Live Review: KING PRINCESS @ The Forum Theatre

On Friday Mikaela Straus aka King Princess, played her first Melbourne show, of her first EVER headline tour, and at the Forum Theatre no less! Playing to a room of approximately 1,500 people on a first trip to a country is a nothing short of amazing!

King Princess who is signed to Mark Ronson’s label Zelig Records. The 19 year old has become an icon in the LGBQT community, with her anthemic same sex love tracks. Opening the show with the art house track ‘Make My Bed‘. The song sets up the rest of the show. While its not the type of track you can sing along to, it opens her EP so its fitting the singer too opens her live show with the same track.

The singer then sang two songs unknown to me, whether they were new or extremely old was unclear. If they are unreleased tracks for a future album I will say we’re in for a treat when that full-length album finally drops! Speaking of albums, there were a few crowd members attempting to ‘heckle’ King Princess at one point during the show. Asking her it “Drop the album!”, to which she responded “I’m not done with it! When I’m done with it you’ll get it, and it’s gonna be FIERCE!!” which was met with a sea off laughter and applause from the remainder of the audience.

King Princess, performed with a small band, in a basic oversized suit, and with nothing but a party banner spelling out “King Princess” in terms of visuals. But the thing is that’s all she needed. Anything more would’ve subtracted form the raw energy and talent exuded throughout her performance!

The singer is so fresh and unrefined, it could come off as unprofessional as she walks onstage with a beer joking that she’s already drunk, but the confidence & pure cheek manifest in another way entirely, leading you to feel as though you’re friends with the pop star, crazy I know, she just feels so accessible which is a nice chance from the people I’m used to seeing on stage.

During one of her more popular tracks ‘Talia’ the crowd were wrapped together singing along emotionally at the top of their lungs, an ode to lost love. It was beautiful! For a artist with very few songs released, I was surprised when one of the 6 songs released was not played. Holy was missing from the setlist and I am still confused as to why.

The singer had released a brand new song the day of the concert ‘Pussy Is God’ which also did not make the set list, however Straus addressed why, chalking it up to the band simply not knowing it well enough to play live yet. Which is totally fair! She did however (to nobodies surprise) play her number 1 song, which Billboard recently named one of the 50 best songs of 2018 so far ‘1950’. The singer joked that ‘1950’ is the song that started everything for her, and how she’ll probably be playing it for the rest of her life. The song is an anthem, especially for those of lesbian orientation. “The inspiration behind ‘1950’ was… gay history,” she states, “And the way that our people had to hide in public, and how that affected the way that we love each other now.”

Overall a fantastic show. I’ll be keeping close watch over this one. Huge 2019 expected for Miss King Princess.