The Daya Concert at Mercy Lounge Feb 26, 2017
As I mentioned in my article about Mardi Gras, I made it to the Daya concert the Sunday we got back! And I am so, so glad I did. She totally rocked it! If you think you’ve never heard of Daya (pronounced DAY-ah), look up her biggest hits “Sit Still, Look Pretty” and “Hideaway” and if you listen to the radio, you’ve definitely heard them!
Now, I’m definitely more of a country concert fan than pop concert. I live for seeing live music and not artists singing to a track-there’s just no beating musicians playing real instruments. Now, Daya had a band; actually she had an all-girl band which was so so cool and totally fit her message as an artist. So that was awesome to begin with. But, before Daya even came on, I was completely impressed by her opening act: Frankie. I had never heard of this girl before, but when she came onstage looking like a mermaid in a green sparkly outfit with some mesh going on as well, I was definitely intrigued as to what her musical sound would be. She had one drummer and one guy on keys who also played the beats or the track to back her up. She was so entertaining! She totally took charge of the stage and danced around smiling and also making silly faces without seeming immature; she just exuded confidence and it was totally contagious. It was so fun watching her perform! So we were already getting psyched up by the time Daya even came on.
It was really cool to see her. She’s young, she’s 18!!! She is three years younger than me, like what?! You could tell a little bit by her stage presence and her talking in between songs that she isn’t quite used to all of this yet. She rambled a little which was endearing but also clashed a little with the badass vibe she was giving off, so I’m excited to watch her get more and more comfortable with performing etc. and be able to look back and see her growth. A performer and musician myself, I love looking out for those things and seeing artists just as they’re getting started! She played all of the songs I was hoping she would, and she even covered Nelly Furtado’s “I’m Like a Bird” which was really fun for the audience. It was so cool, as it always is, to listen to some of the motivation behind the songs that she sings that I’ve been listening to for over a year.
Definitely the stand out moment of the night for me was when she was introducing her song “Hideaway” which is about how all the good guys are never around, like where are they hiding and one guy in the audience yells “we have jobs!” and I died laughing. She definitely heard that but didn’t respond, I thought it was hilarious! It also totally felt like that guy had been waiting to say that all night. So funny. I love concerts! And this venue was so small and intimate, yet a ton of people came out on a Sunday night to see Daya and to hear the live music. I love Daya. I love Mercy Lounge. I love Nashville.