Arriving at the OVO Hydro on the first wet night in Scotland for a surprisingly long time, the queue of Tate fans surrounded the venue. Queues wrapped round the building in anticipation of the doors opening. And it didn’t end when you made it inside due to the colossal merchandise lines and bars being used like they’re going out of fashion.
As the arena was filling, Benee took to the stage to warm us all up for Tate. She opened with ‘Sad Boiii’ which was evidently received well through the bopping and nodding of heads and a look of approval to the people around them.
Her stage presence was strong and you could tell she was loving it. She was very confident and interacted with the audience by saying “My name is Benee, what is yours?” as if the audience were going to reply “GLASGOW” in unison but instead she received many individual names from those at the front of the arena. This made her and the band laugh.
The crowd received some Benee lore as she explained she spent a few months living in Inverness and even went to school there. There was a surprisingly large amount of people in the OVO Hydro from Inverness as she asked “Who’s here from Inverness?” and the crowd seemed to erupt.
Benee continued to skip across the stage before performing her TikTok smash hit, ‘Supalonely’. This saw the room light up with happy faces and phones; everyone recorded this song, reminiscing the lockdown days of TikTok. She left the stage and the audience were suitably warmed up.
Just like that, the lights went down and the energy came up. The crowd gave an earth shattering, high pitched, teenage girl scream as they realised Tate was moments away from being stood in front of them.
Tate emerged in a black sparkly leotard and black boots (one of many outfits) to a fantastic opening sequence filled with incredibly detailed lighting that went across the whole stage and arena. The stage design was clever, with two large yellow cranes either side of the stage providing lighting down below. Her dramatic entrance around 30ft in the air, between two screens above her stage caused Glasgow to go wild.
She opened with ‘Miss Possessive’, the title of the tour. This received a worthy approval with the crowd going word for word with her. She performed several hits of her most recent album with high energy from both her and her talented backup dancers who were not so ‘backup’. They took centre stage often and rightfully so with their choreography so tight and synchronised, you’d hope they show it off. They worked up a sweat on that stage, along with Tate, who was singing AND dancing! Multi-talented Tate, can sing and dance. Lucky for some.
An interlude video was played to keep us appeased as Tate leaves the stage to change into her next outfit: a red lace bra (no not purple like her song, a red one) and black flared Adidas joggers. This part of her set was much slower than the first, but not with any less energy. Her performance was still impressive and filled with life and passion. If you hadn’t realised it by this point in the show, it was now that it would click that she has incredibly strong vocals. She proved her vocal range to a sold-out Hydro through a variety of her songs.
Suddenly, Tate and her dancers lined up on the stage and it rose up from the ground, elevating them even higher than they were before. They stood high above us, singing and dancing for us to see. When Tate left the stage for yet another outfit change, our interlude this time contained an awesome live guitar solo. It was so cool, Tate’s guitarist rocked (literally). He was accompanied by a great drummer as well as lots of flashing lights to add to his prevailing solo.
Act 3 arrived and it looked like Tate was wearing her own merch? A white sweater with the words “Miss Possessive” printed on it and a white long flowing skirt with a bow tie on the back.
She performed ‘Greenlight’ as her fans all held up their phones with a green screen pointed back at her. This meant she was surrounded by green lights. A fan-planned gimmick, that worked surprisingly well.
Tate took to her B stage, positioned right next to me. She mentioned her old YouTube channel (nice one Tate, gained more respect from a fellow YouTuber) that she used to post covers which helped her grow her career. A keyboard was brought out and she re-enacted her old videos by playing some songs she’d written when she was aged 13-17. To my surprise, the crowd got even louder for these throwbacks, chanting back to her songs she’d written as a teenager.
‘Run For The Hills’ then came on and this begins her last act which I’m going to call her “hitstravaganza”. It was banger after banger that everyone knew.
For this last act, she was wearing a snake print co-ord with a matching bonnet hat. We were provided a raw stage visual with one of her dancers holding a camcorder and it being linked to the screen. This looked very effective and added variety to her already powerful and unique visuals. ‘Revolving Door’, my favourite of her discography, got arguably the best crowd reaction of her songs. Many phones in the air to record her, many singing voices, some screaming, many dancing and all having a good time. For this one, light-up doorframes were aligned on stage for Tate and her dancers to perform in. They were lined up all the way down her runway and made for an interesting visual. She closed with her most streamed song, ‘Greedy’ which was a clear fan favourite.
Tate is considered a modern day pop icon, with many well known hits and a huge following to her name, it’s no wonder she could sell out her tour with stage design like this and a performance like hers.
- Tate McRae / Benee - 26 May 2025