2023-07-05 11:27:38
Expected headliner, the American singer-rapper put on his show for an hour on Tuesday evening at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Surrounded by his youthful dancers in a decorum summoning a kitsch bestiary and Greek mythology, Lil Nas X struggled to transcribe his transgressive discourse on stage.
“I will definitely move here, there are lots of cute guys”. Faithful to the affirmation of his homosexuality, the one who slays racism with sulphurous texts and clips that shock puritan America, seduces and immediately makes the audience of the Stravinski auditorium in Montreux smile on Tuesday evening. Since the day before, he has taken advantage of the softness of the shores of Lake Geneva shirtless and shared his impressions with his large community on Instagram and therefore knows what he is talking regarding.
Astride a great white horse
Lil Nas X has just started his short but energetic performance with his queer manifesto “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” in fur and golden gladiator armor, flanked by his eight young dancers sporting long-haired white outfits and boots . We then say to ourselves that things are starting rather well … Alas, the continuation of the concert of the 24-year-old superstar of urban music with billions of cumulative plays on streaming platforms is gradually turning into a caricature by dint of overplaying .
“Old Town Road”, a staggering marriage of hip-hop, country, rock and pop in a Wild West decorum, as romantic as it is plagued by the segregation between blacks and whites which revealed Lil Nas X, sees it so here come in astride a big white horse.
American singer Lil Nas X at the Montreux Jazz Festival, July 4, 2023. [Thea Moser – FFJM 2023 ]
Humor and lightness
The gay kitsch crazy horse stage revue then summons alternately an ibis (for “Sun Goes Down”) and a giant Minotaur (on “Lost in the Citadel”) to animate as much as still furnish songs unfortunately often interpreted in play- back and that even Shazam recognizes. Lil Nas X never hesitates to further magnify the features of his famous controversial visuals, until kissing one of his dancers.
After “Don’t Want It”, a condensed version of “S&M”, “Deja Vu” and “Sex Talk”, then “That’s What I Want”, delivered in still very choreographic pop versions, the world of Lil Nas X is adorned with blue with gladiator skirts and Michael Jackson’s mythical “Beat It” which invites itself in the introduction of “Industry Baby”. Way for Lil Nas X to pay his tribute to his inspirations. A happy birthday sung for one of its dancers comes to close the too short parade which will nevertheless have seduced or even galvanized the audience at times.
Despite his humor, his lightness and his insolence, we say to ourselves in the end that the artist who made his gay identity a political standard might still have asserted other more inspired facets of his non-conformism to adapt on stage his transgressive repertoire.
Olivier Horner
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