“CANDID, WARM AND FULLY HERSELF”: AMY MACDONALD FACES THE FREEZE FOR OPENING NIGHT

LIVE REVIEW | AMY MACDONALD w/ Better Joy | HAMMERSMITH EVENTIM APOLLO, LONDON | 20th November 2025 by Kevin O’Sullivan

There’s always a particular electricity to the opening night of a tour, and Amy Macdonald channelled every spark of it at Hammersmith Apollo last night. Despite battling the coldest night of the year —armed with an “Amy Mac Soul Diva” mug of hot lemon and ginger—she walked onstage with the humour and self-awareness that have become a quiet trademark. Wrapped in a jacket she immediately apologised for (“It’s freezing in here! My dressing room’s at thirty degrees, but I’m not sharing”), she set the tone early: candid, warm, fully herself.

Better Joy

Before she arrived, Better Joy delivered a tight support set, moving through ‘Carnival‘, ‘What a Day’, ‘Quiet Ting‘, ‘Plugged In‘, and finishing with ‘Dead Plants‘ —introduced as a tribute to all those relationships we should promptly bin off. They left to cheers, with a reminder of their upcoming 19 March headline show at Oslo in Hackney.

Amy Macdonald

But the night belonged to Amy. Opening with ‘We Could Be So Much More (ITWYBWF)‘, she quickly moved through ‘Dream On‘, ‘The Hudson‘ and ‘Spark‘, her trademark voice unimpeded by the cold. By the time she hit ‘Mr Rock and Roll‘ and ‘Fire’, any sense of “first-night rust” had dissolved.

Her between-song chatter was as entertaining as the music. She delighted in Scotland’s three world-class goals against Denmark the night before—“actually on the BBC!”—and joked about planning a US tour around Scotland’s place in next year’s World Cup. She recalled singing ‘Flower of Scotland‘ on the pitch before a match against Spain, admitting with a grin that her performance was “far better than the team’s that day.”

Her band deserves equal praise: Jimmy on bass, Henry on keys, Gordon darting between instruments, Ben on guitars, and Adam on drums—who earned the loudest reaction of the night. At one point, Adam swapped one of his drumsticks for a packet of gummy bears offered from the crowd, prompting Amy to pause the show, laugh, and declare it “a fantastic exchange deal!”

Mid-set highlights included ‘Pride‘, ‘Don’t Tell Me That It’s Over, Run‘, and a particularly sharp ‘I’m Done‘. Noticing a few people attempting to sing while barely moving their faces, she called out, “Come on—sing! It’ll warm you up!” It worked. The room loosened instantly.

She moved through ‘Slow It Down‘, ‘Poison Prince‘, ‘Can You Hear Me‘ and ‘Statues‘ with confidence, before ‘Barrowland Ballroom‘ (the same place where she collected Scottish Music Awards Album of the Year just a couple of weeks earlier) prompted a wave of affection from her Scottish faithful. ‘This Is the Life‘ detonated the room, the crowd on their feet practically drowning out the PA.

Closing the main set with ‘We Survive‘ and ‘The Glen‘, Amy looked both exhilarated and slightly overwhelmed—understandable for an opening night performed while fending off the cold. But she never once let it compromise her performance or her connection with the audience.

Her encore, ‘Let’s Start a Band‘, was triumphant and full of heart, the final lift in a night threaded with honesty, humour, and brilliantly played songs. If this is how Amy Macdonald sounds on night one – freezing stage and all—the rest of the tour will be something special.

The ‘Is This What You Have Been Waiting For’ Tour will continue across the UK and Ireland over the next few weeks, concluding with two huge nights at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on 11th and 12th December. Any remaining tickets are on sale here.