The O2 Forum Kentish Town doesn’t feel like a gig venue tonight. Instead, as the lights drop into a deep rose glow, the space transforms into a surreal faux chapel. A fabric backdrop shaped into gothic arches hangs behind the band, framing an illumiated cross that pulses like a living thing. Into this uncanny altar steps Alessandra Rose Jones — Alessi Rose — just 23 years old, from Littleover in Derby, striding through the cross’s silhouette before taking her place on a small circular platform as That Could Be Me jangles to life.
Alessi Rose @ O2 Kentish Town Forum
The crowd, largely young women, erupts immediately. They know every word, every inflection, and their screams follow Rose as she spins across the Forum stage, dipping down to each barricade as if blessing different corners of the chapel. When she kicks into Eat Me Alive, the rumbling beats lift the room another level. “Hey London!” she shouts mid-song, already grinning. “London are you ready? Show me what you’ve fucking got!” And the Forum answers with a wall of sound.
The music breaks and she greets the room in a bright, almost American twang: “Hello London, my name’s Alessi Rose, it’s so nice to meet you… and welcome not only to the second sold-out Kentish Town but welcome to the Voyeur Tour!” Then the accent slips, revealing home. “I’m hoping you guys can be louder tonight, ok?”
She’s barely a few songs in before diving into the emotional roots of Voyeur, saying she wrote her third EP after struggling to accept the idea of being an artist at all. “I still felt like a girl from Derby just writing songs in her bedroom… Voyeur was the first time I started resonating with the idea of being an artist: ‘no, I deserve to be here.’” She admits that being watched — by fans, critics, strangers — is unsettling, but that “writing Voyeur made me revel in the discomfort rather than shy away from it.”
When she straps on an acoustic guitar for Don’t Ask Questions, she explains how it mirrors her OCD: “It’s really tricky to navigate other people’s feelings when you can’t read their minds.” The room quietens, the first real stillness of the night, until she breaks the tension with a teasing laugh: “London are you ok? Are you crying? Wipe them out, it’s all good.”
The beat snaps back into focus with First Original Thought, introduced with an LA anecdote and pulsing like peak 1980s Madonna, the synths and groove pulling the crowd into motion. “London, I have a crush on you,” she declares before launching into CRUSH!, confessing that fans petitioning to return the song to her setlist worked — “I’d been an idiot to ever take it off.”
When she swaps to a pink electric guitar for Stella, she scans the crowd with mock solemnity: “Has anyone fallen out with someone recently? Any broken friendships? Bitter disputes? I’ll take sides!” A tidal wave of screams answers her.
Get Around bounces in on sugary pop shine, while imsochillandcool becomes a showcase for Rose’s observational humour. She scolds the audience playfully — “I’m like the all-seeing eye… nothing goes amiss” — before conducting a chaotic 1–10 satisfaction survey. Hearing a rogue answer, she snaps her head up: “I heard a 4 somewhere… whoever the fuck said that!” The Forum collapses in laughter.
She shifts quickly into earnestness again during Bittersweet, and then into revelation before Falling Forever. Someone at soundcheck asked what her favourite song to perform was, she explains, and she hadn’t realised until recently that it was this one: “I wrote it as a warning… I was acting as a warning ghost of past.” It becomes one of the night’s biggest emotional detonations.
Alessi Rose @ O2 Kentish Town Forum
The lights drop to a dim glow for oh my, torches rising as she dedicates the moment to the fans who’ve screamed this song around the world during her support runs with Dua Lipa and Tate McRae. “London, you’re fuckin’ sick!” she shouts, overwhelmed. “I’m having a crazy out-of-body experience right now and it’s all because of you.”
That sense of connection deepens further as she introduces Pretty World, explaining that she often sees fans holding hands, crying, hugging, even starting conga lines at the back of her shows. “These moments are outside of me… but they make me really happy because I know you’re having fun with who you love.”
By the time Take It or Leave It rolls in, her delivery feels closer to spoken poetry, reminiscent of Taylor Swift’s rhythmic storytelling. She pauses before the final song of the main set to reflect on the past year — Hoxton Hall, Koko, and suddenly, shockingly, here. “These rooms, no matter how big they get — and this feels fucking huge — I still feel really close to you… you’ve been helping me more than you know.” The set closes with a euphoric, unified Dumb Girl.
She returns moments later with a shriek of mischief — “I wasn’t really gone, I was just behind that door!” — then plunges into RIP, her voice rich and trembling with emotion.
And then she tries, and briefly fails, to get her words out. “This tour has been a dream… I feel so present, this is so real.” Her voice wavers as she talks about writing from places of anxiety and OCD, and how those same struggles ride with her even now. “If you’re feeling any of this… that’s your superpower. You’re gonna be amazing, you’re gonna be just fine.” She thanks the crowd for helping her believe something she never used to: that she deserves this.
She wipes her face, straightens, and with a softened smile asks, “Shall we just sing now?” The opening chords of Same Mouth ring out, and the Forum — her chapel — becomes a single roaring choir.
Alessi Rose doesn’t just perform tonight; she transforms. She turns vulnerability into defiance, anxiety into connection, and her songs into shared catharsis. At 23, she is an artist stepping into herself in real time — and London watches, screams, and believes alongside her.
Live review & photography of Alessi Rose @ O2 Forum Kentish Town, London by Kalpesh Patel on 25th November 2025.
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