The music industry has gotten their taste of fresh talent with so many new emerging artist now taking center stage after captivating audiences at shows they were supporting. This has led so many new artist to now headline their own tours in 2024, seemingly marking a new trend of openers becoming the headliners.
Chappell Roan perfectly depicts this phenomenon. Only a year ago, she was warming up crowds for Olivia Rodrigo on the “Sour” tour in 2022 and just earlier this year for the “Guts” tour. She got on many people’s radars with her single “Good Luck, Babe!” back in September of last year, leaving fans very excited to see her opening for Rodrigo in the coming months. Her theatrical and dynamic concert performances earned her a rapidly growing fanbase, and she’s now competing with Rodrigo in streaming numbers and award nominations. Chappell’s theatrical style of performance like those at Coachella and Governors Ball really set her apart with the extravagant wardrobe, hair, and makeup along with the modern day YMCA to her “HOT TO GO!” anthem. This opener has fully become a must see act on her ongoing “Midwest Princess” tour.
Del Water Gap, who opened for Niall Horan’s “The Show” US tour just this year, has also experienced a surge in popularity. His charisma and familiar sound captivated Horan’s fans, resulting in a wave of TikTok videos of fans obsessing over the performer. With this newfound attention he announced his own show at once again the iconic Greek Theater. Touring with the former One Direction star seemingly set up the right crowd for the singer, also known as Samuel Holden Jaffe, to seize his moment. Horan’s tour was the perfect environment to become a catalyst for this now headline-ready artist.
Gracie Abrams is another name to add to the list of headline-quality artists that have opened for Olivia Rodrigo. After opening for Rodrigo, she is now on tour with Taylor Swift, a testament to her quality in performance and rise to fame. Her sold-out US “The Secret of Us” tour, including a second show added at the Greek Theatre, speaks volumes about her appeal. Abrams is not just a supporting act, we are actively watching her become a headliner before our eyes.
Similarly, Remi Wolf is another artist to have capitalized opening for Rodrigo on the European leg of the “Guts” tour to showcase her performances skills. With the announcement of her US tour in combination with opening for “Guts”, she has demonstrated a commitment to quality performances gaining her a steady growth in her fan base. She even sold out many shows from her own 22 city US tour showcasing her sophomore album “Big Ideas” one of which was at the iconic Greek Theater in Los Angeles. Her ability to engage audiences with her headliner-worthy music and performances has earned her a spot in being opener to headliner.
Sabrina Carpenter has also hit massive success this year with her new album and tour “Short and Sweet”. Despite the fact that she has been in the music industry for 10 years and her late summer album marks her sixth in her discography, it was only this year that the “Espresso” singer rose to to being one of the biggest pop stars of the year. She was most recently opening for Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” after seeing the success of her “Nonsense” outros for her “Emails I Don’t Send” tour. She would mix up the outro to rhyme whichever city she was performing in, and it proved to be a fan favorite quickly gaining traction on TikTok. This solidifies her as a true performer engage fans while on stage and being able to adapt her songs to fit a tour’s needs.
This trend in the music industry highlights a broader shift where fans are now not just expecting openers to be warm up performances. They want equally talented vocalists and performers opening a stage. So many emerging artists this year have shared the stage with very established musicians in the last year, which has proven to help them engage audiences and really hone in their skill as a overall performer.
It seems now it’s getting tougher to differentiate opening acts from headlining acts. We are in a new era where we are actively getting to see the shift of artists who were once the warm up acts fully stepping into their own spotlight.
