A snowy first day of spring swept across downtown Toronto. Today was the day for firsts. The first day of spring came rolling through, although being in Canada, it still has that winter like feel to it, and Natalie Jane’s first performance in Toronto. Natalie Jane rolled onto the music scene in 2021, using the app TikTok to help flourish her singing and music career. To date, Natalie has garnered more than 9.3 million followers on the platform and collecting in over 318 million likes. Following the apps well thought out algorithm, Natalie has used it to her advantage to help kick start her music career and has allowed her to grow a following of loyal fans. Embarking on her first headlining world tour, in which we are visiting tonight, The Where Am I Again Tour arrives at Toronto’s Axis Club.
Tonight, follows the trends of using social media to your advantage to grow your career as we see opener Jessica Baio take stage. Jessica herself started her career from a young age, posting song covers to YouTube, which helped her grow 460 thousand subscribers. Jessica arrived on stage wearing oversized jeans, and a shirt with sparking rhinestones sewn into the fabric. Opening with her song “He Loves Me”, Jessica wasted no time showing off her vocal skills and connecting with fans. Holding their hands and collecting friendship bracelets, Jessica continued to perform other songs of hers like “Bad Tattoo” and “Best Friends With Your Girlfriend”. Later into her opening performance Jessica speaks with the crowd on how she married her husband Sam at a young age, and over the last 4 years they’ve been happily married, despite the stigma that arrives when marrying at 18. She mentions how prior to them both meeting they were separately in toxic relationships, and once leaving and finding each other, they are happy to have found peace in life and one another. Jessica closes out the show with her song “Someday” from her 2023 album Catalyst. A song dedicated to her husband’s father, who passed away when her husband was 10 years old. It’s a song about reassurance that no matter where he is, that his dad is always watching over him. Leaving the stage Jessica thanks the crowd and hypes everyone up for Natalie Jane’s main act.
The stage billowed with smoke, and the classic, hard to find pink Stanley mug is placed on the corner of the stage signaling Natalie Jane’s arrival at any moment. The lights shut off and the instrumental to “Where Am I?” from Natalie’s EP bearing the same name starts playing. Natalie emerges on stage dressed in white jeans and a tank top and gets straight into performing her song “Mentally Cheating”. Right from the start, Natalie showed an energetic status, by jumping, dancing and hair flipping her way across the stage. Natalie then takes a moment to slow things down, performing her track “If You Died Today”. She stood on top of an elevated part of the stage, while fans in the audience collectively held up pieces of paper that had her signature panda illustration and read, “Our Lives Would Change”. Natalie held her chest, smiling, and thanked the crowd for such an incredible moment.
After performing her song “Torture”, Natalie takes a moment to talk to the crowd, asking everyone if they’re staying hydrated, and that if anyone needs any water to let her know, and she’d make sure she’d get it to them. She then winks at the crowd and asks if anyone over the age of 21 is staying hydrated, signaling to the bar, but those closest to the stage reminded her that the drinking age in Canada is 19. She laughs and apologizes and continues into a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s song “Crazy”. The way Natalie performs this song almost made me very reminiscent of Melanie Martinez’s cover of the track from her time on The Voice. Similar to when Jessica Baio was opening, fans started trading gifts and friendships bracelets with Natalie as she swept her way back and forth across the stage as she performed a song for her OG fans “Love Is the Devil”, which was the very first track she ever released. “Love Is the Devil” transition into another one of her singles, “Red Flag”, which flowed seamlessly between the two songs.
Mentioning the elevated part of the stage earlier, after performing “Tattoo”, Natalie took the time to express her excitement about that part of the stage. She mentions how she enjoys performing and jumping up and down from it throughout the show. The stage was simple, yet unique, I personally have never seen inside a theatre show where there are LED screens attached to the ceiling both above the stage and above the crowd. Natalie wowed me with this, as someone who is fresher in the music industry, she’s already proving the quality in her work and stage design. Connecting with the fans again, Natalie asks the crowd if any of them had ever been cheated on, a few hands are raised and Natalie tells them that the venue tonight is a safe space, and if they’re comfortable to expose their names. Two fans come forward with the names Riley and Connor and mentions to the younger fans not to repeat after her, only the older fans, “who the fuck is Riley and Connor” Natalie then tells fans she’s got a surprise and performs unreleased track “Can I See You Tonight,” and lets everyone know it’s out March 29th.
Prior to starting the track “I’m Her”, Natalie speaks again with the crowd again, letting them know not to let anyone tell you how to feel. She reminds the crowd that they are in control of their own feelings, and that even you can be your own God if you want to. While performing “I’m Her”, Natalie brings out a money gun filled with paper money and runs back and forth across the stage letting it fall across the crowd. Natalie mentions that she only has a few songs left, and with that fans started shouting “Ava”, which is the singers most popular song. Natalie assured fans that the song would be performed in due time, and went on to perform “Do or Die” and “Seven” from her EP, Where Am I?. Natalie leaves the stage for a moment, and returns with the encore track “Ava”, which, if I’m honest, I don’t think I’ve heard a crowd scream a song that loud since I saw Taylor Swift perform “Out Of The Woods” as the surprise track at my Reputation Tour show back in 2018. Natalie changed up how “Ava” is produced on the album, starting off with how the song normally is, the song transitioned into a heavy hyper-pop electronic banger, with heavy bass and strobe and rave lights to match.
Natalie Jane came to the stage and brought more than what I had excepted or anticipated. She blew me away, and proved me wrong with her set design, setlist and above all her stage presence. As someone who is newer in the music industry, she is taking little time to show how hard she can really do her thing. Keep your eyes on her, I definitely see her going far!
You can stream Natalie Jane’s latest EP Where Am I? below on Spotify, and don’t forget to check out her new song “Can I See You Tonight”, which drops March 29th.
