Cat Burns proved herself a force to be reckoned with on the closing night of her early twenties tour. Now I’m ready to see her full potential.
The 24-year-old music artist’s career skyrocketed in 2022 when her 2020 single Go went viral on TikTok as an empowering heartbreak anthem with a punchy, uniting, chorus: ‘Pack up your s**t and go, go, go, go’.
Since then, her musical acclaim has exploded, going double platinum, scooping up three Brit award nominations, and landing a coveted Mercury Prize nod (celebrating the best-of-the-best) for her debut album early twenties.
Cat’s music – a mix of gospel, pop and a guitar-led indie sound – has a raw and intimate quality to it in the stunning melodies that tug at the heartstrings.
Not to mention her vulnerable lyrics which dig into the deepest fears and darkest thoughts we all have when going through one of the most transformational times of our life – our early twenties.
Stood in a packed Roundhouse, Cat’s audience is vast, touching across demographics. And although the crowd was heavily female-leaning there was a scattering of men also swaying along to the stirring vocals and impactful words.
‘Don’t wanna be alone / Forever / Don’t wanna be alone / Forever,’ Cat sings as she begins the show with her opening album track, aptly named alone. It kicks off the theme for the evening, with the vast majority of her original discography defined by its confronting nature.
Although Cat does foray into more metaphorical lyricism on occasion, her current repertoire thrives in its direct intentionality and storytelling delivery.
Whether singing about an epic love that could have been in the end game, the virtues of self-care above toxic romance in happier without you, or the fears of watching the person you value the most growing more and more distant in you don’t love me anymore – Cat bares it all without subterfuge.
And her appeal to her own demographic, queer Gen Zs, is all too easy to understand in songs like anxiety, and her newly-debuted tune girls which delve into a wide range of uniquely relatable themes.
She’s bringing a layer of intersectionality, emotional depth, and playfulness that is a breath of fresh air in this industry.
When listened to on headphones, the album acts as a balm for the lovelorn, lost and rotten youth trying to find meaning in the heartbreak and rejection.
But when experienced live, the crowd brimmed with an untempered passion, as though using this space as a catharsis for the rage and sorrow they felt within.
Never was this more true than during Cat’s rendition of Free, which saw the crowd light up as they released themselves from the pressures of everyday life to bask in this moment of musical ecstasy with fellow fans.
This is particularly powerful coming from a Black female singer in an already tough industry (now the subject of her new podcast with fellow creative Rachel Chinouriri, Even).
Throughout the gig, Cat’s vocals remained the steady vessel, smooth and pitch-perfect yet filled with a pathos that truly shone in her song Healing, which moved her to tears as she remembered her late grandfather.
There’s no doubt Cat is a powerhouse of talent, and yet I couldn’t help but feel there is so much more she could bring to life on stage with her raw attitude to life and impressive vocal range.
Her songs (while beautifully reflective) can provide a sometimes lulling and tame experience when heard live.
There were moments when I found myself desperate to see the extreme edges of Cat’s ability and how she would fare playing around with genre and tempo a bit more.
Her cover of Teenage Dirtbag (which has already found viral fame on TikTok), offered a fresh side to the artist I had seen before – and got the audience grooving in a gritty, urgent way that the gig had not yet provided.
As the concert came to an end with a lively performance of Go, I knew I had seen a star in the making.
If Cat can maintain her current grip on the industry (that has traversed both critical and social media acclaim) while creatively stretching her arms in her future albums and performances, we’re onto a winner.