7 March 2025

The rise of Gracie Abrams

That Abrams is not quite ready for and a little startled by her early fame is part of her appeal.

Gracie Abrams was three months old when the O2 Arena’s dome was opened to celebrate the new millennium. Back then, most of the 20,000 people who came to the O2 to see her perform on 6 March were still a decade from being born. Abrams is known as a “baby Taylor Swift”, her star fixed by opening for the Eras Tour in 2023. Some have even called her the “nepo baby Taylor Swift”: she is the daughter of the Star Wars director JJ Abrams, who I spot six rows ahead of me, taking pictures with the crowd and filming his daughter perform.

But if Abrams has been lucky, she feels it. Her first song is performed at a remove, behind a stage-wide, shimmering veil – but Abrams is never glamorously aloof. She comes round the veil beaming, and for the rest of the set is telling the crowd she loves, remembers and appreciates them. They sing for her when she is overcome by emotion, and when their phone camera lights wave in the dark she produces her own polaroid camera to capture the spectacle. She performs from a recreation of her childhood bedroom, from where she broadcast her first Instagram concerts during the pandemic. These songs are acoustic yet screamy bangers, melancholy in tone, comprising huskily confessional verses and defiant choruses. “Close to You” contains all the most fun aspects of Lorde, Phoebe Bridgers and Swift’s best songs – when you can hear it above the jubilant crowd.

That Abrams is not quite ready for and a little startled by her early fame seems to be part of her appeal. She is miles from Swift’s immaculate finish – but sometimes you don’t feel so immaculate, or so finished. Her fans are young and on the cusp of huge emotional turbulence. “How would you describe her sonic quality?” I asked a fan, who misunderstood and answered “Not that good. But sometimes teen girlies just need someone to scream and cry with.” In Gracie Abrams, they certainly have that someone.