Post Malone at the Olympic Stadium: light, fire, country

BarcelonaIt looked like the Piromusical of La Mercè, but it was the end of Post Malone's concert at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys: fireworks shot into the sky of Montjuïc while the American singer extended Congratulations and received a wave of enthusiasm from the audience. Satisfaction, then, after an hour and three-quarters of performance in which Austin Richard Post, 30, confirmed the influence of country in his proposal, especially in light of the album F-1 Trillion (2024), although it has always been more or less present in some songs. "I get rap and metal from my father, and country from my mother," explained this artist born in the state of New York, raised in Dallas and resident in Utah a few years ago.

Country was the cultural thread of the show, both aesthetically, with a stage design that recalled an XXXL version of a rodeo-inspired slot machine, and musically, with a very efficient band in all colors, including those of the violin, the banjo and the pedal steel guitar. In addition, Post Malone was dressed in jeans, a light-colored shirt, and a huge buckle, just like Bradley Cooper in the movie. A star is born but with tattoos on his face. Theprops He completed it with a cigarette in his fingers and a red glass, inseparable companions as he walked along the walkway that divided the track from the stadium.

Aside from the cowboy revelry of Pour me a drink (he handed out beers to the audience) and Dead at the Honky Tonk, the most interesting thing about the country factor is the way it flows into the part of the repertoire most connected to hip-hop, even in songs like White Inverson and SunflowerWith this stylistic exercise, Post Malone stands out as a unique vocalist: a melodic rapper who drags his voice to make it more dramatic. Hollywood's bleeding (who sang lying down and twisted) and singer of inflamed ballads like And failure aside and And it ain't comin' back (both performed at the foot of the dance floor), Feeling Whitney (just playing acoustic guitar) and Stay (in which he invited a spectator to play the guitar). He also uses stadium rock tricks, such as enhancing the unbridled epicness of Rockstar with firecrackers and flames or give way to the public, as he did towards the end of the concert in And had some help, one of the most exciting moments of the night along with Better now, which he performed in the first segment. Post Malone doesn't always shine with the same intensity in a show that exhausts him; sometimes the country groove distorts some songs, but he has a great sense of showmanship and conveys the feeling of giving himself unconditionally to the audience.

The involuntary connection with Barça

Star with dozens of sales and reproduction records since he published the song White Inverson In 2015, however, he failed to fill the Olympic Stadium (with tickets selling for almost 100 euros on Friday). In fact, he fell far short of the 55,000 capacity. Promoter Live Nation hasn't confirmed attendance, but it probably didn't reach 30,000. He's also failing to fill the remaining dates of the European leg of this tour, The Big Ass. This may seem like a failure in an era where success is determined by the dictatorship of the sold out, but in Barcelona it brought together thousands of people, so many that it made it impossible to move the concert to the Palau Sant Jordi and the Estadi Olímpic came to the rescue of FC Barcelona's lack of foresight, which, as it does not have the new Camp Nou ready, must play against Valencia at the Johan Cruyff, the 6,000-seat stadium where it plays.