gbaby
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Post by gbaby on Oct 19, 2021 10:29:16 GMT -5
I'm finally giving her a real shot, and I'm digging what I'm hearing! So much talent.
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Jack
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Post by Jack on Oct 19, 2021 12:45:32 GMT -5
See, I thought that Colbert performance was very good. I'm in complete disagreement with a lot of people about her SNL performance. I came online wincing expecting Lana SNL style draggings and was amazed to see praise. Very tense, strained vocals, fidgity discomfort and just overall poor looks and set up (the Forrest Gump thing was kinda cool I guess, but could have been better executed). The camera roll performance especially; she seems to have gotten away with "zomg she was too emotional to sing it properly" but I didn't get that at all. I thought it was a bit of a train wreck, and she looked like she thought so too. The spin seems to have worked for it though, and I'm glad because star-crossed is great.
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Post by The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 on Oct 20, 2021 17:19:38 GMT -5
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gbaby
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Post by gbaby on Oct 21, 2021 13:03:29 GMT -5
I've had her music on repeat for the last three days. I'm sad it has taken me this long to get into her music, but glad to have finally gotten it together!
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taylor
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Post by taylor on Oct 21, 2021 13:24:51 GMT -5
This is so incredibly deserved. It's about damn time her voice was heard on the radio somewhere.
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Troublemaker
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Post by Troublemaker on Oct 21, 2021 22:16:01 GMT -5
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Juan Carlos
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Post by Juan Carlos on Oct 27, 2021 0:35:48 GMT -5
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kimberly
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Post by kimberly on Oct 27, 2021 3:02:10 GMT -5
I don't expect to see her in pop field at all, but would love her sneaking into AOTY and "camera roll" in the country categories it was submitted for.
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Post by The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 on Oct 27, 2021 9:56:46 GMT -5
At this point, I have no big expectations regarding the Grammys... I would love to be wrong though!
I guess Best Country Song would be her biggest chance (not sure if they accepted anything else she submitted in the country categories). Maybe "Best Music Film"? I don't think she has a chance with pop voters
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Post by The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 on Oct 28, 2021 9:40:06 GMT -5
Kacey has been nominated for 'Favorite Female Country Artist' at the American Music Awards, and for 'The Country Artist of 2021' and 'The Album of 2021' at the People's Choice Awards
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Post by The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 on Nov 7, 2021 13:07:02 GMT -5
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Nick
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Post by Nick on Nov 7, 2021 18:06:46 GMT -5
Nice!
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mc54
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Post by mc54 on Nov 9, 2021 21:39:08 GMT -5
Has the DJ Mike D. remix of "Justified" appeared anywhere yet?
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Post by The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 on Nov 16, 2021 19:31:16 GMT -5
Kacey has covered Coldplay’s "Fix You" for a stop-motion animation film from Chipotle called “A Future Begins"
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SHOOTER
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Post by SHOOTER on Nov 23, 2021 12:33:56 GMT -5
Camera Roll nominated for Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song at the Grammys.
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Post by The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 on Nov 23, 2021 19:26:47 GMT -5
Very happy with both nominations… it’s a shame the album wasn’t eligible for Best Country Album though. I’m confident it would’ve been an easy nomination for her. Anyway, I’m glad the country branch showed their support anyway
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Post by The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 on Nov 24, 2021 9:16:36 GMT -5
Kacey is the cover star for V Magazine's V133 issue
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upsidedown
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Post by upsidedown on Nov 24, 2021 9:44:35 GMT -5
Disappointed that it got snubbed for AOTY.
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Post by The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 on Dec 2, 2021 12:42:27 GMT -5
Kacey is #04 on Billboard's Year-End charts for Top Country Artists – Female
Pretty awesome number considering she only had less than 3 months from the Star-Crossed era to get to 4th of the year
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"Star-Crossed" has also appeared on some of 'Best Albums of 2021' lists so far, including the lists from UPROXX, Complex and The Guardian
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Post by The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 on Dec 20, 2021 10:28:09 GMT -5
I would die… god, make this happen
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dbhmr
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Post by dbhmr on Dec 20, 2021 12:50:13 GMT -5
That collab would be truly everything.
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Post by The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 on Dec 28, 2021 22:29:51 GMT -5
With the year coming to an end, "Star-crossed" has now appeared on 20 "Best Albums of 2021" lists (so far?). PopMatters | #07
Even on an emotionally fraught divorce album like Star-Crossed, Kacey Musgraves‘ inclusive and welcoming queer vibes are still front and center. Here, the singer is already at peace with the turn that life has taken, even in moments of bitterness. It’s a reminiscent, grateful kind of melancholy that indicates Musgraves took her time crafting these new songs because there might only be one shot to say them right. Expanding on the psychedelic country-pop from Golden Hour (and interestingly the one that got her shunned from the traditional country landscape and accepted by the mainstream), Musgraves continues to make use of her signature wounded wit to expose the hypocrisy that often lies within heteronormative gender roles. Although the album is made up of downhearted themes, there’s still something cheerful to be found within Musgraves’ vocals that makes us somehow grateful to be sad—happy and sad at the same time, if you will—because it’s evident through the singer’s existing discography that she knows people who have known sadness know themselves better thereafter. With Star-Crossed, Musgraves is reminding us that there’s still always something to be celebrated within feeling blue. — Jeffrey Davies
Vulture | #09
Star-crossed, the fifth album from pop-country hybridizer Kacey Musgraves, is a concept record informed by divorce, soul-searching, therapeutic mushroom trips, and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The album traces a marriage from its giddy early days through a rough ending, moving from the high hopes of “good wife” and the dizzying rush of infatuation of “cherry blossom” through the lonesome yearning of “camera roll,” the sizzling spite of “breadwinner,” and the gutting perseverance of “keep lookin’ up” and “there is a light.” star-crossed is a subtler mixing of pure pop sweetness and roots-rock acoustics than 2018’s Golden Hour, which won Album of the Year at the Grammys; you think “breadwinner” and “cherry blossom” are going to pull big dance-pop moves like a Dua Lipa record, but they turn inward at the chorus, piling on guitars and synth sounds straight from the ’80s Fleetwood Mac playbook. This sage recalibration of adult-contemporary aesthetics isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but no one is doing it better than Musgraves.
People | #10
Musgraves broke down her heartbreak on this ambitious album about divorce.
FLOOD | #10
On 2018’s “Happy & Sad,” Kacey Musgraves innocently sings, “I never felt so high / And I’ve never been this far off the ground / And they say everything that goes up must come down,” as she absorbs the euphoria (and fears) of being a newlywed. In 2021, these lyrics feel like a haunting precursor to her latest project, star-crossed, which dissects the emotional rollercoaster she experienced following her divorce to country singer Ruston Kelly. Musgraves chronicles this journey in her version of a Shakespearean three-act structure, questioning the validity of their relationship in “good wife,” realizing she gave more than what she received on “breadwinner,” and ultimately touching base with reality on “what doesn’t kill me.” The delicate synths and laid-back production on this album gives space for listeners to submerge themselves in Musgraves’ comforting, twangy voice and pry intently on her inner psyche. In the aftermath, Musgraves has a full-circle moment on “keep lookin’ up” by revisiting her perspective on her aforementioned 2018 song, now singing, “But I keep looking up / Won’t let the world bring me down / Keep your head in thе clouds / And your feet on the ground.” She’s teaching us that in the wake of your divorce, it’s all about maintaining balance—you can fantasize and yearn for love, but learn to be grounded and not lose sight of yourself. — Michael Izquierdo
The Washington Post | #10
The Texas-born country star appears to have spent the past three years mastering her whole still-waters-run-deep thing. She’s never sounded deeper or stiller than she does on this tidy parcel of separation songs, singing about disappointment and heartbreak with mysterious composure and anodyne sweetness. Adele made the year’s biggest divorce album but Musgraves made the better one.
Billboard | #13
It’s a shame the conversation about star-crossed has orbited around the myopic ‘country or not’ genre debate — especially with the Recording Academy officially concluding “no” — as Musgraves’ fifth is one of the most nuanced, emotionally balanced breakup albums in recent memory. For every generous sentiment (“no one’s to blame” she states on the finger-picked title track) there’s mischievous shade (sample the “Breadwinner” lyrical morsel “He wants your dinner until he’s not hungry anymore”) and wistful regret (admitting “I wish I would have known we didn’t have it so bad” on the country-folk lament “Hookup Scene”). Anyway, who says a smokin’ hot flute solo (“There Is a Light”) doesn’t belong in Nashville? — Joe Lynch
Albumism | #17 Complex | #22
Kacey Musgraves’ Star-Crossed is an exercise in honesty, rebuffing the notion of a scorched-earth breakup album and trading it for a transparent reflection on heartbreak, divorce, and rebuild. Don’t get it wrong, the jabs are there—“Breadwinner” is an incredible song about a man needing a partner less successful and rich than him—but they’re pointed and mature. Even on the album’s opener, Kacey maintains the plural pronoun when introducing a project that attempts to find out just where it all went wrong: “Did we fly too high just to get burned by the sun?” On the project’s best song “Camera Roll,” Kacey warns of the damage that comes with taking a stroll down memory lane in the form of old photos. “Chronological order and nothing but torture,” Kacey laments while admitting, “I don’t want to see ‘em, but I can’t delete ‘em/It just doesn’t feel right yet, not yet.” In many ways a foil to Kacey’s 2018 album Golden Hour, the Grammy-nominated Star-Crossed serves as a coping mechanism for one of music’s biggest stars, a candid reflection on the last couple years of her life, and it ends on a hopeful note: “There is a light.” — Waiss Aramesh
The Guardian | #28
Every stage of a breakup is sung in chronological order here: marital worries, hope for the relationship being good enough, worsening arguments, split, poignant staring at old photos, perspective gained, exciting/depressing ventures on to dating apps, eventual feeling of true freedom. Swerve a couple of tepid chillout-compilation moments and along the journey you alight at some of Musgraves’ prettiest songwriting, nicely leavened with her straight-talking, wearily dismayed tone of voice.
Stereogum | #28
“Golden Hour faded black” is an apt description for star-crossed, the follow-up to Kacey Musgraves’ breakthrough 2018 album. Luckily enough the country singer-songwriter ascribes it to herself on the triumphant “what doesn’t kill me,” one of the many songs that evoke the warm and fuzzy sounds of Golden Hour if not necessarily the sentiments. A divorce record that’s equal parts acerbic and self-loathing, star-crossed is a complicated odyssey of the breakdown in Musgraves’ personal life, filled with songs that fuel one to keep going. — James
The Forty-Five | #31
“Let me set the scene, two lovers ripped right at the seams,” sings Kacey Musgraves in the opening moments of ‘Star-Crossed’, “they woke up from the perfect dream, I signed the papers yesterday”. It’s an introduction that flings you straight into the messy, heartbroken core of her cleaner-sounding, poppier, fifth album. While ‘Golden Hour’ stuck a middle finger up at patriarchal expectations, they creep back into the fringes of a relationship that has fallen apart, here, and resisting them feels more complicated. Such is life. “I just wanna be a good wife,” she pleads, despite herself. — El Hunt
Crack Magazine | #41
When country-pop’s finest said “divorce album”, many were anticipating a collection of punchy, driving-with-the-top-down bangers about moving on; a creative sister to her infatuated breakthrough record Golden Hour (written while falling in love). Instead, Kacey Musgraves delivered a meditation on marriage that’s more of a quiet exhale than a drunken howl at the moon. Always more Mazzy than Miley, Musgraves is a master of nuance, and Star-Crossed sees her picking through the dissolution of a relationship with grace and resolve. It’s described as “a tragedy in three parts”, but any drama is purely functional, with spoken-word interludes, callbacks and Spanish guitar providing structure for her non-linear path to healing. Though not without humour (the merch store includes stick-on rhinestone tears), Star-Crossed forgoes big displays of emotion in favour of something more muted – and more real. — Emma Garland
The Line of Best Fit | #45
With Star Crossed, Kacey Musgraves delivered her most raw and honest album to date, confirming her place as one of the best songwriters of her generation, able to captivate audiences with an impeccable ability to harness every emotion, from the mundane to tragic, and transfering it into catchy, hard-hitting songs. She is no longer an artist bound to genre, space or time but an iconic figure with a record that surpassed all of the greatness her previous efforts entailed. Exceeding the status of a collection of songs, instead Star Crossed took us on a journey from beginning to end - with bangers such as “Justified” and “Cherry Blossom” along for the ride - whilst perfectly conveying a story that yet has to find its ending. — Lauren Dehollogne
Good Morning America | #45
Right from its title-track, Kacey Musgraves’ latest record makes its mission statement clear. This is a Latin-tinged, drama-filled, heartfelt and heartbroken album about divorce. With its synths and its occasional autotune, this record shows Musgraves further distancing herself from her initial country base, but songs like “Good Wife,” “Justified” and “Camera Roll” should please those fans who came aboard on her incredible last offering, “Golden Hour,” even if this set is covered in more liberally-applied layers of sonic sheen. When Musgraves name-checks her last album on “What Doesn’t Kill Me,” a few moments before she declares, “What doesn’t kill me better run,” it is a defining moment.
NME | #48
Musgraves’ critically-acclaimed 2018 LP ‘Golden Hour’ was always going to be a tough act to follow, but fans weren’t expecting her to bare her soul quite so brutally on the divorce-inspired ‘Star-Crossed’. Structured across three acts – from the excitable first moments of a new relationship to the crushing moment the divorce papers are signed – the sounds varied from soaring ballads to jazz and euphoric dance-pop. It made for an eclectic and emotional listen on a record that’s ultimately about survival.
American Songwriter
Kacy Musgraves’ fifth album is distinctly different from her previous records. On the technical side, star-crossed breaks from Musgraves’ country roots and wholeheartedly embraces a pop-infused persona. Lyrically, this collection of songs is Musgraves’ “divorce album” that drew inspiration from Shakespearean tragedies. As a whole, star-crossed is a wonderfully woeful trek through Kacey Musgraves’ period of transition. — Catherine Walthall
The Key
Kacey Musgraves gives a delicate and honest depiction of how it feels to leave a relationship when you aren’t ready to. A lot of Star-Crossed is about the dichotomy of wanting things to end at the same time as fearing that end, and the uncertainty of who you are when all is finally said and done. Stand-out tracks like “good wife” and “justified” play through the full spectrum of a breakup and confront the back and forth reality of how it feels to heal. It’s not a linear process – and Musgraves lets you know that it’s okay to take ten steps forward right after taking five steps back. The production on this album is also telling of her maturation as an artist. It’s a pop-infused, synthesized take on all the delicate and shimmering moments that made me fall in love with Golden Hour. — Emily Herbein
Uproxx
One of two excellent divorce albums by divas this year, Kacey Musgraves definitely dived a little bit deeper into the psychedelic nature of love, connection, and separation than anyone else in 2021. Star-Crossed is perhaps the only album that could’ve followed up its glowing, critically-acclaimed predecessor, Golden Hour. Sure, sometimes the perfect, golden love fades, but going through the wilderness to find yourself again is all part of the journey. No matter what, the risk was all worth it, and this woozy record of self-reclamation is another ode to all the magic of this beautiful, twisted life.
Vinyl Me, Please
Some of the greatest albums of all time are divorce albums — D-I-V-O-R-C-E, Here, My Dear, +Justments, Phases & Stages — so it stands to reason that Kacey Musgraves’ own song cycle devoted to the aftermath of her marriage to Ruston Kelly is her most complete, well-rounded album. It succeeds not in its fireworks of emotion, in some grand unconscious coupling, but in its quiet, contemplative moments. The devastating specificity of memory on “camera roll,” the way she had to make herself small on “breadwinner,” the random way grief unspools itself across your life on “justified,” and the way being a good partner sometimes means being bad to yourself in ways you don’t like on “good wife.” It was the anti-cuffing season album of 2021. Her last album, about the love that led to the marriage that led to the divorce, made her a superstar. This one made her an icon.
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Kurt
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Post by Kurt on Jan 13, 2022 21:54:43 GMT -5
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daddy
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Post by daddy on Jan 14, 2022 2:40:22 GMT -5
This era feels over aside from the tour. I hope she at least adds some international shows.
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Post by The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 on Jan 14, 2022 10:15:39 GMT -5
I’m a little disappointed at the lack of promo. GH had one of my all-time favorite promo roll-outs ever… they did such a great job at keeping the album alive for almost two years. This era feels a bit like the Pageant Material era… that one also felt a bit dead after the first few months of release (especially in comparison to the STDP era). Hopefully, with the tour, they start promoting the album again.
*I lowkey feel we have case here of when real life overtakes the art… I think Kacey is a bit over the whole divorce content of the record now that she seems so in love with Cole. Hopefully Im wrong, cause I wanna hear more of star-crossed songs performed live outside of the tour
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zaclord 🌈
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Post by zaclord 🌈 on Jan 19, 2022 12:08:34 GMT -5
Tour kicks off tonight in Minnesota! If anyone finds the setlist anywhere, please post it (with a spoiler tag). I'm one of those people who needs to know ahead of time so I can prepare for any faves that aren't on the list ha.
Excited to see photos of the set as well! The things she's been teasing have looked neat.
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Post by The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 on Jan 20, 2022 12:57:07 GMT -5
Feeling like a proud dad seeing her on her first arena tour The setlist! star-crossed Good Wife Cherry Blossom Simple Times Breadwinner Golden Hour Butterflies Lonely Weekend Space Cowboy High Horse Camera Roll Hookup Scene Merry Go 'Round Kaceyoke: No Scrubs (TLC Cover) (They let someone pick between No Scrubs, Dreams, Blinding Lights & Killing Me Softly) Justified There is a Light Gracias a La Vida - Slow Burn Rainbow Some tweets with pictures and videos
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zaclord 🌈
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Post by zaclord 🌈 on Jan 20, 2022 13:08:05 GMT -5
My thoughts on the setlist: {Spoiler}I am flabbergasted that "Follow Your Arrow" didn't make the set. Also sad she's yet again paying Pageant Material dust, but at least I get that. FYA not being performed is as bad as when I saw Beyoncé and she didn't perform "Single Ladies". People gonna be pissed when that one is omitted.
Very glad to see 2/4 of the only songs I don't love from Star-Crossed left off the list. "Angel" and "If This Was a Movie" making the setlist would've made me mad. I anticipated "There is a Light" and "Gracias a la Vida" being the closers on set like they are on the album, but I really don't care for either. Thank goodness two of my faves are the encore so it won't end on such a disappointing note.
Very sad to see two of my favorites from Star-Crossed, "What Doesn't Kill Me" and especially "Easier Said" not make it though.
The Kaceyoke thing is interesting. Which "Dreams" is it? Fleetwood Mac? I just hope that "Killing Me Softly" isn't the song for the Nashville date. I've never cared for that one. I'm intrigued by "Blinding Lights", but also a little nervous to hear what that would be like ha.
GAH I CANT WAIT!!! February 11th hurry up!
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dbhmr
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Post by dbhmr on Jan 20, 2022 13:09:19 GMT -5
As a pop-Kacey fan, that setlist is a dream.
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Post by The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 on Jan 20, 2022 13:38:59 GMT -5
My thoughts on the setlist: I am flabbergasted that "Follow Your Arrow" didn't make the set. Also sad she's yet again paying Pageant Material dust, but at least I get that. FYA not being performed is as bad as when I saw Beyoncé and she didn't perform "Single Ladies". People gonna be pissed when that one is omitted.
Very glad to see 2/4 of the only songs I don't love from Star-Crossed left off the list. "Angel" and "If This Was a Movie" making the setlist would've made me mad. I anticipated "There is a Light" and "Gracias a la Vida" being the closers on set like they are on the album, but I really don't care for either. Thank goodness two of my faves are the encore so it won't end on such a disappointing note.
Very sad to see two of my favorites from Star-Crossed, "What Doesn't Kill Me" and especially "Easier Said" not make it though.
The Kaceyoke thing is interesting. Which "Dreams" is it? Fleetwood Mac? I just hope that "Killing Me Softly" isn't the song for the Nashville date. I've never cared for that one. I'm intrigued by "Blinding Lights", but also a little nervous to hear what that would be like ha.
GAH I CANT WAIT!!! February 11th hurry up! "If This Was a Movie" is one of your least favorites??? That one and "Easier Said" are the only omissions I'm said about. I'm also VERY suprised Follow Your Arrow isn't on the tour... I was 100% sure it would be part of the encore with an arena sing-along lol. I was not expecting to hear Pageant Material songs to be honest, so I was not really disappointed (even though I would love a couple of songs at least). The only song on the setlist I don't really care about is "Lonely Weekend"... is one of my least favorites from GH (I hope they eventually replace it) I wish I could see this tour. The omicron rising cases in the US got me scared to risk getting plane and concert tickets... now I'm kinda regretting it
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