Gig Review: Madison Beer At The O2

Madison Beer turns The O2 into a glittering pop fairytale on The Locket Tour

There are arena shows that feel huge, and then there are arena shows that somehow feel personal at the exact same time. Madison Beer’s sold-out stop at London’s The O2 last night was both.

Fresh off the release of her third studio album Locket, Madison brought her biggest headline show to date to London, transforming the venue into a surreal pop fairground complete with glowing staircases, carousel-inspired staging, dreamy lighting and the kind of cinematic visuals that made the entire night feel somewhere between a hazy dream and a coming-of-age film.

At one point, sitting on the stairs of the towering stage construction, Madison genuinely looked like she had walked straight out of Mamma Mia! — not the Greek-island version, but some darker, glittering Gen Z pop reimagining of it. The entire set carried that same feeling: emotional, theatrical and incredibly immersive.

The show opened with “yes baby,” immediately sending the arena into chaos — although not exactly in the way anyone expected. A curtain malfunction during the opening seconds briefly threatened the dramatic reveal, but Madison handled it with humour almost instantly, laughing the moment off and proving within minutes why the audience feels so connected to her. The technical issue barely mattered anyway; the second the music kicked in properly, the crowd's screams drowned out everything else.

And what a crowd it was. Bows in hair, bows on shirts, bows everywhere — a sea of fans screaming every lyric back at her, with the kind of devotion usually reserved for artists twice as far along in their careers. Nobody seemed interested in filming entire songs or pretending to be detached; people were fully in the moment, jumping, crying, singing and watching Madison as if they truly could not believe she was standing in front of them.

Honestly, Madison herself seemed just as overwhelmed. During one speech, she paused, almost speechless, taking in the size of the arena surrounding her. She reflected on how, 13 years ago, she had stood on this exact stage on her birthday during a Justin Bieber show — joking that this was “not an introduction for Justin Bieber because he’s definitely not coming out.” 

One of the cleverest elements of the production was how smoothly the show flowed from one song to the next. Lights would suddenly cut out, the stage would darken for seconds, and Madison would seemingly disappear before reappearing somewhere completely different. At first, I started counting how many people around me kept asking, “Wait — where is she now?” but I genuinely lost track before halfway through the show. The transitions made the entire concert feel fluid and cinematic rather than segmented into separate performances.

Vocally, Madison was stunning. It’s easy to know someone is talented online, but hearing her live is an entirely different experience. Her vocals appeared effortless, even during the night's biggest moments, balancing delicate emotional performance with huge pop choruses without ever sounding strained. Arena pop can sometimes sacrifice intimacy for spectacle, but Madison somehow managed to keep both.

The night’s loudest reaction arguably came during the fan-choice segment. Sitting beside a heart-shaped box on the carousel steps, Madison invited fans to choose between three songs written on pieces of paper: “Good in Goodbye,” “Sour Times,” and “Default.” The second “Good in Goodbye” was selected, and the entire arena practically detonated. The scream that followed came across as less like audience excitement plus more like collective emotional release.

But the show’s most memorable moments came when Madison stepped away from the spectacle entirely. During “lovergirl,” she left the stage and walked directly along the barricade, singing to fans face-to-face while signing vinyls and posters, hugging people, holding hands and accepting gifts mid-song. In a venue as massive as The O2, moments like that shouldn’t feel possible, yet somehow she made the arena shrink.

Support acts Lulu Simon and Isabel LaRosa helped establish the atmosphere long before Madison appeared. Lulu Simon brought dreamy synth-pop energy and strong songwriting, while Isabel LaRosa’s darker alt-pop sound transformed the arena into something moodier and hypnotic, perfectly setting the mood for the night ahead.

By the time the show ended around 10:30pm, it came across less like leaving a concert and more like waking up from something strangely cinematic. The Locket Tour isn’t just Madison Beer proving she can headline arenas — it’s Madison Beer proving she belongs there.