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Rhian Teasdale swaggers onto the main stage at Wilderness Festival, turns her back to the audience and flexes her muscles like a prize-fighter. The Wet Leg singer has every reason to be feeling cocksure, given that the band recently topped the UK album charts with their sugar rush of a second album, ‘Moisturizer’.
Drawing a huge crowd on the Sunday evening of this fabulous weekender, the reigning indie champions leave no doubt as to why they beat Oasis’ best-of ‘Time Flies’ to the top spot. Their muscular guitar anthems are so full of wit that the audience responds in kind: one little kid down the front waves a sign that reads: “I’m your smallest fan.”
The band’s gritty performance shows how many ways you can ‘ave it at Wilderness. Held on the picturesque Cornbury Park and now in its 14th iteration, the festival has cultivated a reputation as the glammest on the boutique circuit. Yes, there’s a Veuve Clicquot champagne bar. And, yes, there’s a spa (and another champagne bar) beside one of the two lakes sunk into the site. Here pampered punters watch on as families enjoy a spot of wild swimming, minding not to disturb the people doing yoga on a cluster of paddle boats.
So, much of it’s very genteel and this is a distinctly family friendly do, with parents weaving kids’ trolleys around the throng (Wilderness has a capacity of 30,000 but it feels like the enormous site could accommodate double that number, which prevents any chance of overcrowding). At night, though, the freaks come out to play in a designated dance section that begins roughly at a secret garden-themed bar called The Riddle and leads to The Valley, an expanse of woodland that’s been transformed into a vast dancefloor.
Vibes-wise, this side of Wilderness is Charli XCX in her shades and Vivienne Westwood wedding dress, demurely smoking a Vogue. Late on Saturday night, Confidence Man move a packed crowd with their DJ set at The Valley, lasers zinging overhead as the Aussie dance dons pump out the likes of ‘Gossip’, their sassy, Spanish guitar-adorned collab with JADE. The freewheeling atmosphere is pretty well summed up by the lad good-naturedly dunking his fox tail-wearing mate face-down into a recycling bin.
There’s decidedly less neon on display at The Dive, a small venue that’s new to Wilderness this year. With an exterior that’s styled to resemble an American roadhouse, this gloriously dingy bar hosts scuzzy indie bands such as Goodbye, a five-piece who blend fragile, Cocteau Twins-style vocals with a guitar tone that’s by turns dreamy and full-on grunge. They’ve yet to release any music but are clearly one to watch.
If there’s a single band that embodies the louche side of Wilderness though, it’s Air who grace a main stage framed by a white oblong box. The minimalist set-up indicates the effortlessly cool approach that the French space-pop duo (rounded out by a live drummer) take to noodling through their 1998 masterpiece ‘Moon Safari’, which they began to play in full last year.
The band’s crisp beats, snaking basslines and neon-hued synths conjure images of, well, people sipping champagne in a hot tub overlooking a lake, which you couldn’t quite say of Kent ravers Orbital who obliterate the same stage with a sonic assault later in the evening. At one point the pair – cast in shadow, with flashing white lights affixed to their heads like eyes – are accompanied by a pre-recorded video of Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson, who barks class war missives during their pulverising collaboration ‘Dirty Rat’.
Norwegian singer AURORA is also outspoken the following evening, as she intersperses arty synth-pop with pleas for a better planet. “We see the world in so much pain and we want to do so much,” she says, “but it’s hard to know what to do.” In the end, she concludes, “our voices help and everything we do matters so much”. In that spirit, she dedicates the delicate, heartbreaking ‘Through The Eyes Of A Child’ to “the children of Palestine”.
She’s followed on the main stage by local lads Supergrass, who batter through their sensational debut album ‘I Should Coco’ to mark its 30th birthday. Peppering the set with other classic tracks that didn’t appear on that record, Gaz Coombes and co. put on a weekend highlight for all-ages audience who prove the Britpop revival continues apace.
After Wet Leg display their mettle on the final night, with Teasdale at one point dousing her hair in water, looking like a boxer who’s just floored the competition, Basement Jaxx close the main stage with a truly jaw-dropping show. The London dance duo rock out from a circular hole cut into the floor, aided in their big beat bonanza by a rotating cast of vocalists and dancers in space-age silver tutus, all of whom strut fearlessly down the tilted stage.
After a 10-year break from performing, the lads are certainly back with a bang. It’s yet another KO at a triumphant Wilderness Festival, the heavyweight glamp-ion of the UK.
NME is an official media partner of Wilderness Festival
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If only we could hear Norma Desmond belt out, “Don’t cha wish your girlfriend, that little tart Betty Schaefer, was hot like me?”
That moment doesn’t come during Nicole Scherzinger’s latest series of performances, which made an entertaining stop Thursday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. The evening felt like two shows in one, musical theater tunes filled most of the night, while the familiar Pussycat Dolls hits dominated the final stretch.
Even so, the mix didn’t feel disjointed. When Scherzinger performed two powerhouse numbers from Sunset Blvd., the stage production that reignited her career, it was clear that her Norma Desmond is far from a tragic relic. The reimagined version she starred in on Broadway and the West End turned Norma into a glamorous, self-aware woman who still knows how to command attention. And it worked.
There’s still a sense of longing among Los Angeles theater fans who never got to see her Sunset run live. Many did make the trip east to witness her Tony-winning turn in late 2024 and early 2025. “You were everything in Sunset!” someone shouted from the audience, a perfect comment for a diva’s big night. The crowd seemed split between those who had already experienced her Broadway performance and those finally getting the chance to see what the buzz was about.
When the Sunset section arrived midway through the concert’s second act, “the show that got me here today,” as she told the audience, With One Look served as the warm-up. The real showstopper was As If We Never Said Goodbye, a moment that recalled Barbra Streisand’s grand interpretation of the same Andrew Lloyd Webber song. As she sang, you could feel the audience itching to leap to their feet, holding their breath until the final note before erupting into applause.
Not long after that peak, Scherzinger swapped elegance for attitude, segueing into the Pussycat Dolls’ Buttons while revealing a sleek, button-free catsuit. Though she now leans toward her stage-actor era, she clearly hasn’t lost her pop-star spark, gliding through familiar choreography with the same energy that once filled arenas.
Nicole Scherzinger at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Oct. 30, 2025.Timothy Norris/Los Angeles Philharmonic
This wasn’t part of a full tour but rather the finale of a three-date run at legendary venues, Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall, and finally Disney Hall, just one day after being honored at Variety’s Power of Women L.A. event. You can easily imagine her taking this format on the road or setting up a residency. Whether audiences come for the Dolls material or her Broadway ballads, she’d probably win them all over by the end.
The concert opened with an unmistakable statement of intent as she tackled Don’t Rain on My Parade. For someone relatively new to the musical theater spotlight, it was a bold move, practically stepping onto Streisand’s territory. Her performance was strong, though traditional, and from there she loosened up with a sultry take on I Put a Spell on You. She followed it with Diamonds Are Forever, a perfect nod to the greatest Bond theme ever recorded. While Shirley Bassey remains unmatched, Scherzinger handled it impressively, and certainly more convincingly than Doja Cat’s recent Oscar misfire.
The mood shifted when she introduced her first recognizable hit, playfully leading in with, “Y’all look so good, I think I might ‘stickwitu’ forever. That reminds me of a song…” It was a brief nostalgic detour before returning to theater classics. A medley of Sondheim’s Losing My Mind and Not a Day Goes By hinted at the emotional terrain that would define the Sunset segment later on.
For her pre-intermission closer, Scherzinger delivered Maybe This Time from Cabaret, the ultimate anthem for underdogs. While she might not fit today’s trend of casting fragile waifs in the role, her confident, powerhouse take recalled the days when performers aimed for sheer vocal impact. At the end, she injected a touch of humor by crouching near her side table, seemingly searching for something, before triumphantly raising her Tony and Olivier Awards, declaring, “Maybe this time, I’ll win!” She affectionately introduced them as “Laurence and Antoinette.”
Intermission thoughts: You either adore this kind of showbiz extravagance or you don’t. The patter, the bravado, the storytelling, it’s all part of an old-school charm that’s rare these days. Scherzinger feels born for this space between pop stardom and theater royalty. She’s as confident delivering quips between songs as she is nailing coloratura runs. If this marks the beginning of her next era, one that leads to her singing I’m Still Here two decades from now, she’s on the right path.
“The ladies are looking absolutely divine,” she told the crowd, before adding, “A lot of hot men in the house tonight.” She knows how to work a room, whether it’s the posh halls of Carnegie or the lively energy of Royal Albert. “Looks like all the WeHos showed up,” she joked, drawing thunderous laughter.
Her humor stayed sharp throughout. Speaking about her mixed background, she said, “I’m Hawaiian, Filipino, Spanish, Chinese, Polish… Irish 2%… and I’ve also got some English in me. His name is Thom.” The crowd laughed as she gestured toward her fiancé, Thom Evans. Later, she introduced her only original song of the night, Bullshit, explaining, “This is my idea of a love song. It’s about waiting for that special someone to, how do you say, get it together and put a ring on it.” After flashing her engagement ring, she grinned: “Needless to say, he got the message.”
Scherzinger didn’t neglect the audience behind her either. “You’ve got the best seats in the house!” she told the upper balconies early on, then later joked about forgetting they were there. “Oh great, you guys are here; I’d forgotten. Give it up for my surprise party back there.” She grew emotional recalling her connection to Prince, calling him “a big part of who I am — my mentor, my big brother.” Turning away for a moment, she dabbed her eyes and laughed, “Thank God for these tissues.”
Her rendition of Purple Rain honored that bond beautifully. For the crowd’s LGBTQ+ contingent, she offered a powerful take on I Am What I Am, the Jerry Herman anthem from La Cage aux Folles. To please the musical theater purists, she opened her final act with the cheeky Show Off from The Drowsy Chaperone, fully embracing its playful spirit.
Appearing in what looked like a stylish dressing gown, she sipped tea and quipped, “Let me put this down before I spill too much,” before slipping into a more revealing look as the show built toward its sultry finale.
The closing Pussycat Dolls medley found her dancing in black lace and heels, towering in presence and energy. It was pure showgirl glamour, the kind of spectacle that could anchor a Vegas residency without question.
But what lingered most for the Disney Hall audience was that breathtaking Sunset Blvd. sequence, where Scherzinger’s Norma Desmond shimmered once again, this time without the Broadway cameras or heavy dramatics. Instead, she delivered something softer, warmer, and irresistibly magnetic. Norma didn’t have to be a villain that night, because from this dazzling performance, it was already clear that Nicole Scherzinger herself is the real showstopper.
Setlist for Nicole Scherzinger at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Oct. 30, 2025:
Don’t Rain on My Parade
I Put a Spell on You
Diamonds Are Forever
Stickwitu
You Raise Me Up/Reflection
Losing My Mind/Not a Day Goes By
Maybe This Time
Set 2:
I Am What I Am
Bullshit
With One Look
As If We Never Said Goodbye
Purple Rain
Set 3:
Show Off
Buttons
When I Grow Up
Don’t Cha
Don’t Hold Your Breath
