Live Review: Mia Wray, Sappho

Phoebe Baker transforms for her future pop project Sappho as she takes to the stage sparkling from head to toe and doused in glitter and pearls as if she’s just stepped out of a Madonna music video clip from the ‘90s. Known for her iconic sweet vocal harmonies in her previous band Alpine, tonight she’s changing things up for her solo endeavour with an eccentric creative flair.

Kicking off with a cover of Jamiroquai’s Cosmic Girl, we’re taken on a wild journey as Baker and her backup dancers prance around the stage with choreographed moves to the ‘90s disco anthem. She continues with her lead single Flex, that’s an upbeat funk-pop number loaded with synth bass and plenty of cathartic dancing. The backup dancers perform some dorky moves to pair with their matching knitted jumpers that reveal a sparkly tasselled outfit underneath. Baker runs off stage before Collide, to grab some portraits of Fabio Lanzoni and they bop along to the catchy tune in a romantic embrace.

“We hope you enjoy getting loose with us tonight,” says Baker. It’s the first time playing in this sort of line-up and playing live in a very long time, so they give it everything they’ve got. They dedicate the last few songs to her previous manager Pete who sadly passed away recently, so they ask us all to join in and get loose together for him. Sappho and the band get down and do the twist to evoke their primal fantasies through song and dance.

Mia Wray is a vocal powerhouse. As soon as she begins to sing, the audience is blown away by her incredible talent. Wray herself is instantly overwhelmed by the full house tonight, especially after numerous cancellations and reschedules over the past year, tonight she’s finally able to play her show to an unrestricted show with maximum capacity.

Along with her striking vocals, Wray also showcases her empowering songwriting on anthems including Needs and Work For Me. She’s not afraid to sing her truth and speak up to anyone who gets in her way. Her defiance and confidence in taking control of her own narrative show maturity beyond her years. “I hope you feel as empowered as much as I do singing this song,” she tells us as she shares her own emotional experiences.

Having only released a few songs to date, Wray showcases a whole bunch of new material for us tonight that gets fans excited for her to release. She promises she does have a new song coming out next month that we hear a preview of tonight. The catchy pop-rock tune shows off more of her soulful vocal range with a fun and an uptempo beat to get us moving along.

Wray changes up the vibe for an emotional song called Divine, which she tells us was written about the late Michael Gudinski. The personal, heartfelt song is an incredibly beautiful tribute to the Australian music icon who had a big impact on Wray’s musical journey. She channels all her raw emotion and energy into the tear-jerker moment.

The band strikes up their guitars to bring the show home with another unreleased song, which combines classic rock vibes with Wray’s soulful vocals so perfectly. She flips her long brown hair around as she gets caught up in a few rock‘n’roll moments and a wildly entertaining cover of Tina Turner’s Nutbush City Limits for an encore. With so much in the pipeline, Mia Wray is on the precipice of a huge career ahead of her, with talent to match the best in the Australian music industry.