ADÉLA Sells Out LA, Then Defends "Ain't in LA" to the City It's Named After

ADÉLA brought her Red Bottoms Tour to the Fonda Theatre on Oct. 8 for the first of two sold-out nights, and the setlist came with one very awkward elephant in the room: a song called“Ain’t in LA.”Before performing it, the Slovak singer asked the crowd not to boo, then explained the track is really about industry favoritism and feeling like an outsider, not a rejection of the city she now calls home.“I’m an immigrant,”she told the room.“And you know what? LA wouldn’t be LA without who? The immigrants.”

The 16-song set leaned hard into everything fans love about her: ballet-trained choreography, her pink-haired aesthetic, and tracks from her debut album PRIMA, which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.“Nicole Kidman”peaked at No. 11 on the Hot 100 and“Ain’t in LA”hit No. 27, numbers that make her sold-out tour all the more impressive for a debut artist. As a bonus, she swapped her usual unreleased track“Kiss Here”for“Homewrecked”as an apology to LA.

There was a full-circle moment, too: former Dream Academy castmates from KATSEYE and Saint Satine, including Megan Skiendiel, Lara Raj, and Emily Kelavos, watched the show from the balcony. From competition show contestant to chart-climbing headliner in barely any time. What do you think: is“Ain’t in LA”fair game to perform in LA, or should she have skipped it?