Megan Thee Stallion is comfortably one of the biggest hip-hop artists in the world. She’s won enough awards to warrant her own Wikipedia page on the subject, megahits like 2020’s WAP continue to inspire countless Hot Girl Summers, and recent single HISS also broke chart records.
Still, new album MEGAN suggests it's lonely at the top. With biting songs about false friends and painful betrayals, it pairs this vulnerability with the swaggering anthems of self-belief she’s become known for. And on Wednesday night, Megan Thee Stallion weaved between those two extremes as she brought the curtain down on her Hot Girl Summer world tour at London’s O2 Arena.
She opened with the fiery purge of HISS and the venomous Ungrateful, before she shifted to the party-starting Thot S**t, joined onstage by a troupe of dancers for some synchronised ass-shaking. From there, Megan delivered a skillful run through of her impressive back catalogue.
The show was part of Megan’s first proper headline tour after several summers of headline-grabbing festival appearances, and that desire to keep the energy up drove the show forward.
Racing through 25 songs in just 90 minutes, it was a high-octane gig that rarely paused for breath. “I don’t know how many shows we’ve done, but I’ve been wearing my throat out,” she said with a knowing grin, fully aware that it could be taken in another, altogether more lewd, way.
Megan Thee Stallion’s songs are full of playfully over-the-top flexes and are a real celebration of her own sexuality. Here, she took on the role of Hot Girl Coach in a bid to share that empowerment with the audience, with the likes of Girl In The Hood, Big Ole Freak and Hot Girl acting as the uplifting soundtrack.
Elsewhere, a guest appearance from Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba gave their collab Mamushi an extra burst of excitement, while new tracks BOA and Where Them Girls At provided arena-wide singalongs.
For all Megan’s confidence, female rappers still come up against additional barriers in the sphere of hip-hop, and longevity has always been something of an uphill battle. She addressed this head on with Cobra, as she turned fear and uncertainty into a moment of catharsis – with a little help from snarling electric guitars. When she wasn’t delivering crossover rap hits, she was busy signing cowboy hats and posing for selfies.
“If you love yourself just the way you are, make some noise” Megan said later, and the entire venue erupted in cheers.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” she added before the chirpy Body and the smirking Savage closed out a night that only underlined Megan Thee Stallion’s legacy as an all-time great.
