The Get Weird Tour was the third concert tour and the first worldwide tour by British girl groupLittle Mix, in support of their third studio album, Get Weird, announced in July 2015. It began on 13 March 2016 in Cardiff, Wales and ended on 27 August 2016 in Newmarket, England. The group performed at sold-out shows across Europe, Oceania and Asia with a total of 60 shows selling approximately 377,682 tickets. It grossed a total of 22.1 million dollars.
Background
Little Mix released "Black Magic" as the lead single of their third studio album Get Weird in May 2015. On 17 July 2015, the group announced an extensive arena tour to commence in March 2016 in the United Kingdom and Ireland. 21 extra shows in the United Kingdom and Ireland were added due to high demand. In October 2015, the group announced dates in Oceania, making this the first time the group would headline a world tour. In December 2015, Asian dates were announced. In February 2016, further European dates were announced, including shows in Sweden, France and Spain. Gigs in Cologne and Milan were moved to bigger venues as a result of the high demand, as well as the extension of the UK tour. The tour started in March 2016 with Nathan Sykes, Jagmac and Joey Devries supporting in Europe and Jai Waetford supporting in Oceania. The Sam Willows were the support act in Asia and Philippa Hanna was the tour support in Europe, as well as the re-arranged Belfast gigs.
Concert synopsis
The show begins with a large screen showing fog rising. A book materializes, with sparks falling upon it. The book opens, flipping through the pages before landing on one. The right page lists the names of the group, while the camera zooms in on the blank left page. Sentences appear, eluding to the book calling the girls of band, with a background voice reading them out. The book fades, replaced by four hooded women who appear after each other and each say of name of one of the members. The screen abruptly cuts to black, before a man with black face paint stares into the audience. Suddenly, ominous music starts as sparks and fog fill the screen, with voices hissing. The screen rises to reveal the girls sitting on the floor in a circle, hands outstretched to each other. They then are flown up, and flail around as the man appears on the risen screen and says a phrase. The members are then lowered down as the lights are off. The same hooded women appear one after the other in a line whispering an incantation reminiscent of the lead single of the album, "Black Magic". The lights are switched on to reveal the girls standing up in brightly colored costumes before an intro. Right before the song begins, the background dancers rip off the pajamas, revealing the group in red and pink outfits and starting performing the sixth track on Get Weird, "Grown". It ends with extended dance breakdown making a transition to perform the next song placed on the setlist, "Hair". After the first interaction with fans, the group leads to perform "Change Your Life", following by "A.D.I.D.A.S." sitting on huge chairs whilst doing the choreography, and ending the first act with debut single, "Wings". . The second act of the show starts with the first interlude on the screen, showing the band getting into a taxi to head to a club. In the video they're asking the taxi driver to change the radio station and eventually changes into multiple song repertoire such as "Move", the lead single from group's second studio project, Salute, "OMG" or the third single from Get Weird, "Secret Love Song". Unfortunetally the taxi car stops in the dark forest, that is scaring the members, then it drives away. The interlude introduces the group for the second time within starting first song from the next act, "Lightning" along with "DNA", which includes a Viennese waltz choreography at the beginning, and extended outro. After that, the members of the group are adding one detail to their current outfits, starts the second conversation with fans, and performs "Secret Love Song, Pt. II", a solo version of the track with the feature from Jason Derulo. It comes with a transition to eight song from Get Weird, "OMG" where the background dancers wear suits and huge bunny heads, resembling in half Miley Cyrus' "We Can't Stop" music video, where the singer is dancing with a giant, white bear on her back with others. After the performance of it, the girls are starting talking to fans for third time before performing a medley of multiple songs as "Apache " by American hip hop group The Sugarhill Gang, "Crazy in Love" by American singer Beyoncé featuring American rapper Jay-Z, "Fester Skank" by English rapperLethal Bizzle featuring Dutch electro producer Dizortion, the snippet of "Where Are Ü Now" by American EDM duo Jack Ü featuring Canadian singer Justin Bieber and "Ring the Alarm", second song from the medley by Beyoncé. The second act is ended by performance of two last singles from group's second studio album, Salute respectively, "Salute" and "Little Me" with additional ending, that contains the elements of "Lightning". During it, the backup dancers shield the girls with a cloak as the girls drop through the stage, giving the illusion of them disappearing when they are hidden with a cloak. Its third act of the show begins with second part of the interlude, where scared members of the group get back into taxi after frightening experience in the forest. Unexpectedly, the taxi driver is revealed to be a drag queen. To brighten up their makeup and hair fixing together, the driver plays the debut hit single by British girlgroup Spice Girls, "Wannabe" requested by Jade Thirlwall. When the girls are on the way to the venue, the video ends as the screen rises. Third act is introduced by performance of "Move" with an extended swing-esque intro, where the snaps and sultry vocals can be heard. Before starting the next song, "How Ya Doin'?" featuring American rapper Missy Elliott, the group shows their dance routine matched to the theme along with backup dancers, also the middle of the song is suddenly interrupted by a cover of "Hotline Bling" by Canadian rapper Drake. After that, the group sings the first track from deluxe version of Get Weird, "I Won't". By the end of it the screens falls down, the members are taking of their shirts to show off simple, glittery, black one pieces and perform second single from the album, "Love Me Like You" ending the third part of the gig. The last act before the encore starts with the third interlude, where one of the band members, Jesy Nelson makes her own guide for audience how to do weird moves as the clip is set in a Hollywood's golden era style. When the screen rises, it reveals the group in colorful outfits and leads to perform "Weird People" within the background shows visuals of the formation dancing against a green screen background. Right before the song ends the members are moved down by a platform. An encore begins with the last interlude starts with the band standing side by side and singing "The Beginning" in the back of golden lighting. After its ending, the girls start perform last song from a standard version of Get Weird, "The End" until the outfits are not revealed into white glittery black pieces. It makes a transition to perform "Black Magic", where its lyrics are shown in a big, black book, reminiscent of the song's official music video. Near the end, the group thanks the audience and leaps the back of stage.
Critical reception
The group received positive reviews for the tour's first concert in the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff. Lewis Corner of Digital Spy gave the concert four out of five stars, writing: "And for all the big spectacle, towering ad libs and swift costume changes, Little Mix never let the energy dip. 'This is a blimmin' hard show, innit?' says Leigh-Anne Pinnock, but you'd never consider it from the way they make it look so effortless." "the only magic here is a combination of their pop brilliance and their ability to give it the big stage show it deserves – and it will most likely be the best one you'll see this year." Rachel Mainwaring of Wales Online was very positive, giving the concert a rating of five-out-of-five-stars, declaring: "These girls can sing and these girls can dance. And everything about the show was loud, brash and positive."
''The Get Weird Tour Live''
The making of the Get Weird Tour DVD was confirmed by Jesy Nelson, who spoke with three other members of the group on KMFM on 15 April 2016. She revealed that their upcoming date at The SSE Arena, Wembley on 22 April 2016 will be filmed for the DVD, which was likely to be released later that year. The band announced that the DVD would come with the deluxe edition of their fourth studio album, Glory Days, released on 18 November 2016.
Set list
This set list was obtained from the concert of 13 March 2016 held at Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff. It does not represent all shows throughout the tour. Note that during the Oceania, Asia and Europe leg, "A.D.I.D.A.S.", "OMG" and "I Won't" was removed from the set list due to production being stripped back.
