By Alisha Lawton
Alessia Cara made her UK headline debut in Manchester at the start of summer. The Toronto-based singer-songwriter, best known for her unbelievably authentic hit Scars To Your Beautiful, chose none other than the iconic O2 Ritz for her debut – a venue that’s hosted many music legends, including Florence + The Machine, Coldplay, and The Beatles.
Starting the show off strong was indie-pop singer Liang Lawrence. Releasing her second EP last year and been nominated for an Ivor Novello Rising Star award at this year’s ceremony, this isn’t Liang Lawrence’s first rodeo.
Opening her set with The Pilot, a song sure to get the crowd swaying, Liang wasted no time as she then went straight into Kiss My Apocalypse, prompting a huge cheer from the stunned crowd.
The Londoner stated that it was only her fourth time in the city of Manchester, and said she always wishes she could stay longer!
Liang humoured the crowd before playing her next song, titled Out Loud, about how she’s ‘really bad’ at telling people that she likes them, which gained a laugh from the audience.
And before you knew it… it was time for Alessia Cara to take the stage. With a grand entrance, Alessia ran on, full of energy, and immediately had the audience in the palm of her hands with her powerful vocals.
You wouldn’t believe it, but this was her first UK headline show, a secret she let us into after playing her first song, Dead Man. She greeted the audience and thanked them for being there.
Upon asking the crowd if anyone had ever been to an Alessia Cara show before, at which some members cheered, she warned the first-timers that she likes to make them ‘dance and feel things’ but ‘most of all: sing’, before launching into Run Run, a track from her new LP, Love and Hyperbole.
The tour celebrates this brand new album, and as Alessia played a set full of hard-hitters, mainly from the new release, with a few tracks here and there from previous bodies of work, the crowd sang along the entire time.
Two of her older hits, Ready and Rooting For You, got a particularly loud response from the crowd, who just got louder and louder, proving their longstanding love for those songs, and at the end an audience member shouted out that she was ‘amazing’! She laughed, and told them that they were amazing as well.
After an energetic run of songs, the singer told the audience she was going to ‘slow it down’ a little bit and went on to talk about what inspired her newest album. Alessia spoke about the last three years of her life, the ups, the downs, and said that she went through an epiphany moment about how time moves really fast, before introducing her next song, Subside, a track about feeling nostalgic for her childhood.
And as if that wasn’t enough to move the audience, Alessia spoke retrospectively about a party that she threw for New Year’s, and how good the night was meant to be, before it turned into an emotional rollercoaster, where she said she couldn’t see happiness in her future. She told the audience that it’s okay to feel that way and encouraged them to find their own way to heal, and eventually, when you ‘find out what’s on the other side’, it’s ‘awesome and beautiful’. She then began a duo of songs – Best Days and Out of Love – back to back.
Then it was time to party again, and Alessia performed a new version of the song Stay, and fan-favourite Wild Things. She told the audience that she liked to switch up Stay every now and then to give each crowd a unique memory, before treating fans to the surprise song Middle Ground, from her album In The Meantime.
After a full, energetic performance showcasing Alessia Cara’s beautiful vocals, Alessia finished her set with Here and Scars To Your Beautiful, two of her most popular hits. The audience loved it and clung on to her every word. It’s so clear to see, despite these songs being out in the world for almost 10 years, that fans still love them as much as the first time they heard them.
Text Copyright 2025 © Alisha Lawton/ADRENALINE Magazine.
Photography Copyright 2025 © Emma Turner/ADRENALINE Magazine.
Chloe Morris 
Rachel Henderson