Shaboozey review: ‘Infectious energy and a genre-bending catalogue’

It’s hard to think there are many people who have enjoyed a better 12 months than Shaboozey. His smash hit ‘A Bar Song’ spent a record-tying 19 weeks at the top of the Billboard charts in the United States; he earned five Grammy Award nominations, a Brit Award nomination and collaborated with Beyonce on her ‘Cowboy Carter’ album, establishing himself as one of the fast-rising stars in the country scene. In 2025, he will make his Glastonbury debut and perform at other major festivals, including Coachella, Rock Werchter, Lollapalooza and PinkPop in the Netherlands.

For country music in general, it’s an incredibly exciting time. The scene is littered with fast-rising stars, including the likes of Megan Moroney, Cody Johnson, Breland, Ella Langley, Warren Zeiders, Kane Brown, Nate Smith, and of course, there is Shaboozey, who looks set to enter the next chapter of his career, and it’s without doubt that the best is yet to come, which is incredibly exciting.

Following performances at the Country to Country festival at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Glasgow’s OVO Hydro and the O2 Arena over the weekend, the sold-out 1,500-capacity KOKO made for a more intimate setting for the 29-year-old, but one that played to his strengths perfectly as he brought his infectious energy and genre-bending catalogue to his first headlining show in the UK.

From the outset, the venue switched into full-blown party mode as Shaboozey transported the audience on a Jack Daniels-soaked journey through the Wild West, heartbreak, betrayal and reflection. As the stage was bathed in a sea of black, the opening verses of ‘Spaghettii’ rang around the intimate venue before the sound of twangy guitars and Shaboozey’s enchanting vocals took over on the outlaw ballad ‘The Last of My Kind’, which is given an extra kick in a live setting thanks to a spellbinding solo.

Seeking to set the tone for a masterclass of a performance, the singer urged the intimate crowd to “Get this party started” before performing a rendition of the anthemic and rap-infused ‘Tall Boy’ and the heartfelt heartbreak anthem ‘Anabelle’, which is accompanied by visuals of Wild West wanted posters. Whilst adept at clean melodic singing, Shaboozey is also an assured and confident rapper on tracks such as ‘Beverly Hills’, which combines an acoustic-guitar loop with 808 patterns, and ‘Sticks and Stones’, which features a blend of country and hip-hop elements.

Throughout the evening, Shaboozey struck a candid tone as he reflected on wanting to remain true to himself and maintain the connections he has built. Before the reflective ‘Finally Over’ touched on where he is from with the raw anthem ‘East of the Massanutten', and an acoustic-led rendition of ‘Good News’ is a perfect fit and a feel-good moment in what the singer joked was a “healing hour” on Wednesday evening.

On tracks such as the guitar-driven ‘Vegas’, the emotionally charged ‘Let It Burn’ and the betrayal-inspired ‘Steal Her From Me’, there’s a sense of rawness and vulnerability in his vocals as he dives deep into his tales of heartbreak and highlights the strength of his emotive songwriting.

After returning to the stage for the encore, the first rendition of the infectious ‘A Bar Song (Tipsy)’ is a shot of adrenaline, and the singalong is a moment of pure euphoria for the audience and singer alike, so much so that Shaboozey raced into the crowd and performed a second rendition of the track amongst his legion of devoted fans to close out the night.