Review: Baby Queen at Dot To Dot Festival
Review: Baby Queen at Dot To Dot Festival
On March 29th, Baby Queen (Arabella Latham) performed at the Dot to Dot Festival at The Level.
As it grew closer to 20:45, the venue started filling up with fans eagerly waiting for the ‘Want Me’ singer.
Opening with ‘Internet Religion’ (Bella’s first release), exactly 2 years from the day it was first released. The track discusses the internet, its impact on today’s generation and their relationships with others.
The high-energy tracks ‘Raw Thoughts’ and ‘Wannabe’ followed, whilst the crowd continued to buzz with excitement, screaming every lyric. Bella commented how this was her first time performing in Nottingham but she had visited before as an ex lived here.
The next track she performed off her 2021 debut mixtape ‘The Yearbook’ was ‘These Drugs’, still keeping the raw and starkly honest lyrics Bella is renowned for, but bringing the mood down of the crowd, singing about her substance abuse and self-hatred.
The crowd was treated to an unreleased track, ‘Nobody Really Cares’ giving us a glimpse of what is to be expected next. Singing about how nobody cares what you do – everybody is too busy worrying about what others think about them to think about other people, Bella brought the atmosphere of the crowd back to the high-energy gig we had before.
‘Buzzkill’ continued to get the crowd springing up and down, and even Bella couldn’t stop herself from jumping down off the stage and leaping over the barrier to join the crowd in the mosh pit, sparking the crowd’s faces up.
Before the next track, Bella interacted with the crowd, asking them to introduce themselves so we could all become friends. “Hi I’m Paul and I’m a teacher!” screams one fan into the mic – the audience roars in response. “I’m Bella and I’m a f***ing narcissist!”. Bella then proceeded to perform her satirical single ‘Narcissist’.
Another unreleased track ‘Lazy’ further teased the crowd about Bella’s next project, with honest lyrics about how Bella is lazy, which you could sense everyone in the crowd could relate to. At the end of this song, Bella ran off stage, exclaiming she would be sick. On stage, the band kept playing, keeping the bewildered and concerned crowd eager for Bella’s possible return.
After a few moments, Bella bolted back onto the stage and quickly apologised, exclaiming she isn’t normally sick until after the gig when no-one would know, but she had to finish the show! She concluded her set with ‘Want Me’, recently included on the hit Netflix show ‘Heartstopper’. ‘Want Me’ a high-energy, convivial song about Bella’s crush on Jodie Comer (from Killing Eve), including a bridge entirely in French and left the crowd buzzing for her return to Nottingham.
A phenomenal set and first performance in Nottingham from Baby Queen!
By: Callum Anderson
Images:
First – Callum Anderson
Second – Ciara McCann
