“My name is Noah Kahan and I can’t believe I’m here.” The Grammy-nominated chart-topping folk-pop superstar has just bounded onstage at a packed Wembley Arena but, judging by the 12,000-strong Valentine’s Day audience’s rapturous reaction, no introduction is needed.
It’s easy to see why Kahan is surprised, however – the humble singer-songwriter‘s crowning moment has been a long time in the making. The now-27-year-old might have broken through in 2023 with the help of TikTok and a viral Olivia Rodrigo cover, but his first release was in 2017 and his 2018 London debut saw him perform for just 77 people at The Social. Since, he’s graduated from theatres (Kahan sold out two nights at the 2,300-capacity Kentish Town Forum last November) for arenas. Many of his diehard British stans – lads in flannel shirts, denim jackets and their newly-bought Noah Kahan trucker caps; girls sporting sparkly cowgirl hats – make up the audience for his first of two nights at Wembley Arena.
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They know every lyric of his 19-track setlist. During opener ‘All My Love’, the arena transforms into a choir for songs old and new: from recently released love song ‘Forever’ – which is dedicated to everyone who was made to come here and “sweat for two hours” – to 2019 throwback ‘False Confidence’, which was written when he “felt insecure and didn’t know where he fit into the industry”.
Yes, some of Kahan’s songs are certainly unorthodox in their narratives, but that’s what makes his music so uniquely compelling. Take ‘Everywhere, Everything’ which, despite being a song about decomposing fingers, results in Wembley being illuminated with phone torches. This is Kahan’s singular strength, however. He turns bleak subject matters – much of breakthrough third album ‘Stick Season’ was created during the pandemic – into an easy-listening yet impactful fusion of folk, pop and indie. His recollection of those isolated times has struck a very real chord around the world.
Kahan is not only a compelling songwriter and powerful vocalist, but a versatile guitarist. Regularly swapping from acoustic (‘New Perspective’) to electric, his show never lacks pace. For every softer moment (‘Call Your Mum’ has loved-up couples swaying), there’s textbook country (‘Dial Drunk’ and Paul Revere’, the latter resulting in “yee-haw’s”) and foot-stomping folk (‘She Calls Me Back’ and ‘Northern Attitude’) and rock.
Expectedly, ‘Stick Season’ receives the night’s most rapturous reaction. This sleeper hit for the ages – Kahan teased it for two years on TikTok before its official release – is now inescapable, sitting atop the UK Singles Chart for a seventh week.
Having made folk-pop cool again – it was once, perhaps fairly, derided as ‘stomp clap hey’ music – there’s no denying the torch-bearing troubadour was made to play massive stages. August’s headline show at London’s The O2, a venue even bigger than this, looks like it’ll be a walk in the park.
Noah Kahan played:
‘All My Love’
‘New Perspective’
‘She Calls Me Back’
‘Everywhere, Everything’
‘Your Needs, My Needs’
‘Pain Is Like Cold Water’
‘Maine’
‘Growing Sideways’
‘Paul Revere’
‘Northern Attitude’
‘Forever’
‘False Confidence’
‘Call Your Mom’
‘You’re Gonna Go Far’
‘Orange Juice’
‘Dial Drunk’
‘The View Between Villages’
‘Stick Season’
‘Homesick”