It was a blisteringly hot day and there I was, stood with my arms wrapped around my boyfriend, in a crowd tens of thousands strong. P!nk's face towering down on us from above, preaching about searching for a world that is not afraid of love, kindness and feminism. Between moments of her own massive career and emotional political moments - I reflected on a world that hadn't always worked the way I wanted it to, a world that had often beaten me down and held its hand to pick me up.
And I felt safe, I felt understood, I felt like it was exactly where I was supposed to be. In that ocean of misunderstood people, each one of us brought together by the strength of music. I felt safe enough to cry, to let myself grieve the family I had lost and the pain I had felt. I felt safe enough to love, to bury my head in my boyfriends neck and not fear the reactions around me.
From the very first opening bars, those tears came flooding out. It's almost impossible to explain just what 'What About Us' has come to represent for me - a cathartic balance of emotional release and nostalgic terror. It's a deceptively simple song built around a deceptively simple question. What about us? What about me? Why am I being forgotten? Why are you taking those that I love? Why me?
'What About Us' has allowed me to explore my personal traumas and grief in ways that I've never explored before. In particular I continued to find strength in it as I lost several family members last year, and following a failed suicide attempt. It's everything I possibly needed; it's the question painfully drawn from beneath the skin, it's the cathartic breakdown and the dance to release the anger it brings.
I've seen her live a few times, and she's absolutely the best performer in the world in my eyes. This moment just solidified it, and is the reason why I will see her every single time she performs. Her performance skill is transcendent, whether on the ground or in the air, because her entire heart bleeds out on the stage. The pain, the love, the humour - it's all there. You quite simply do not emerge from a P!nk show the same person as when you went in.
And that's just discussing the emotional connection I felt for one song, not to mention the fact she performed in blistering heat (with flames) without missing a beat, spun from ribbons, flew around the arena, I could go on. We all know her for her cirque-esque acrobatics, but that is to dismiss her incredible dancing skill. Singing live the entire time, there's no question in my mind that she is
the performer of our generation.
Let's get this started