The torrential downpour in London just won’t end, but that hasn’t put a stop to Griff’s fans queuing all day in the rain for a chance at getting barricade for the London show of her spring tour. She’s been touring around Europe and the UK for the past few weeks to celebrate her Vertigo EPs, and tonight is the final night.

The Roundhouse, one of London’s most beloved venues, is packed out for her hometown show. The BRIT Awards Rising Star 2021 winner (she was only 20 and became one of the youngest ever winners in the category) is well-prepped for tonight’s show, with an impressive roster of her own shows and support shows under her belt, including opening for Dua Lipa, Coldplay and Ed Sheeran. She’s been releasing music since 2019, meaning we’ve got a lot to look forward to tonight, but mainly we’re here to celebrate vert1go vol. 1, the EP Griff released in December of last year, and the upcoming release of Ver2igo vol.2.

In a classic Gen Z move, she was styled to perfection, her hair was tied back in double bubble plaits and styled in a mustard yellow Miu Miu top and skirt co-ord. The multi-faceted pop star started the show with an instrumental intro where she climbed up on a ladder and spray painted the night’s date and location onto one of the banners hanging at the back of the stage, alongside the rest of the dates from this tour.

To kick off, she performed the first track of the night, ‘Black Hole’. With over 103 million streams on Spotify, this is one of her biggest and most popular tracks to date, and it went down a treat. The crowd matched her excited energy immediately, loudly and clearly singing back lyrics like ‘There’s a big black hole where my heart used to be / And I’ve tried my best to fill it up with things I don’t need / It don’t work like that, no, it’s not easy’. While the lyrics of Griff’s songs are often emotionally raw and vulnerable, commenting on difficulties and pain in relationships, the crowd never fails to sing her words back to her with excitement and joy.

Her work taps into those difficult interpersonal situations that we all experience, making her music an all-encompassing experience.

She continued with ‘Walk’, ‘One Foot’ and her collaboration with Sigrid, ‘Head On Fire’. Next up was ‘One Night’ where she performed a choreographed dance with a glittery silver dancer. After this, the crowd already hyped by her effortlessly killing the choreography while still singing perfectly, she asked ‘Can I come down?’ She parted the crowd and performed the next few tracks on a B stage, right in the centre of the room.

After performing an acoustic cover of Taylor Swift’s ‘Blank Space’ (she knows her Gen Z audience well, and even pointed out how she could hear them singing the 10-minute version of ‘All Too Well’ from backstage before the show began). She gave us a little hint of future releases too, performing ‘So Fast’, of which she said she wasn’t sure if or when it’ll come out. After this, she was back to the main stage, performing on the piano and completing a section of brand-new songs, giving us a sneak peak of her new EP, ver2igo vol. 2, which was released a few days later. Of the EP, Griff said that she feels a ‘new sense of euphoria’ with these tracks. She immediately plunges into a vulnerable and gut-wrenching track, ‘Hole In My Pocket’, which she said is about losing things at such a rapid rate you get to a point where you feel like there’s nothing left.

She brought out her dancers for ‘Miss Me Too’, released only a month ago, before performing the EP title track: ‘Vertigo’. She ended the night by singing ‘Astronaut’ while fake snow cascaded down on her. The song, written in collaboration with Coldplay’s Chris Martin, is a gentle yet raw piano ballad, with lyrics including ‘You said that you needed space, go on then, astronaut / and when you come back down to earth, bet I’ll be the one you call’ and ‘When you realise there’s nothing out there, but matter and emptiness / you let a good thing go’ leaving us emotional and in our feelings.

Griff is a star on the rise, and it’s a privilege to see her perform live. Keep an eye out on her socials and website to see when she’ll be back on tour!

Ver2igo vol. 2 is out now.

SETLIST

Black Hole
Walk
One Foot
Head On Fire
One Night
Shade of Yellow
Earl Gray
So Fast
Good Stuff
Into The Walls
19^th Hour
Hole In My Pocket
Pillow In My Arms
Cycles
Miss Me Too
Vertigo
Astronaut