It feels as though Troye Sivan has climbed just about every mountain worth scaling for a pop artist of his ilk over the past 12 months.
From the Met Gala to the ARIAs, Saturday Night Live to Seth Meyers, the 29-year-old Australian pop star has become a mainstay of pop culture, and now he's finally announced he's coming home, playing four live shows in Australia this November.
It will be his first Australian tour in more than five years. Given where he's at right now, it will be a joyous victory lap for one of our country's most exciting artists.
Who is Troye Sivan?
Sivan was born in South Africa in 1995 and moved to Australia when he was two.
After gaining a strong following on YouTube in the platform's fledgling days, he scored a string of reasonably high-profile acting roles in films like X-Men Origins: Wolverine and celebrated South African film Spud (in which he appeared alongside John Cleese).
He's been one of Australia's most bankable pop prospects for years, first hitting the top five on the Billboard 200 with his EP TRXYE in 2014 and going on to deliver a steady stream of quality pop records in the ensuing years.
Key to Sivan's success is his insistence that his work have a striking visual aspect to accompany his songs. He is most definitely a product of the YouTube generation, and his skills as an actor, dancer, and model help him create captivating visuals to help his songs travel further.
This was evident from the outset, but his focus on visual storytelling became more prominent with his Blue Neighbourhood trilogy of videos, released in 2015. In them, Sivan interrogated issues around teen sexuality, his reflections on the complexities of growing up gay proving he didn't take his position as a young queer icon lightly.
In 2019, Sivan's second album Bloom marked another big turning point. With years of both musical and life experience under his belt, Sivan proved that he was evolving. While he wouldn't turn away from his early success as a teen pop star, it would not typify his future.
Why is now his moment?
Last year, after a couple of quiet years on the music front, he released his third album Something to Give Each Other. It is his most critically revered work to date.
Its lead single was 'Rush', one of the year's best and most inescapable pop songs, which landed in the top 10 of triple j's Hottest 100, made year-end "best song" lists from outlets including Billboard, Rolling Stone and Pitchfork, and charted in dozens of countries.
The singles from Something to Give Each Other were of course accompanied by video clips that set the internet alight.
His visual might shone through in the lustful and artful writhing of 'Rush' and his tribute to Britney Spears's look in 'One of Your Girls', but it was the clip for 'Got Me Started' that had the biggest pop culture impact.
In an episode of Saturday Night Live late last year, acclaimed actor Timothée Chalamet played Sivan in a comedy sketch where a woman sees the singer as a sleep paralysis demon. It was pretty wild.
The week after the Chalamet situation, Sivan won best solo artist and song of the year (for 'Rush') at the ARIA Awards. He later won GQ Australia's Man of the Year, another song off the year title for 'Rush' at the APRA Awards and picked up his first-ever Grammy nominations for best pop dance recording and best music video.
Sivan has just wrapped up an arena tour of Europe and the UK, where he played massive shows at venues including Manchester and Wembley arenas and Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome, delighting tens of thousands of revellers each night.
Most of the reviews have been effusive in their praise of Sivan's costumes, choreography, and general high standard of performance. While not everyone is happy about it, we can only hope inspiring this kind of hand-wringing arouses more pride than hurt for an artist like Sivan.
In September he'll be back on the road sharing headlining duties at arenas across the USA with Charli xcx, who is also having the biggest moment of her career following the release of her acclaimed new album Brat.
Expect to see and hear plenty from those shows all over your social feeds in the coming months. Good news for Aussie fans is that it means Sivan's live show will be in top shape and any kinks will well and truly be ironed out.
What can we expect from the shows?
Now is the time to stop reading if you want to be surprised by what Troye offers up at these shows, though you've probably already seen clips of his extraordinary-looking and -sounding show on social media in recent months.
Unsurprisingly Sivan has been sticking firmly to tracks from Something to Give Each Other on recent set lists, with nine of its 10 tracks making the cut at shows on his recent tour (unsure what his issue is with album closer 'How to Stay with You', but we respect his decision).
The visual aspect seems as though it's on another level entirely to what we saw the last time he was in Australia, with critics at pains to praise the brilliance of the choreography of these shows.
"Sensual and athletic, his six-piece troupe of dancers are almost K-pop-worthy in their precision, creating moments of tenderness amid all the raunch," The Guardian wrote of his Manchester show last month.
Emerging Sydney pop artist Nick Ward has been given the coveted support slot, and you'd expect his brand of vivid modern pop to go down very well with Sivan fans who get in early.
After a couple of massive years, his forthcoming Australian tour feels like it should be Sivan's moment to enjoy the fruits of his labour and bask in the glory of being one of the most exciting and most important pop stars in our history.
Troye Sivan's national tour kicks off at The Drive, Adelaide, on November 19, before heading to Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.
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2024-07-08 20:12:55Z
CBMibWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDI0LTA3LTA5L3Ryb3llLXNpdmFuLWF1c3RyYWxpYS10b3VyLXJ1c2gtc29tZXRoaW5nLXRvLWdpdmUtZWFjaC1vdGhlci8xMDQwNzE1ODjSAShodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTA0MDcxNTg4
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