Lauren Spencer-Smith review – TikTok star tempers earnest break-up anthems with comic relief
For Lauren Spencer-Smith, everything started with a fairly low-key TikTok, posted late last year. Showing the Canadian singer-songwriter kicking back on a sofa in trackies and a baseball cap, the viral clip featured an early rendition of Fingers Crossed, an emotionally fraught break-up anthem. Now her biggest hit, it boasts a staggering 261m streams on Spotify, though she certainly took her time in ramping up the anticipation with a lengthy roll-out between the demo and the finished article. It’s a savvy tactic: even now Spencer-Smith’s TikTok profile feels like an intimate space for behind-thescenes previews, early song demos and ideas-in-progress. Watching her posts feels a little like being in on a secret right before it’s unleashed – even if it’s obvious that the artist has a keen grasp on what comes next.
And playing her biggest headline show to date at Heaven, the majority of the British-born singer’s songs are greeted like greatest hits, despite the fact that many are still unreleased outside of the social media platform. “Does anybody have divorced parents?” she exclaims to rapturous cheers ahead of the piano-led 28. As the largely Gen Z-filled room gleefully bellows out its angstiest line – “you said she was 30!” – the millennials present visibly wither.
An emotive banger about toxic dads and their significantly younger, postmarriage-split girlfriends, it’s a song her followers have been begging her to release for months. An acoustic rendition of Hey – another unreleased song written for Spencer-Smith’s partner – meanwhile shows a softer versatility that doesn’t always come to the fore when she’s belting out acrobatic vocal runs elsewhere.
The grungier undertones of Fingers Crossed may have won understandable comparisons to Olivia Rodrigo (and in a knowing nod, she covers the artist’s Disney-era hit All I Want) but powerful, heartstring-tugging ballads such as Flowers and Narcissist have far more in common with the classic pop structures employed by Adele. SpencerSmith, too, understands the appeal of coupling her incredibly earnest breakup bangers with a little comic relief, gamely filming personalised greetings for disgraced exes and taking snaps and selfies mid-show. It’s a balance that works well – and despite finding her feet online, she’s composed and relaxed when it comes to translating the emotional heft of these big, cathartic ballads to the less forgiving live stage.