REVIEW: Rebecca Black "Exhibitionism On Tour"
Rebecca Black is exactly as cool as she thinks she is.
What do I mean by that? Well, it's apparent that Ms. Black holds herself to a high standard and in high regard, and I think she should - she has gone through so much, been through so much, and has come out the other side producing exciting and original pop music that has only gotten better with time.
If you are reading this and are thinking to yourself "wait, why does the name Rebecca Black sound so familiar?", it's probably because you know her as the girl who sang Friday.
Yes, THAT FRIDAY SONG.
Before you rush to cast her aside as a talentless hack, I need to inform you, dear reader, that Rebecca Black has been putting out some of the most exhilarating and unique hyperpop music in the last few years. Her concert, Exhibitionism on Tour, has only highlighted her daring and original vision. Each studio album she has produced, starting with Let Her Burn up through Age of the Exhibitionist (the album that she performed for this tour, if you didn't put 2 and 2 together) has slowly peeled back the layers of Rebecca Black's persona, and has helped refine her and her artistic vision more and more.
That's all to say: I think Rebecca Black is really fucking cool, and so was this concert. It was one of the most impressive shows I have attended at a small venue this year, utilizing ingenious lighting design and a bare-bones but impactful stage setup that expounded upon the album's sonic themes and visual design.
Born in Irvine, California, in 1997, Ms. Black is the daughter of two veterinarians, one of whom is her immigrant Mexican mother. She initially attended a private school for her education but then moved to a musical theater program due to severe bullying at said private school (unrelated to the song Friday, since it hadn't been released yet). She eventually dropped out in 2011 to focus on her musical career. Prior to Rebecca Black dropping out of school, however, one of her classmates told her about a company called ARK Music Factory. The purpose of this business was to recruit and discover young new talent ...
(I just want to pause here a take a moment to say that calling this ARK business a record label is extremely generous - it basically just took parents' money and would make ridiculously cheap music videos for their kids to satiate the kids' and parents' hunger for fame. They were behind a lot of the early 2010's viral music videos).
...Black and her mother met with the "record label", with her mother eventually paying $4,000 to the label to produce and publish a music video starring Rebecca. Black was given two songs to choose from for the music video: the first one, named "Super Woman", was rejected by Black for being too adult.
You can probably guess what the other song was...
Friday was released on February 10, 2011, going mega-viral in March. It garnered an unprecedented level of criticism from around the globe. The song (and Black herself) was mocked, ridiculed, parodied cruelly, and critically destroyed by both music critics and the general public. It became the most disliked YouTube video of all time that year (surpassing Justin Bieber's Baby music video). Countless publications dubbed it "the worst song of all time", and Black herself began to receive an unimaginable number of death threats and other terrifying messages daily. I vividly remember all the vitriolic rhetoric surrounding that song and video when it was released, with my high school teachers playing it on Fridays to jokingly annoy the class.
Looking back, it's really horrific how we as a society treated a 13-year old girl who just wanted to be a pop star, who was taken advantage of and exploited by a scummy music company. It is nothing short of a miracle that Rebecca Black is not only still with us, but that she continued to pursue a music career and produce projects that have only continued to improve. In 2015, BuzzFeed did a profile on Black four years after the release of Friday, and then in 2020 Black herself posted an open "letter" (an Instagram caption) acknowledging the damage the global cyberbullying that took place did to her psyche. It's heartbreaking and sobering at the same time. I have the letter at the bottom of this review for anyone who would like to read it.
Black laid somewhat low for about a decade after releasing Friday, releasing some music between 2011 and 2019, but I don't consider her having truly re-entered the pop culture lexicon until 2021, when she began to release songs for her debut studio album Let Her Burn. While that album wasn't exactly my cup of tea, it was met with critical acclaim, with critics noting Black's surprising versatility and catchy pop songs.
I personally REALLY rallied around Rebecca Black when she released her EP Salvation in 2024. It contains some of the most exciting hyperpop songs that I have heard in my adult life, going toe-to-toe with Charli XCX. A personal highlight for me was TRUST!, which I listened to almost 100 times according to my Spotify Wrapped that year. Her tour that year, in which she played at a 500-person venue, was pure camp excellence.
But I knew Black was going to be a true pop star when she released Hot Wet Delirious as the second single for Age of the Exhibitionist. The sound, the vision, the story within the song, all perfectly honed and aligned with how Rebecca Black seems to view herself: as a total gay icon. It doesn't hurt that the music video for that song is my personal favorite of 2026. That single was a signal to me that Rebecca Black has seemingly fully grown into herself and discovered what kind of pop singer she wants to be: slutty, edgy, sexy, a little insane, and unapologetically queer. The album itself is her best work to date. Every single song is so different and exciting yet manages to stay on theme and not be all over the place, weaving narratives that are just SO. ON. BRAND. FOR. HER. Emerging pop stars like to try on a bunch of personas like costumes before landing on one that they think best represents themselves and who they want to project (something Suki Waterhouse is still slightly struggling with). Rebecca Black has finally found herself with this album, and the tour PERFECTLY reflects that.
If it's not clear at this point, I fucking love Rebecca Black. This is my third time seeing her: the first time was for her 2024 Salvation tour, and the second time was when she opened for Katy Perry. This was easily her best performance to date, and she's only getting better. Let's get into the actual tour review, shall we?
Pros
The strongest parts of this show were the stage setup, design, and Black's stage presence. To underscore just how impressive the stage setup was, I'll obviously need to describe it to you, but you can get the gist of it by watching the video I recorded above.
In the middle of the stage was a set of 4 curtains that were hanging off of metal rods, forming a rectangle with an inner part that could not be seen by the concert-goers based on how the stage was lit. Images were projected onto these curtains throughout the show, and Black used lighting techniques to both hide what was inside the curtained rectangle and then show the audience what was behind the curtain without pulling it back. There was only one other prop on stage: two metal rods with a velvet rope in between them, and then occasionally Black would bring out a chair to dance on. Why was this stage setup so brilliant in my humble opinion? It's because the setup represented the exact definition of Exhibitionism: Black spent a good majority of the performance in the center of this box, dancing in a suggestive manner for us, the audience/voyeurs, to view. Using lighting techniques to allow us to see through the curtain without pulling it back was a brilliant choice in storytelling: like an Exhibitionist, Black is performing for us, and we as the audience are the voyeurs, watching her successfully command and demand our undivided attention. That leads me to my second major pro of the show: I could not look away from Black for one single second.
Black touched on this during the show, but the global cyberbullying campaign, in her words, hardened her and gave her a thick skin. She simply doesn't care what anyone thinks of her anymore, and is going to do exactly what she wants on her own terms. That's what makes this album so impactful: you can tell that Black had a specific vision in mind and did not compromise a single part of that vision. That vision came to life on stage in both the technical setup and her presence on stage. Never once did she seem timid, shy, meek, or afraid. She stood tall the entire show, loud and proud, and I ate up every second of it.
Like I said before, I first saw Black in 2024 for her Salvation tour, which had a much lower budget than this tour (at one point for her 2024 tour, the video of which is in the introduction section of this review, she had toilet paper wrapped around her arms and had her Very Gay dancers unravel it from her body, revealing her full form to the audience. It was ridiculous, hilarious, and incredible), but I was impressed with how Black was able to still put on a creative and inventive show using a shoestring budget. The budget for this tour was clearly bigger, but not big enough to rely on pure spectacle to deliver a fantastic performance. Black more than delivered on the spectacle front; like I said, I could not keep my eyes off her! She took a few beats to address the audience, becoming visibly emotional at one point; the crowd went absolutely nuts for her as she wiped away her tears, thanking everyone for coming and explaining how she couldn't believe this was happening ("this" being the fact that she was headlining her SECOND major tour in bigger venues this time. Imagine telling someone in 2011 that Rebecca Black would be one of the new faces of hyperpop music). These moments came off as sincere and authentic, and made me fall in love with her and appreciate her more than I already did.
Going slightly backwards to my previous point, the lighting design was EXCELLENT. Using lighting to reveal and then hide the space behind the curtains was a brilliant choice, highlighting the exhibitionist themes for this tour. The color palette for the lighting matched excellently with the album themes as well, using sensual shades of red during the more sexual songs, and then transitioning into whites and yellows for the slower, more ballad-y songs in the setlist.
The last big pro that I want to touch on is the choreography and the costume design. The choreography itself was great (if not perfectly executed, which I will touch on in my next section), and made for an intriguing addition to Rebecca's already-excellent presence on the stage. Her backup dancers were terrific too; they were consistently in sync and seemed to have great chemistry with both each other and Black on stage. The costumes were great as well: Black had on either a solid black or solid white skimpy outfit with red stockings, matching the outfit she wore on the cover of Age of the Exhibitionist album.
Cons
I'll be honest: the cons that I have listed here are all things that Ms. Black can (and absolutely will) improve upon. I'm rooting for her HARD. I mean, how could you not? A woman who was viciously bullied by the entire world when she was THIRTEEN decided to stand up and say "fuck it!" and follow her passion in creating pop music. I've had mental death spirals over boys not texting me back - no way I'd be able to stand tall in the face of a global cyberbullying campaign.
The first, and unfortunately, the biggest con is that Black's vocals just aren't quite there yet. She's gotten A LOT better since I saw her open for Katy Perry (which was the second time I saw her), but she still has a ways to go. It's funny - her vocal issues weren't when she was belting out high notes (she sounded great when she had to belt or hold a high note), but rather when she had to sing notes at a lower register or sing more steadily. I had this same exact problem when I saw Demi Lovato earlier this year, and we all know that woman can SING. It seems like Black just needs to continue practicing singing at a lower register.
I mentioned earlier how the choreography was strong, and I stand by that! My problem, however, was the actual execution of some of the choreography. I could see the vision Black was going for, and I think it would have REALLY knocked the show out of the park had Black executed the choreography a little cleaner. At times, some of her dancing was a tad clunky and a bit awkward. It's never a good sign when it seems like you're barely keeping up with your backup dancers. HOWEVER, for the most part, Black executed the choreography well enough to be passable. With time, she's only going to get better.
The last con I want to bring up is that occasionally, the backtracking was so loud that I could barely hear Rebecca herself. I'm not really sure if this was a problem with the venue, the sound design, or if Black was periodically doing this to rest her voice and keep up her stamina, but it was distracting and annoying at times. I don't really fault her for this, though: Black's focus was on performing and making sure she was staying on beat with the track. It's another person's job to make sure the sound itself is functioning right.
Final Thoughts
I'm rooting for Rebecca Black, and it's clear that she knows exactly how to execute her artistic vision for each of her projects. She has only gotten better and honed in on her skills with each passing year. Despite issues with her vocals and choreography, I really think she has the potential to one day sell out mid-sized concert venues (think 5,000 person capacity venues). All she needs is that ONE song to go viral on TikTok for her stardom to launch into the stratosphere. (Side note: I HATE TikTok, but unfortunately, going viral on there seems to be what it takes for artists to become recognized for their talent these days. I mean, look at Zara Larsson: her single Midnight Sun blew up on TikTok and she became inescapable, and she's been in the music game for over a decade!)
I'm feeling a 4/5 for this one.
Rebecca's Open Letter on Instagram in 2020
"9 years ago today a music video for a song called “friday” was uploaded to the internet. above all things, i just wish i could go back and talk to my 13 year old self who was terribly ashamed of herself and afraid of the world. to my 15 year old self who felt like she had nobody to talk to about the depression she faced. to my 17 year old self who would get to school only to get food thrown at her and her friends. to my 19 year old self who had almost every producer/songwriter tell me they’d never work with me. hell, to myself a few days ago who felt disgusting when she looked in the mirror! i’m trying to remind myself more and more that every day is a new opportunity to shift your reality and lift your spirit. you are not defined by any one choice or thing. time heals and nothing is finite. it’s a process that’s never too late to begin. and so, here we go! this might be a weird thing to post but the honesty feels good if nothing else."