{"id":330337,"date":"2026-03-05T13:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/330337\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T13:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:34:15","slug":"sienna-spiro-is-about-to-become-your-next-pop-vocal-superhero-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/330337\/","title":{"rendered":"Sienna Spiro Is About to Become Your Next Pop Vocal Superhero: Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor years now, there has been a lot of waiting, guessing and surely in-house prevaricating about who will be the next James Bond. But there is no need to dally, or shouldn\u2019t be, on the question of who will record the next James Bond theme. It will be Sienna Spiro<\/a>, the upstart British singer-songwriter who\u2019s just starting to become known on both sides of the Atlantic for having one of the greatest voices of her generation. This Bond-song assertion is not based on insider information, or some silly predictors\u2019 market. It\u2019s based only on having just seen her and come away convinced that, by the time this decision gets made \u2014 at which point probably few people will be unaware of her lung power or star power \u2014 it will seem freaking insane to pick anyone else.<\/p>\n

\n\tAre we putting the cart before the horse here? Of course, but it\u2019s hard to help it after the impression Spiro made in her official U.S. headlining debut Monday night at the Troubadour<\/a>. Mid-show, the 20-year-old singer premiered a new song, written just a month ago, that is presumably destined for her first full-length album, due some time this year. It\u2019s called \u201cTime You & Me,\u201d and she had a very personal explanation for what the tune means to her, as she does for much of her material. But it sure sounded like an unofficial Bond audition song, and one suspects that she and her team could turn out more in that vein. You could say that it even sounds slightly like a sequel to \u201cSkyfall,\u201d but the real point here is that Spiro sounds like a sequel to Adele. Up-and-coming artists aren\u2019t always happy about \u201csounds like\u2026\u201d comparisons being made to big stars that have preceded them, but maybe she can forgive this one. Or at least she\u2019ll need to get used to it; it\u2019s going to come up a lot.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Troubadour has had its share of \u201ca star is born\u201d shows over the decades. It\u2019s tempting to use language like that for Spiro\u2019s appearance there Tuesday, but also too much of an exaggeration, because she\u2019s had plenty of star-birthing moments in the past year, and Universal has not exactly been hiding her under a bushel. Following a series of viral favorites, her October song \u201cDie on This Hill\u201d went top 10 in the U.K. and top 20 in the U.S., so the word is out. There are paths of mowed-down trees left over from any time she\u2019s done a knockout TV spot, like she did with Fallon in January. We can only tell you how it felt in the West Hollywood club this week, which was like we were having our own Robert-Hilburn-meets-Elton moment. If anything, the hype that preceded her now seemed like underpromising in the service of overdelivering.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe did not come bearing a crown. Part of her appeal is that, even though her voice is commanding, there\u2019s nothing particularly imperious about her personality, which borders on something like modesty. Spiro\u2019s song introductions made it clear that she\u2019s motivated to write songs by some deeply held anxieties, and not just about love. Introducing a new song that is due to come out this Friday, \u201cThe Visitor,\u201d she explained that even though it might seem like it\u2019s about feeling insecure in a love relationship, she\u2019s been affected even more deeply by the ending of friendships, and has some obsession with impermanence in general. That\u2019s kind of reassuring to hear from a troubadour of 20: that she didn\u2019t spend her entire teenhood being romantically tortured (because there had to be some music education to squeeze in there, too), but is able to translate all of her feelings about interpersonal relationships \u2014 and healthy fears about the future \u2014 into smart torch songs that make her sound 40 going on 20. There are throwback elements to please nostalgists, to be sure, but it couldn\u2019t feel less like pastiche, when the point of entry for her contemporaries will be how personally authentic it feels.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSienna Spiro at the Troubadour, March 3. 2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMax Thompson<\/p>\n

\n\tPeople will be analyzing her vocal style and range for years to come; one vocal teacher on YouTube describes her as having a \u201cmixed belt,\u201d which sounds about right here. What\u2019s clear without getting into the technicality of it is that she spends enough time singing in the comfort of her low range that every time she goes up and out of that, it\u2019s exhilarating. (And the exhilaration sticks when she comes back to earth.) That\u2019s most evident in \u201cDie on This Hill,\u201d a song that will likely be her show-closer for a long time, given the extended peaks in the second half of the song that almost leave you too breathless to call for an encore anyway. (\u201cIdol\u201d judges may well get sick of hearing it as an audition song before all is said and done.)<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the kind of intrigue that results in stardom, it doesn\u2019t hurt that Spiro doesn\u2019t look like she sounds. You don\u2019t imagine the alto-leaning part of her vocal greatness coming out of someone who has fashion-model looks and is currently styling herself closer to Twiggy or one of the Brit pop singers of the mid-\u201860s than anyone contemporary. She knows how to rock a minidress, and also how to have them hand-printed for her. At the Troubadour, her skirt was specially made to show a 1960s vision of Hollywood that notably featured the Capitol Tower, possibly to put a smile on the face of all the Capitol execs who were showing up to see their new star in action. (When she played for the BBC recently, she showed up in a specially made Fab Four minidress.) There will be tutorials about her vocal style showing up on YouTube, but maybe just as many hair tutorials in the months to come; if you love the styling of vintage swinging London, why have just one part in your hair when you can boldly have two?<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCloseup of dress worn by Sienna Spiro at the Troubadour, March 3. 2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMax Thompson<\/p>\n

\n\tOne big question some may have is: Does she only do ballads? And if so, would that be a problem, or would we be fine with a completely banger-less singer as a superstar? Just over a year ago, she released her first EP, \u201cSink Now, Swim Later,\u201d which was just long enough, at eight tracks, that you might suspect it was held back from becoming a proper album only because she wanted to keep things narrower for this particular introductory moment than she planned to ultimately. That EP, and some one-off numbers that preceded or followed, stuck largely to a vocal-and-piano-only aesthetic. So it was almost a surprise to see a drum kit on stage prior to her entrance at the Troubadour. When the music did start, with only two band members in tow (and some occasional backing tracks), that drummer mostly used mallets, and stuck toward accents more than beats, to keep things to the hushed mode she\u2019s known for. It was a beautiful place to stick around, for anyone without a bop addiction.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Spiro has suggested that this may only be a temporary dwelling place, at least at this level of balladic minimalism. The most prominent departure in her 45-minute set was one of the other singles she\u2019s put out in the last year, \u201cDream Police\u201d (no, not the Cheap Trick song, but one just about equally cool). It\u2019s a great indicator of how she can pick up the pace and the instrumentation without sacrificing the vibe she and her collaborators have so carefully cultivated. The aforementioned \u201cTime You & Me\u201d also found her tooking off in a brassier, if not Bassey-er, direction. She\u2019s talked in interviews about wanting to incorporate hip-hop influences into her style; it would be a kick if those and her obvious jazz references somehow got bumped up all at once in the work to come.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSienna Spiro at the Troubadour, March 3. 2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMax Thompson<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s early days to start imagining what directions Spiro could go in. But it\u2019s fun to think about anyway, because it feels like she\u2019s likely to be entertaining us for decades to come, so why not form a picture of what that could look like, when she\u2019s 22, 30 or 60? Personally, I\u2019m torn: For the official debut album, I wouldn\u2019t mind hearing at least five groove-based departures on the order of \u201cDream Police,\u201d but on the other hand, it will seem a lot more revolutionary if she takes over the pop world almost solely on the basis of piano ballads. It\u2019s a good thing it\u2019s up to her, and that we win either way.<\/p>\n

\n\tAn aside: What are they putting in the water in the U.K. nowadays, that American and international fans could practically form a balanced musical diet just from the records being made by female British stars like Olivia Dean, Lily Allen, Dua Lipa, Lola Young, Little Simz, Raye and now Spiro, among others? Dean just claimed the Grammy for best new artist; once you\u2019ve heard Spiro, it\u2019s hard to think anything other than that is teed up to claim that in early 2027. Blame it on the afterglow of a great performance (and yes, we are only halfway through the Grammy eligibility period), but seeing front-runner status for Spiro right now is a hill I might be ready to die on.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd if the world fails to agree on her accolades? We\u2019ll still always have that voice to die for.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSienna Spiro at the Troubadour, March 3. 2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoe Park\/Variety<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years now, there has been a lot of waiting, guessing and surely in-house prevaricating about who will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278,152441,152442],"class_list":["post-330337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-sienna-spiro","tag-troubadour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}