A year ago Miriam Bryant stood on the stage at Cirkus in Stockholm victorious – selling out the venue that time felt like the final confirmation of her breakout stardom. The TV series Så Mycket Bättre had endeared her to the wide masses and she was riding the wave in style, clocking in something like a hundred shows last year.
This time, Miriam was back on the same stage, having once again sold out the venue and drawing a crowd very diverse in age. The show was a part of her three-city mini tour, something she said she wanted to do “just for her own sake” at this point, before the release of her upcoming EP.
The show starts off powerfully with big audience favorites Raised in Rain and Push Play – a sure-fire way to get the crowd psyched from the get-go.
Things go on with further up-beat energy to the tune of Game and Satellite. The audience really gets moving and singing along when Miriam does one of her Så Mycket Bättre favorites, Allt jag behöver. The perfectly empowering break-up anthem gets us into a theme that sets the tone for the next part of the show.
Miriam has documented her personal story of a relationship and a break-up in a sort of a trilogy of songs. The first part, Black Car, was released last year and told about how Miriam met her boyfriend – but already this one had the lines ‘nothing lasts forever’, hinting at the break-up. Miriam does a version of the song with Swedish lyrics – showcasing once again how effortlessly she seems to be switching between her languages. (OK, but when do we get to hear her do something in Finnish? Seeing as she’s grown up with the three languages…)
The second part of the trilogy, Rocket, had just been released before the show and people had already taken to the summery and happy sound of it – but the underlying story was dealing with the break-up: “I’m rocketing away, coz I need space…”
The third chapter of the story, the ballad called Everything, had been released earlier in the year. The main line here is about how he’d never change and how “I could give you everything, or nothing at all…”
Miriam also showcases two of her as yet unreleased songs, Words and Teddybear (which she says is her personal favorite) – and she has the people listening intently. The atmosphere is laid-back and people seem to approve of the new tunes.
Having pulled the tempo down for a bit, Miriam invites the audience back into party mood with Life is a Flower – another one of the Så Mycket Bättre songs, one that has maybe been a bit overlooked.
This is followed by what is possibly my own biggest favorite of all Miriam songs, Weak Heart. The stripped-down tune fully showcases Miriam’s vocals, accompanied only by an acoustic guitar. The audience joins in spontaneously with rhythmic claps.
Since You Left continues to put Miriam’s voice centre-stage and she gets people singing along.
The set ends with another audience favorite, Dragon – which Miriam says is about her favorite means of transportation.
The compulsory encore starts with Black Car, this time with the original English lyrics and the audience is singing along. Once again the mood gets toned down a bit for Serendipity and the suitable ending for the evening – Ett sista glas.
Miriam has obviously given the audience what they came looking for and the crowds start pouring out into the night with big, content smiles on their faces.
All photos © Nina Uddin
