Kylie Cantrall’s Headline Tour Debut In Minneapolis

Kylie Cantrall kicked off her first-ever headlining tour at The Fillmore Minneapolis on Friday night, bringing the Valley Girl Problems Tour to Minneapolis for its opening show. You may know Kylie as Red from Disney’s Descendants franchise, but with this tour, she’s beginning to establish herself as an artist outside of the Disney world.

I was especially excited to shoot this show because I knew there would be dancing, props, and plenty of production elements to work with. Shows like this are so fun to photograph because they make for such a dynamic gallery and give you so much to play around with when editing.

Opening the night was Elias, a producer and singer-songwriter from Texas. He was a one-man show and mentioned that he produces all of his music himself in his bedroom. He seemed a little stiff and nervous at the beginning of his set, but the crowd immediately welcomed him with a lot of warmth and energy. The longer he was onstage, the more comfortable he seemed to become, and it was fun watching him settle into the performance.

A large portion of Kylie’s audience was kids, which makes sense considering many people know her through a kids and tween Disney franchise. However, there were definitely teens and young adults mixed into the crowd as well, showing that her audience is already beginning to extend beyond that demographic.

As far as the actual performance went, I could definitely see Kylie playing much bigger venues in the future. She seems to have the drive and passion for this, and she’s undeniably talented. Dancing full-out while singing for an entire show is something most people couldn’t dream of doing, and making it look easy is that much harder.

I do think that as she grows as an artist, she’ll continue to find her own voice. The music itself didn’t always feel completely cohesive to me and, at times, felt a little immature. But she’s also only 21 and at the very beginning of her career as a solo touring artist. This is literally her first headlining tour, which officially began with the Minneapolis show. With that in mind, what she’s already doing is pretty impressive.

There’s clearly a lot of potential there. Kylie Cantrall already has the performance abilities, stage presence, and ambition needed to put on a big pop show. If this is what her first headlining tour looks like, I’m interested to see what she does once she’s had even more time to figure out exactly who she wants to be as an artist.