After her big breakthrough after winning last year’s Melodifestivalen and becoming a darling of the Eurovision Song Contest fandom, Cornelia Jakobs had a whirlwind of attention and a demanding amount of concerts on her plate for 2022. Now she is back on tour, and one of the first stops was Lollapalooza back home in Stockholm.
In the early part of 2023, Cornelia has presented two excellent cover performances in rather high-profile settings. First of all, being nominated in the Newcomer of the Year category at the Swedish Grammis Awards (and winning the trophy!) she got to pick a song by a previous nominee of the same category. The choice fell on The Ark and It Takes a Fool to Remain Sane. A fitting choice, since Cornelia’s live persona clearly belongs in the same school as Ola Salo, strutting around the stage like a proper rockstar.
She was also brought back to the Eurovision stage in Liverpool, where she got to be a part of the Liverpool Songbook in the Grand Final, doing her rather tormented (and rather wet) rendition of Mel C‘s I Turn to You. Both of these excellent covers were of course a part of Cornelia’s set at Lollapalooza and gained plenty of cheers from the audience.
Another new number on the setlist was Bloody Mind, in which Cornelia grabbed a guitar and looked very much like an indie darling… This was the song Cornelia chose to release from her appearance in Songland, where young songwriters were pitching songs for her.
Cornelia has promised to put out the other two songs that were brought to her in the programme as well, so there’s more to look forward to, not to forget the rest of the songs she has been working on for the upcoming album. One of these unreleased songs already made it to the Lollapalooza setlist, Need You Now…
Cornelia’s 45 minute set was filled with her usual high energy and high emotion. She likes to pace around the stage, looking like a retro rocker having to make sure the very long and very red microphone chord follows along wherever she goes. And at times whipping around with that mic chord like a rockstar posessed.
Didn’t notice any of her trademark tripping or tumbling this time though, so I guess the stage was big enough for her antics, including that compulsory cartwheel she likes to do at her shows.
As per usual, she really made sure the fans in the front felt seen, reaching her hand out many times and making eye contact. She also made sure to mention the most hardcore fangirls, a lovely bunch who have been following along on her numerous tour dates around Sweden (and abroad) since last summer. Several of them had taken volunteer jobs at Lollapalooza in order to be able to make it to the festival and be in Cornelia’s front-row.
All photos © Nina Uddin
