Discover Alana Springsteen: A review of Alana's UK performances and Career Trajectory.

Hold my Beer!

That was my response when I was asked if I’d write an in-depth piece on Alana Springsteen. Incidentally, this is also the name of one of the two new, as-yet unreleased songs that received their UK debuts during Alana’s electric headline set on The Rainbow Stage at BST Hyde Park (the other song being 'Cowboy') in London on July 4th.

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Alana at BST Hyde Park. Photo Credit: Adam Everitt Photography

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It’s been just sixteen months since Alana and her acoustic guitar hit the ‘Introducing Nashville’ lineup on the main arena stages in London, Dublin and Glasgow for Country 2 Country in March 2023, but the way the Jordan-wearing,’ tequila slingin,’ Twentysomething Virginia Beach girl has been embraced by UK and European crowds has been something special to see.

After generating a buzz at C2C, Alana was soon back over in the UK to close out the summer with a string of dates opening in Manchester, London and Glasgow for Eli Young Band, as well as solo sets in Utrecht, Netherlands, The Long Road Festival and back-to-back show nights in Omagh and Dublin, Ireland.

In that time, she released her debut album, Twenty Something, in three phases: Messing it Up, Figuring it Out & Getting it Right. Each phase consisting of six songs that made up the full eighteen song track list for her album. As vocally gifted as Alana is, I feel her strongest gift lies in her songwriting, and her intuition to collaborate with some of the best songwriters in the business, to craft songs that are both uniquely personal to her life and also incredibly relatable to a wider audience. This is never more evident than when you’re at one of Alana’s headlining shows – the shows that are just hers, with tickets bought by her fans, her “fam.”

To that point, Alana’s fans definitely showed up again for her headlining set on the Rainbow Stage at BST Hyde Park – the area around stage was completely packed out and from the opening notes of ‘Twenty Something’ right up to her closing it out with ‘Goodbye Looks Good on You,’ everyone was singing along with her. Her forty or so minute set weaved in a number of hits from her Twenty Something album, as well as her debuting two new, unreleased songs with the mid-tempo heartbreak ballad ‘Cowboy,’ and the crowd-pleasing, chorus singalong-inducing, ‘Hold My Beer,’ which Alana said is aimed at “anyone who’s ever underestimated you,” to give the London crowd a taste of her new era of music, which judging by the reaction to them, is going to be as emphatically embraced as her previous projects.

Her headlining show at Whelen’s in Dublin last September will forever remain one of the greatest shows I’ve ever been to. Once again, armed with only her incredible voice, raw, open honesty and humility and her acoustic guitar, she completely captured and commanded the room in a manner not unlike Taylor Swift. That show was so good, I booked a ticket for a show on her first US headlining tour while I was still in the venue. That one ticket very quickly turned into three shows in three nights and a whole load of flights last December, but I regret nothing - Boston, Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh have joined Dublin in holding a special place in my heart as some of the greatest live music experiences ever.

Jumping ahead to March 2024, Alana was back for C2C, but this year she wasn’t just headlining the Saturday night Official Afterparty at the Indigo, she was co-hosting the entire weekend in London’s 02 Arena with country music icon, Bob Harris, himself. I can’t imagine that when younger Alana was sitting on the hardwood floor, dreaming ‘bout leaving that small town, that she ever imagined those dreams would take her all the way to London, England to co-host the UK’s biggest country music festival with British country royalty.

Speaking of that Official Afterparty; it was Alana’s first ever headlining show in London, but man, did the crowd show up for her. And she matched that energy and then some. From the opening beats of her debut album’s title track, ‘Twenty Something,’ the atmosphere was electric; the synergy between Springsteen and a sold-out Indigo crowd of her fans was epic.

Her set ran for around 50 minutes, which was just long enough to thrill the crowd, while simultaneously leaving us hungry for more. Springsteen crafted a setlist that made every second count, weaving together 11 of the 18 tracks from Twenty Something with only one detraction “for the OG’s in the room” with the inclusion of ‘Me, Myself & Why’ from 2022’s ‘History of Breaking Up (Part Two) EP.

She closed out her show with ‘Here’s to All My Exes,’ an up tempo, crowd-pleasing love-letter to her fans that had the entire Indigo dancing and singing along. The love from the crowd wasn’t lost on Springsteen, who declared, “Oh London, y’all are wild. I have no words for what tonight meant to me.”

Headlining in Dublin

'You Don't Deserve A Country Song Live at Whelen's, Dublin.

Chatting with the crowd - Whelen's, Dublin.

Returning to C2C 2024:

Here's To All My Exes: C2C Afterparty

An Artist Always Engaged with "Her Fam"

The truth of that sentiment showed, and always has with Alana, which – I think – is a big part of her accelerated trajectory to being so overwhelmingly embraced and adored by her fans over here. It’s always awesome to come across an artist as obviously talented as she is – her voice is incredible, she’s the kind of songwriter who can craft a Taylor Swift level hook that will stay with you for days, and anyone who’s seen her live show knows she can play the hell of out a guitar or keyboard, but what’s even more remarkable is how much time and love she gives back to her fans and truly cares about making real connections with her fam, as she calls them.

Another rare thing about Alana is the community of fans that she’s built around her; I go to a lot of live shows, and I love a lot of artists, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fanbase that’s quite like hers before. Full disclosure here – just in case it wasn’t obvious already – I’m a fan, and as such I’ve now been to eleven of Alana’s shows across six countries (England, Northern Ireland, USA, Netherlands, Berlin and Canada) and I’ve made friends that I’m still in touch with at almost all of those shows (shout out to my Dublin boys, Bryan and Rich in D.C, Ellen in Baltimore, Kelly in Ohio, Brit, Hannah, Alyssa, Tyler and Hayley in Pittsburgh, Frank in the Netherlands, Lauren in Vancouver, and Alana superfan, Estevan in Nashville who runs the Alana Springsteen Squad fan page on Instagram). Like I said, I go to a lot of shows, but this has never happened to me with any other artist – there’s something incredibly special about Alana’s fanbase, which is– in my opinion - a reflection of the kind of artist and human Alana is.

After wrapping her US headlining tour in late December last year, this was something Alana herself commented on in an Instagram post to her fans: “I’ll be reliving these past few months for a long time; there’s something wild about y’all showing up the way you did. I saw how you took care of each other, made space for the kids to watch from the front, didn’t complain when dads put their daughters on their shoulders for their fave songs. You made sure people you didn’t know travelled safely and got to the next show alright. It’s one thing to buy tickets and merch with my name on, it’s another to create a whole community and culture of love and positivity around these songs that connect us. Looking back, I’m proud of so many things this year, but what I’m most proud of is you.”

It isn’t just her fam that adore her either, Alana’s already gotten glowing endorsements from some of country’s biggest stars: she’s currently on her second US summer tour with Luke Bryan and has featured in the line-up for his annual Crash My Playa festival in Mexico, and Garth Brooks once described Alana’s cover of a Chris Stapleton hit as “the song that stole my heart.” Speaking of Stapleton, that sick guitar lick on ‘Ghost in My Guitar’ was laid down by Chris himself for the epic collaboration none of us knew we needed (and one that continues to slay every single time during her live shows). Just last week, Alana stepped in for Miranda Lambert to perform ‘We Were Us’ with Keith Urban live on stage at Summerfest in Wisconsin. She’s championed by songwriting heavy-hitters such as Liz Rose, Shane McAnally and Ashley Gorley to name a few. She also recently scored her first ever certified gold record for her duet and co-write, ‘Goodbye Looks Good on You’ with frequent writing partner, Mitchell Tenpenny.

Adored by Some of the Biggest Country Artists:

The Dream Team:

Though if we’re speaking of Alana’s biggest champions, it would be remiss not to mention the number one person in her corner: her manager and fellow Jordan addict, Basak Kizilisik (it's pronounced Bash-ak - you're welcome). If you’ve been to one of Alana’s shows, you’ve no doubt seen or met Basak, or likely handed her your phone to take a photo of you with Alana after her set. To list all of Basak’s own accomplishments and industry credibility would easily fill another article (note to self: write that article sometime very soon) but to see the friendship and professional partnership between her and Alana is pretty unique in itself, and the more you see of it, the more obvious it becomes that another huge component in Alana’s massive growth in popularity is down to the dynamic between the two. I mean, C2C brings together phenomenal talents from all over the world, but how many other artists have gone from the ‘Introducing Nashville’ stage to co-hosting the entire weekend C2C festival and headlining the Official Afterparty in less than a year and a half? None. It just doesn’t happen, and while Alana is undoubtedly a triple threat as a talented singer, songwriter and performer; I would argue that having a manager like Basak is as equally vital a component to Alana’s journey, and as a fan, I’m super excited to see how big they can build this thing together.

Alana and her Manager, Basak

Headlining in Hyde Park:

Back to the UK soon?:

I spoke to Alana briefly after her set, and said she needs to do a headlining tour over here, and she confirmed that there are definite plans for that, so watch this space y’all – we’ll be waiting to report on it the second it’s announced, and while we’re at it, we’ll be manifesting that Queen Swift herself hears Alana’s tribute song to her – 'Taylor Did' – and invites her back over here to perform it at her upcoming Wembley shows for her Eras Tour (manifest it, people! Manifest!)

There’s been a lot of Taylor Swift references in this article, as there have been in Alana’s journey so far, and I’m not sure if anyone will ever reach the same kind of stratospheric heights that Taylor’s hitting right now, but if I had to put money on anyone getting close to it, it’d be Alana Springsteen.

Links to Alana's socials and website below: