Sam Ryder, Gwen Stefani and P!NK
BST Hyde Park // London, England // 24 June 2023
Review by Sophie Jones
It’s Saturday 24 June, which means it’s day one of two where P!NK headlines the Great Oak Stage as a part of her Summer Carnival tour. With support coming from Gwen Stefani (with surprise guest Eve), Sam Ryder and more, the crowd was in for a weekend of spectacular live music at the American Express presents BST Hyde Park.
After making my way across London in the soaring heat the U.K. is experiencing currently, I arrived in time to see Sam Ryder take to the stage in a crochet blue long cardigan accompanied with shorts with yellow smiley faces all over.
Now, most people would recognise Sam, who broke into the music scene in 2020 after becoming a musical success on TikTok, following his journey on Eurovision – he performed his hit song “Space Man,” a cover of Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and Paramore’s hit track “Misery Business.” Before leaving the stage, he thanked London’s Hyde Park for making his birthday the best day ever.
Up next was the powerhouse that is Gwen Stefani; she kicked her setlist off with a bang with “Sweet Escape” and featured other great solo material along with some No Doubt classics thrown in for good measure, such as “What You Waiting For?,” “Hollaback Girl” and “Hey Baby.”
Stefani owned that stage as if she was the headline act and revealed during her time up there that it had been 16 years since she last performed in London. She said, “Thank you, P!NK for letting me come on stage. Thank you for listening to my music for all these years. I’ve not played London for 16 years, so thank you for having me back.” She continued to interact with the fans throughout, dazzling us all with costume changes, including some items I’d like to have in my own wardrobe.
The audience went wild cheering when Gwen surprised us all and was joined on stage by American rapper and singer Eve for “Rich Girl” and “Let Me Blow Ya Mind.” To close out her set, she finished with the classic everyone loves and how most people learned to spell BANANAS, “Hollaback Girl.”
Gwen Stefani Setlist:
The Sweet Escape
Sunday Morning (No Doubt Song)
Hey Baby (No Doubt Song)
It’s My Life (Talk Talk Cover)
Underneath It All (No Doubt Song)
Hella Good (No Doubt Song)
Harajuku Girls (Instrumental)
Rich Girl (Feat. Eve)
Let Me Blow Your Mind (Feat. Eve)
True Babe
Don’t Speak (No Doubt Song)
Wind It Up
What You Waiting For?
Spiderwebs (No Doubt Song)
Just a Girl
Hollaback Girl
Now, P!NK knows how to make an entrance as she appeared behind a pair of huge lips suspended in the air flanked by giant silver palm trees, a giant disco ball and one huge melted studded ice cream cone with a walkway down the center of the stage. She then dropped in off a bungee cord. She continued bouncing and flipping while performing “Get The Party Started.” Now, THAT’S how you make an entrance.
P!NK then took a breather to say, “How the hell is everybody doing tonight?,” she asked the crowd. “Thank you for coming to play with us… You guys ready to sweat?”, I feel so honoured to be here. What was it, like, 15 years when I was last here at Hyde Park? You’re all so beautiful…”
P!NK continued to wow her 70,000+-strong crowd at Hyde Park as the sun set with her jam-packed catalogue of hits spanning her 23-year career. Along the way, she was gifted many boxes and packets of Malteaser chocolates, to which she joked and said she now had so many she could take a bath in them. She also got gifted a giant cheese wheel and so many frog-related items, to which she shared, “You’ve been giving me frogs since ‘99 (as she chuckled). That’s a lot of frogs, I used to have a whole room in my house full of them, but Carey was like, ‘Babe that’s super weird’ so we have donated them all to children hospitals. So please keep them coming; you’re making very sick children very happy.”
To end the night, she took to the skies (literally) to perform “So What,” flying around a good portion of Hyde Park on wires whilst performing somersaults and flips and positioning herself on podiums across the park so everyone could get a close-up glimpse of her before taking to the skies again and singing flawlessly as always. As the night ended, a beautiful firework display was set off just behind the stage, filling the dark sky with dazzling sparkles of colours.
P!NK’s SETLIST:
Intro Montage (Included elements of Raise Your Glass)
Get The Party Started
Raise Your Glass
Who Knew
Just Like a Pill
Try
What About Us (Dance Remix)
Heartbeat (Interlude)
Turbulence
Family Portrait (Piano Interlude)
Make You Feel My Love (Bob Dylan cover, P!NK played on piano)
Just Give Me A Reason
Fuckin’ Perfect
Just Like Fire
Please Don’t Leave Me (Acoustic)
Cover Me In Sunshine (feat. Willow)
Kids In Love
When I Get There
I Am Here
Irrelevant (Extended outro)
Smoke (Interlude)
No Ordinary Love (Sade cover)
Runaway
Are You Gonna Fall? (Spoken word interlude)
Trustfall
Blow Me One Last Kiss
Never Gonna Not Dance Again
Encore:
Last Call
So What
