If Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels, then on Wednesday night (July 27) at her U.S. Summer Carnival tour kick-off in Cincinnati, P!nk did everything Rogers did, but in higher (sparklier) heels, while adding sideways, upside down and round-and-round into the mix.
The high-flying singer brought her signature aerial rig to a sold-out, sweltering Great American Ballpark for the second show of her summer extravaganza — it kicked off in Toronto on Monday night — singing flawlessly while boomeranging 100 feet in the air during a two-hour show that mixed joy, pain, pleasure and poignancy with pure spectacle.
Fans have come to expect the former gymnast to take to the air during her concerts, and while P!nk didn’t disappoint on that level during the show that featured spirited opening sets from Grouplove and Brandi Carlile, the singer also found moments to pay loving tribute to her late dad and her musical idol Sinead O’Connor, whose death was reported just hours before showtime.
Inviting Carlile up to join her, P!nk dueted on a reverent cover of O’Connor’s signature Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit, “Nothing Compares 2 U,” with both women summoning their full emotional range to pay homage to the supremely talented, complicated singer who died at age 56 of as-yet-undisclosed causes.
The solemn moment came amid a flashy spectacular that featured neon flamingo scooters and glowing grocery carts skittering around the stage and a mega-trampoline set-up on which dancers performed daring flips and spins to accompany the title track from P!nk’s most recent album, Trustfall. There were also several sweet moments when the singer kneeled down and stopped the show to acknowledge superfans who brought her homemade gifts, which she promised to find a place for at home.
Amid the expected hits (“Get the Party Started,” “Raise Your Glass,” “What About Us,” “F–kin’ Perfect,” “Never Gonna Not Dance Again”) there were some surprise covers and just plain silly moments during a show that featured enough different pink costumes to rival the Barbie movie.
Check out our favorite seven moments from the Summer Carnival show.
Radiohead, Joni Mitchell, Sade and Pat Benatar Cameos
P!nk and Carlile slotted in crowd-pleasing covers amid the originals. Brandi busted out a rocking version of Radiohead’s “Creep” — whose refrain “what the hell am I doing here?” was appropriate given her repeated shock at the huge crowd (“this doesn’t look real”). She also slipped in a “last minute” addition of her idol Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You” that inspired silence from the otherwise rowdy stadium. Likewise, P!nk made time for Dylan (“Make YouFeel My Love”), Sade (“No Ordinary Love”) and a brief bit of Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker” during a ripping “Just Like Fire.”
‘Nothing Compares’ to a Beautiful Sinead Cover
P!nk told the crowd that when she was a little girl in Atlantic City she’d go down to the Ocean City Boardwalk and record her “demo tapes” and one of her go-tos was O’Connor’s heartbreaking 1990 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Nothing Compares 2 U.” She paid tribute to the singer whose death was announced just hours earlier via a moving duet with Carlile on the song that brought many in the audience to tears.
Getting the Party Started Right
Singers have 100 different ways they can make an entrance. But nobody does it like P!nk. As her band revved up “Get the Party Started,” fans looked around for the headliner, who was, of course, perched 50 feet above the stage inside a pair of ruby red lips framed by the tour’s title in neon lights. She then descended to the stage in a shiny pink leotard as two shirtless male dancers spun around in oversized candy ring pops. As one does.
Gifts Galore
The recent trend of tossing things on stage at (or to) singers has sometimes taken a dangerous turn. P!nk short-circuited that by bending down to accept some gifts from her diehards during the show, graciously modeling a black apron covered in rainbows and the word “love” while promising to wear it the next time she cooks. She was also touched by a pair of bulldog-bedecked socks she said she’d give to daughter Willow (after she wears them first) and a cute frog painting earmarked for son Jameson’s room.
Cannibal Squirrels, Soaring Hawks
The emotional Trustfall track “When I Get There” is dedicated to P!nk’s dad, Jim Moore, who died in 2021. She told the Cincinnati crowd a funny story about how when the former pilot was sick he said he’d like to come back as a bird of flight. Or, maybe, a “cannibal chipmunk,” who would bite people to remind her that he’s still around. Now, whenever she sees a hawk flying high above, she said before playing “Get There,” she likes to think it’s her dad. Not for nothing, before her set began, a giant, majestic hawk floated in the air above the crowd for a few minutes.
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
On a night when fireworks, 50-foot-tall silver palm trees and gymnastic tumbling runs were just part of the scenery, the costumes for “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” were like something out of a Rocky Horror Picture Show reboot. In her umpteenth costume change, P!nk strode out in a black leather jacket with oversized pink lips on each shoulder (matched with black high-tops spray painted with “MAMA” in pink), surrounded by six dancers dressed as, yes, giant pairs of dancing pink lips.
So What? So Everything!
By now you know a P!nk show is going to feature the singer breaking free of the surly bonds of pop stardom and taking to the air, more than once. So it was expected, but no less stunning, when the singer capped Wednesday show with her now-signature flight of fancy. The jaw-dropping aerial stunt during “So What” had P!nk rubber-banding from the stage to the highest, furthest point of the baseball stadium, flipping, spinning and yo-yoing while singing as if standing still as fireworks lit up the sky just like they do when the home team Cincinnati Reds score a victory. Final score: everybody wins.
