With her new show "Beautiful Trauma", P!nk cements her status as one of the most impressive live performers of her generation. After six years, she is finally coming back to Switzerland in summer 2019. The songs on her setlist reflect 20 years of creative artistry from a musician who has uncompromisingly shaped her own career. Let's get the party started! From the first to the last song of the upcoming tour.
It's a long way from Doylestown/Pennsylvania to Hollywood and out into the world. The road from a white-fenced American suburb at home to the stages of the world. For Alecia Beth Moore, however, it was always clear that she wanted to go. Without compromise. There was never an alternative to the life of a rock star for the singer, who was born in 1979.
"Get the party started"
After an incredible recorder intro, the curtain rises on P!nk's seventh world tour "Beautiful Trauma". In a silver bodysuit, the performer hangs 20 meters above the stage from a chandelier and starts the show with one of her biggest hits. Within the first five minutes, it becomes clear why P!nk is one of the most popular artists of our time. She sings upside down better than most people who have both feet firmly on the ground. As she says, it even seems to be easier for her: "I don't sing arias, that wouldn't sound good at all hanging in the air. But screaming is easier when you're hanging from your legs," explains P!nk. "Because I sing live, it's a challenge to push the performance to the point where it's just about possible to offer the fans a spectacle at the same time as singing. Both have to come into play at the same time." She succeeds right from the start - and the critics are right when they write: "If you think you've seen a show like this before, then you must have been to Cirque du Soleil."
"Beautiful Trauma"
Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
The party continues with a beautiful ballad and the title track from her latest album. The second song already lets the audience experience this incredible voice that has been thrilling the masses for 20 years now. With her lyrics, P!nk lets herself look deep into her soul and her life. "Beautiful Trauma" aptly describes what a relationship feels like when the pink clouds and infatuation have faded, but the love is here to stay. "Marriage is difficult," she says in an interview. "It's a constant up and down and requires hard work." Their relationship has been through ups and downs. Despite everything, she and her husband, motorcross rider Carey Hart, seem to have stuck together since 2001.
"Smells Like Teen Spirit"
As with her early concerts, this time too
cover versions on the setlist. Whether hits by Queen, 4 Non Blondes, No Doubt or Aerosmith - there is no style or genre that she has not mastered. This time, the Nirvana classic "Smells Like Teen Spirit" stands out in particular. P!nk tries her hand at grunge and rocks the number that many other artists would fail at with flying colors. For years, P!nk has been covering her favorite artists and entertainers - and fans are discovering Freddie Mercury, Linda Perry and Kurt Cobain anew or for the first time.
"Fuckin' perfect"
What bras are to Mick Jagger, plush frogs are to P!nk. This goes back to an unpleasant encounter with a real frog at a rest stop. The frog had made itself comfortable on her foot. One shock and a tattoo later, the ritual was born. The plush frog toss is an integral part of her shows and testifies to the special relationship between the star and her fans. The frog queen of all freaks, ricochet and outsider talks to the audience in a way that only she can. She sees writing about imperfect perfection as "therapy" - and the concerts as a "session of a self-help group". When her management tried to force her into the then over-sugared role of a pop singer in the late nineties, P!nk successfully fought back. "I'm a mixture of Janis Joplin and Madonna," she described herself. It was in her wake that authentic performers such as Katy Perry, Rihanna and Jessie J became possible. Unlike the Spice Girls did back then with their girl power, P!nk brought female power to the stage - and into the charts.
"Raise your glass"
A glass needs to be raised - to toast to this incredible team that P!nk brings to the stage. Starting with the musicians, who have not only been loyal to her for years - friendship is celebrated here - through to the dancers and acrobats, who form a framework around the powerhouse in a way that only a well-rehearsed troupe can. Without this teamwork, acrobatic acts such as those in their current show would not be possible. The audience realizes this at the latest when their idol suddenly somersaults over their heads. You can sense that P!nk wants to connect with each audience member individually - and that she tries to get as close to her audience as possible.
"So what"
The artist also stands up for outsiders and minorities off stage. She repeatedly campaigns for LGBTQ rights, acts as an ambassador for the animal rights organization PETA and campaigns against racism. When she was presented with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the 2017 VMAs, P!nk gave a moving speech. After her six-year-old daughter Willow said on the way to school: "Mom, I'm the ugliest girl in the whole school!
I look like a boy with long hair", she took the time to put together a PowerPoint presentation - to show her daughter and the rest of the world at the awards ceremony what androgyny and beauty really mean. A body that is too muscular? Too strong an opinion? A look that is too masculine? All this has already been said and written about Alecia Beth Moore. Is that why she grows her hair long? Does she change her body to conform to beauty ideals? No! Does she still fill arenas all over the world? Yes! This is certainly due to her uncompromising way of dealing with life.
