Rebecca Black reinvented herself after infamous ‘Friday’ — a surprise to some in KC
Viral “Friday” singer turned hyperpop star Rebecca Black took the T-Mobile Center stage flanked by two topless male dancers in harnesses and rhinestone hats.
They waved signs on a bejeweled pole proclaiming, “Salvation is coming - Rebecca 3:33.” On their way into the T-Mobile Center, many attendees walked past actual fire and brimstone protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church.
During the Kansas City concert on Saturday, May 10, Katy Perry’s all-ages audience largely clashed with Black’s boldly queer and ironic style.
Opening for Perry’s Lifetimes Tour, Black performed songs from her recent seven-song project, “Salvation.” Techno beats were overlaid with innuendo-soaked lyrics and choreography.
As white and red strobe lights blazed, Black took the stage in bloomers and a striped babydoll top with No. 18 emblazoned on the front, her “Lesbian Travis Kelce outfit,” as she described it to the crowd.
The only reference to the much-maligned song that launched Black’s career was a distorted remix during the song “Sugar Water Cyanide.”
The Kansas City audience was a mix of millennial parents with their preteen kids, college students distracting themselves from finals and middle-aged concertgoers.
Many of the children in the audience were not alive 14 years ago when Black released her viral sensation “Friday.”
One of those fans was 10-year-old Maddie Ullman. The Kansas City, Kansas resident’s one critique of Black’s act was “I wish she would have changed outfits.”
Maddie and her mother, Sara, came to the concert to see Perry. Sara said she didn’t expect Black’s performance to be so explicit, but “at the same time, we’re at a concert, what do you expect?”
During her set, Black’s music and visuals seemed off-putting to many in the audience.
A gray-haired man in a quarter zip grimaced as Black’s disembodied voice announced a cure for being “excessively heterosexual.” A parent covered their child’s eyes during the set and took out a phone game as a distraction.
But for Black’s fans in the audience, her unapologetic music was part of the draw.
Patrick Cox traveled from Iowa to see the concert with his friend. He’s drawn to Black’s music because, “she doesn’t give a f***”
Wearing a Rebecca Black T-shirt emblazoned with the words “I’ve been here since Friday,” Cox said he admires Black because “she took like a viral hit that was hated, and she’s still making music.”
Josh Cashion was one of the few audience members singing along to Black’s songs.
A fan of both Black and Perry, the St. Louis resident said the combination of the two made him press buy on the tickets.
Dressed in a clown outfit themed after one of Perry’s albums, Cashion said that Black “always has something to say, and I stand by that.”
