Melanie Martinez’s "Portals" tour wraps up down under in grand fashion

By Olivia Burns

American singer songwriter, Melanie Martinez bought her Portals World Tour down under and Melbournes Margaret court arena was the last stop on this long journey for her and this was the second to last show. Joining her was fellow American based singer songwriter, Upsahl.

People lined up down the side of the arena waiting to get in, die hard fans were dressed up in costumes, a lot of them notably wearing elf ears and colourful clothing to match the Portals’ fairy aesthetic.

As the doors opened, they scrambled into the arena trying to get their spot on the floor, others making their way to their seats.

As the place filled up, Upsahl was ready to take the stage. She did a great job at getting everyone warmed up for the evening, singing catchy pop songs getting everyone moving and those that knew her, were singing the words back to her. Transitioning from singing, to having a guitar in her hand and then also playing the keys, she proved to be a multi talented artist excelling them all.

Once the crowd had been warmed up from her performance, it was time for the wait in anticipation. As the time came and went, people were being given false hope in between interval songs that she would finally get up on stage. After around 10 minutes of waiting, the moment had finally arrived. The intro music started as the band got up on stage, the crowd screamed in excitement and even louder as Melanie appeared through the thick fog. They started the night off with “DEATH”, and then well known hit, “VOID”. The colours chosen for the stage lighting gave off a whimsical, wonderland look against her pastel pink coloured costume. As the night went on, I got past her unique costume, and quickly became immersed in her voice and show.

It’s always special seeing an artist that not only gets up on stage and sings, but also gives the attendees a full on performance. From the lighting, backdrops, her stage set up of inflatable mushrooms, a large spider web that appears on stage while singing her song “SPIDER WEB”, to her backup dancers, who you can tell, puts their heart and soul into every single move they do, and move with such synchronicity, you can tell they have become well versed in their job and really did add to the show. Then there’s Melanie herself, with her four-eyed Alien-fairy-like costume who has an idyllic voice, gracefully gliding across the stage, and many times, joining in with her dancers and never missing a beat and her voice was steady as ever, that alone truly amazed me. You could really tell the everything that she was showing to the audience was very well thought out, everything flowed well, making it cohesive and just a very well done performance.

Most of the songs on her setlist were of course, from her Portals album, however she did treat the fans to a few older ones at the end during her encore, including “Mad Hatter” and “Play Date”.

Ending the night with “MILK OF THE SIREN” she then thanked everyone for supporting her and following her journey, you could hear from her voice that nearing the end of this tour and era for her was definitely emotional. She and the dancers did their bows and one by one they left the stage, leaving everyone after her, applauding for the great show that they had just witnessed.

In all honesty, I hadn’t listened to much of her music before going to this show, and I can say that she’s been on my music rotation ever since. She is heading back to America to start her Trilogy Tour. I, among all of her fans will be looking forward to seeing what she evolves into for her next album.