Addison Rae lost herself and found herself again.
With the release of her highly anticipated debut album, we saw a rebirth right before our eyes. Rebirth, rebrand, reintroduction—whatever you call it—the Louisiana-born TikTok dancer transformed into one of the most promising pop acts of the current age with the release of “Diet Pepsi” last summer. Since then, skeptics and day 1 superfans have tuned in to watch her every move, whether it’s because of the push-and-pull of her sexy girl next door persona or her slinky hooks and booming production from her collaborators, Luka Kloser and Elvira Anderfjärd.
So, when I got word that Addison and Spotify were hosting a rare live show on the eve of her album release, I knew I had to be there. Especially because it would technically be her first official live performance of tracks from her self-titled debut album.
She took center stage at New York’s famously sleazy and glamorous nightclub, The Box, which acted as her playground for the night. The room was filled to the brim with magazine editors, late-night producers, and devoted fans who waited hours for a glimpse of the star. Bushwick’s elite even crossed the bridge to Manhattan to capture the newly minted pop princess in all her glory. As aerial artists and dancers donned lingerie underneath burning disco balls, I brushed shoulders with Addison’s star-studded stan list, from Julia Fox, Richie Shazam, and Amelia Gray to Conan Gray, Lola Tung, and Clairo.
The intimate inauguration marked a new beginning for Addison. As she opened her set with “Fame Is a Gun” in a kitschy satin bed, bated breaths escaped the lips of attendees who couldn’t take their eyes off her.
The mic was on, and soon enough, she treated fans with her original cabaret-inspired “musical theater” rendition of “High Fashion.” Her it girl-in-crime, Lexee Smith, served a campy, melodramatic poetry reading in Louboutins in between one of her outfit changes as a makeshift interlude until Addison returned for a particularly transcendental moment.
When the opening notes of “Aquamarine” trickled through The Box’s theater, not one word was missed by fans. I even overheard a friend over my shoulder say, “This song is so gay.” (Complimentary. Not in the way that would prompt Hilary Duff to pull her allyship card.)
As Addison hit her marks in a flowy bright blue mini dress, we not only found catharsis on the dance floor—she did, too.
In 2021, I covered the early days of Addison’s crossover from TikTok to real-world fame at Seventeen, and I’ll admit it: I was always intrigued by her essence, but I wasn’t totally sold on “Obsessed” once it dropped.
It wasn’t until one of my best friends dragged me to our living room to catch her performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that I locked in and saw her for what she truly was: a small-town girl aching for the life of a big-city star. Let it be known that this was the moment she unlocked her potential as a Main Pop Girl in my eyes. From then on, I fully understood her vision. When most of her catalogue leaked in 2022, I clicked play for research purposes and fully became hooked by the following summer.
Before her 7-track performance last night, she teased what could come from the Addison Rae live experience, making cameos with her close friends and collaborators on multiple occasions. There was the “Von Dutch” remix at Charli XCX’s pre-brat Boiler Room set in Brooklyn and their post-brat performance on Coachella’s main stage, her “Arcamarine” stint during Arca’s more intimate set in the desert, and, of course, “Diet Pepsi” with Charli and Troye Sivan’s Sweat tour stop at Madison Square Garden. These moments inched us closer to the glittery dance pop world of Addison, yet we didn’t see the star fully in her element. Until now.
She’s no stranger to a Britney Spears comparison—in fact, she seems to fully welcome it, knowing they’re both hometown heroes in Louisiana—but she pays homage to her heroes. In interviews, she’s openly named Britney, Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson as influences. On her tongue-in-cheek satirical number, “Money Is Everything,” she playfully sings about her dream blunt rotation with Lana Del Rey and Lady Gaga after name-dropping Norma Jean. It’s abundantly clear she’s at the top of her class as a pop culture student, and she’s well on her way to becoming a teacher.
She no longer has to dream of being seen, because all eyes are on her...and they’ll stay there.
