There were three opening acts for Coldplay, but the one that caught me completely off guard was Willow. I’ll be honest: I’ve never enjoyed her music. Her previous albums felt like experiments in search of coherence — more mood than message, more concept than connection. But tonight, something was different. Empathogen, her newest album, is different — and her live performance made that difference impossible to ignore.
This wasn’t a set built on spectacle or pyrotechnics. It was about sound. About groove. About soul. The jazz was tight — tight. There was precision, yes, but also freedom. And Willow, astonishingly, wasn’t just riding the music — she was the music. She used her voice not just to sing but to mimic the bass, to lock into the rhythm section like a seasoned jazz musician. At moments, it was hard to tell where her voice ended and the instruments began.
There’s a confidence in Empathogen that feels earned. It draws from soul, jazz, experimental rock — but none of it feels like genre-hopping. Instead, she folds all these influences into something personal and authentic. On stage, she embodied this fully. It wasn’t a performance; it was a communion. You could feel it in the way she closed her eyes on a long note or let the band stretch a groove until the whole arena swayed.
I came expecting to check my phone and wait for the headliner. Instead, I found myself transfixed. Tracks like “Home” and “Pain for Fun” weren’t just songs — they were statements. Emotional, textured, deeply alive. There was so much control in her delivery, but also so much feeling. It’s not easy to balance those things.
If this young woman keeps walking this path — keeps trusting the jazz, the honesty, the soul — then she can count me among her loyal devotees. This was more than an impressive opening act. It was a turning point — for her, maybe, and definitely for me.
Willow didn’t just change my mind. She changed the temperature in the room.