Primavera Sound, Barcelona review: Charli XCX lets fans down, but Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan soar
Who runs the world? If the music industry is anything to go by, it's the girls. Pop is now dominated by solo female superstars, and so it made perfect sense for Primavera Sound – one of Europe's largest festivals – to turn to the holy trinity of Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan to headline this year.
A huge Powerpuff Girls statue designed to look like the three singers welcomed festival goers to the sprawling site in Barcelona, and from there began three days of agenda-setting pop, rock and electronica.
The first evening featured the weakest of the three sets: an oddly flat, disjointed affair courtesy of XCX and her frequent collaborator Troye Sivan, reunited to bring their much-hyped 'Sweat' tour to Europe. XCX has had an incredible 12 months, riding high off the success of last year's viral album Brat.
But her set let the thousands of fans who had turned up in Brat-themed lime green merchandise (and paid €350 for tickets) down: it began not with her own anthems, such as 360 or Club Classics, but a staid three-song run from Sivan. To sum up how much of a vibe killer this was, I caught a girl next to me Googling, 'Who is Troye Sivan?' midway through his rendition of Got Me Started. Once XCX finally arrived on stage, her stripped-back production – a green curtain, some flashing lights – and propensity for miming did little to help. Those who criticised Glastonbury for not choosing her as a headliner this year would have been wise to watch this set. It just wasn't good enough.
Thank heavens, then, for the subsequent pair: Carpenter and Roan, both newer artists whose ascent to pop's big leagues has been a mere two years in the making, were exceptional.
Carpenter has put sexy, old-school glamour back at the heart of pop, her songs flitting between Britney-esque ditties and scathing takedowns of ex-boyfriends. Themed around a 1950s variety show, the set opened with the US singer shimmying along to Busy Woman, before she treated the audience to chart-topping hits like Please Please Please, Taste and Espresso; country-influenced new track Man Child also got its first live outing.
Roan rounded off the weekend, and proved, once again, that she is exactly the sort of boundary-pushing artist the industry has been crying out for. Not since Lady Gaga has a pop artist's debut album – in Roan's case, the superb The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (2023) – become such an overnight classic. Its most popular singles (Pink Pony Club, Hot to Go!) were electric live. Dressed in an array of medieval princess-inspired costumes, Roan's soaring vocals never suffered for a second as a result of all the bells and whistles.
There was also plenty on offer for those not into bubblegum pop, from indie bands at the absolute peak of their powers – Wolf Alice, Fontaines D.C., LCD Soundsystem – to gorgeous Americana (Waxahatchee) and ferocious hardcore (Turnstile). Excellent weather, an expertly curated lineup and €5 beer – what more could you want from a festival?
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Daily Mail
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
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