heart Shaped Balloons
With a Belgian flag tied around her neck like a superhero cape, she entered the sold out venue and started off her set with an unreleased song, “Cry”. But of course with smartphones and Youtube these days… a lot of the fans in the crowd already knew the lyrics and sang along real loud. After that came “Do It Right”. What a song, what a performance. Anne-Marie showed off her past as a karate world champion by demonstrating some real kick ass fight moves every time after the sentence “If it’s me and you, we gotta fight”.
Then it was time for the oh so infectious hit “Heavy”. The concert hall exploded. She didn’t even have to sing the chorus, the fans did it for her. After a mash-up of her three oldest songs – “Karate”, “Gemini” and “Stole” – things got real. When the first notes of “Perfect” started blasting through the speakers and Anne-Marie initiated the beautiful lyrics about how not looking like a supermodel is perfectly okay, fans started holding up heart shaped balloons. The singer’s eyes started glimmering, you could see how truly happy she was.
On a stage full with heart shaped balloons, she said: “It’s ironic how I’m now surrounded with love, and I’m just about to sing a song about being a bad girlfriend. Anyway. Girls, don’t sing this song in front of your boyfriends or girlfriends, because it might give the wrong impression.” “Bad Girlfriend” was followed by the very singalong-able songs “Alarm” and “Breathing Fire”.
Egg Throwing Competition
The most emotional moment of the evening was “Peak”, without a doubt. As Anne-Marie proved once again how amazing she is vocally, I noticed some people around me wiping away a tear. After that, it was time to spice things up again. Someone in the crowd threw Easter bunny ears at her, and she wore them during “Trigger”, a song with a very strong message: we don’t need to pull the trigger.
“Used To Love You” was preceded by a very simple but clear explanation: “This song is called ‘Used To Love You’, because I used to. And now I don’t.” After that, Anne-Marie decided to play Easter bunny again… She had a little basket with chocolate eggs for her fans, but before she started throwing them around, she warned: “Try not to get hurt, please. I don’t want a lawsuit”. The egg throwing became a competition between the singer and her bass player. Anne-Marie ended up being the winner, as she managed to throw an egg to the furtest balcony.
