Robyn madison square garden. Concert Review: Robyn Enraptures Madison Square Garden 2019-11-22

Robyn

An armada of queers and outsiders had just taken over the most iconic stadium on the continent. It began slowly, with the musicians, dressed almost entirely in white, slowly filing onto the almost-entirely-white stage as dry ice and giant gauzy curtains billowed and a slow electronic rhythm began. But screw the cynicism: The show was a miracle, the kind of night that could only happen in New York. They weren't dancing on their own! It made me feel like I was 18, at my first gay club, before I knew that I was supposed to judge everything. As the first verse led up to the chorus, the music dropped out and — an artist who, even for a traditionally modest Swede, has never seemed comfortable with the self-aggrandizement of being a pop star — let the crowd take over, leading them through the entire chorus without once speaking into the mic. And after 18,000-odd people had finished singing the chorus of her song, Robyn paused, tearing up as she thanked the crowd and soaked it all in, before finishing the song to yet more pandemonium.

Robyn’s Madison Square Garden Show Inspires NYC Subway Dance Party

Social media was abuzz with videos showing the wild commotion as dozens of concertgoers sang along to the 39-year-old singer's hits like 'Dancing On My Own' and 'Call Your Girlfriend. It was a typically unpredictable and self-effacing finale for an artist whose artful ongoing balance of crowd-pleasing and muse-pleasing has brought her to the biggest stage of Madison Square Garden without an ounce of compromise. We all knew one another. . She waited eight long years to release a follow up her wildly beloved 2010 record Body Talk. As we exited the stadium, the bridge-and-tunnel judgments from earlier in the night suddenly felt cheap.

Robyn Concert Setlist at Madison Square Garden, New York on March 8, 2019

But it felt for a minute like there was possibility on our side. It is the singer's first album since 'Body Talk', which came out in 2010. The night opened with Channel Tres and frequent Robyn collaborator Kindness, performing on a sculptural, white, perfectly Swedish set—littered with sheets and sculpture, and draped with a massive white scrim. Who knew what kind of crowd Madison Square Garden would attract. And we'll wait, for another eight years if we have to, to get it again. Catharsis could now be defined with simply a video of the nearly 20,000 people in the Garden while the Swedish pop star bathed in our sweaty, glitter-clad adoration.

Concertgoers party on NYC subway platform after Robyn gig at Madison Square Garden

After the New York performance, Robyn is headed to perform at The Anthem in Washington D. The focused, prayer-like delivery, the all-white stage, the thousands of supplicating fans—it reminded me of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. One user posted video of the moment and said that 'after the show is the after party! She left her major label and founded her own to creatively liberate herself. We would go on to finish what Robyn started, back in our separate tribes, dancing shirtless with the Carry Nation at Good Room or melding into the delirium of Papi Juice at Nowadays. Scroll down for video Share The crowd had been waiting on a Queens bound E train to arrive. No matter how popular they might be, at nine concerts out of ten an artist is going to save their biggest hit for last — not only to build anticipation and give the audience a reason to stick around, but also as a kind of making-it-worth-the-wait master stroke.

Robyn turned Madison Square Garden into a queer temple

To make it literal would have been the performance. For women, for fans beyond the gender binary, for anyone in the room who knows what it is like to live silently in heartbreak, she was finally giving us a language. . The pixie empress Robyn walked on stage, and the dream began. But I think music gives people a break, where they can recharge and then maybe change themselves.

Robyn turned Madison Square Garden into a queer temple

But to see an arena packed with men celebrating vulnerability, heartbreak and free love, rather than violence, sex and money. The arc was open, the priestess was here. . It was offered to us, with love, by Robyn. The show was built for dancing, with the songs often seguing or flowing into each other, several hits performed in their less-familiar remix versions, and there were multiple dance interludes during the set where the bass cranked up and the beat leveled off and she was joined by a dancer or two, occasionally breaking into synchronized moves with them.

Robyn turned Madison Square Garden into a queer temple

Robyn does whatever the fuck she wants. We were all exposed now. After the New York performance, Robyn is headed to perform at The Anthem in Washington D. The show could have gone in any direction: Her 2018 album Honey is far more sparse and experimental than the jumbo-sized pop fantasy Body Talk. Nobody was going to forget this. The Swedish songstress is currently on the North American leg of her 'Honey' tour.

Robyn turned Madison Square Garden into a queer temple

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