Overgrown vines and glittering trophies covered the small stage in Brisbane Festival Treasury Arcadia’s Spiegeltent. Light bounced around reflecting off the mirrors that laced the edge of the circular room. An eager, tightly packed crowd gathered at the centre.

TKAY MAIDZA stepped out on to the stage wearing the biggest smile and dressed head to toe in white and silver. She literally shone against the dark stage like a beam of light. After her opening number, the first words out of her mouth were “I really didn’t expect this, I was ready to see like twenty people out here. This is sick!”

It felt like the crowd was a group of mates who had pulled off the coolest surprise party, and the guest of honour had no idea. The South African/Australian artist from Adelaide has come a long way since she released her debut single Brontosaurus at age 17. Four years later, it seem she is still as blown away by her own career as we are. She looked at home on stage, probably because she was flanked by her good friend/DJ Annabel Hartlett from Godlands, and tour buddy Tim Commandeur from Operator Please. TKAY and Hartlett danced and jumped around as the crowd sung along to all the hits from TKAY’s EP Last Year Was Weird which only dropped in August 2018.

What was supposed to be a one hour set, seamlessly became two thanks to the constant back and forth banter between TKAY and the crowd. TKAY repeatedly asked the crowd, “how you guys doing” to which she would accept nothing less than a roaring “b*tch I’m good!” in response. She closed the set with her massive, new track Flexin, but the crowd demanded an encore. TKAY returned to the stage genuinely shocked. “Guys, we don’t have any other songs!” she said laughing.

But when the beat for Flexin began to play again, the crowd roared in approval. And trust me, it was just as fun the second time around. Just another amazing performance from this year’s Brisbane Festival.

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