P!nk gets the party started with her own acrobatic carnival

MUSIC
P!nk ★★★★
Marvel Stadium, February 23

Back in Australia for another phenomenally successful tour, it’s P!nk! In a sparkly leotard and swinging on a trapeze! As her 2001 carnivalesque mega-hit Get the Party Started kicks off the night, P!nk climbs into a harness, does a few flips, and sings verse two while hanging upside down.

When P!nk takes to the stage, spelling out the word “party” is unnecessary. Credit: Richard Clifhton

Across the night P!nk makes up for being a relatively small person in a 70,000-odd-seat stadium by traversing a huge amount of it on a rope, flinging around the arena among fireworks like, at this distance, a moth. Her energy never falters, and her voice soars despite the acrobatics.

Meanwhile, on stage, it’s like a party slash zumba class. Fitballs, trampolines, grinning buff men in neon, all fuelled by high-energy pop. Dancers on pink inflatable flamingo Segways careen down the stage catwalk. Ten metres up, trapeze artists spin under enormous bunches of bananas. The atmosphere is infectious.

Much has been said about P!nk’s massive Australian following. According to her publicists, this is the biggest-selling tour ever for a female artist in Australia and New Zealand, with more than 900,000 attendees across twenty dates, including four nights here at Marvel Stadium. The crowd is predominantly women, the atmosphere is infectious, and there’s big fun aunt energy in the
room.

The Melbourne concert was a neon extravaganza for the fans at Marvel Stadium.Credit: Richard Clifford

In her two-decade career, she’s crossed genres from RnB to disco, but is mostly known for her Punk Spice-esque image: sassy, tongue out, rebellious, but safe, warm, cheeky. Many of her songs are frankly pretty mid, but her lyrics resonate with people for their two-fingers-up catharsis — “Just when it can’t get worse / I’ve had a shit day”, she sings on Blow Me (One Last Kiss) — and straight-up dumb fun — “Don’t be fancy / Just get dancey”, she cries on Raise Your Glass. To her people, she’s an everywoman — a bit of a rebel, a self-described “drunk aunt”, a mother (her 12-year-old daughter Willow joins her on-stage for a duet), and a preacher of universal truths.

Punk Spice or not, mid or not, this isn’t just a concert, it’s the Summer Carnival Tour, and P!nk’s music has never made more sense to me than here. The DayGlo disco of Never Gonna Not Dance Again, from her most recent album, is a peak of the night, before P!nk gets on the ropes again and spins through the crowd to tonight’s closing number, her ode to marital separation So What. ‘I wanna get in trouble / I wanna start a fight’, she sings, safely, reassuringly, from her harness.

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