To be honest, I only knew Beabadoobee through a few of her tracks, this includes her hit song “Coffee.” The mellow, lo-fi love song has become a pandemic soundtrack on my TikTok feed, used by millions to score everything from baking montages to trends showing people confessing to their best friends. That simple guitar riff and soft-spoken delivery stuck with me long after the clips stopped autOplaying.
On Aug. 12, Tuesday, I joined a sold-out crowd at the New Frontier Theater in Quezon City for the first night of her two-day Manila stop on the Asia Tour 2025. Around me, a mix of millennials and Gen Z fans filled the venue, dressed in a blend of Y2K nostalgia, goth and coquette-inspired outfits that matched the mood and vibes of beabadoobee’s latest album. This is How Tomorrow Moves.
The Filipino-British singer-songwriter took the stage to a roar of applause, opening with “California,” followed by “Talk,” “10:36,” and “Charlie Brown.” The early stretch of the set moved seamlessly between energetic alt-rock beats and more reflective moments, drawing fans in from the start. The middle portion highlighted tracks from her 2024 album, including “Post,” “Take a Bite,” “Sunny Day,” and “Ever Seen,” showing how her songwriting has grown while retaining the intimate tone that made her early work stand out.
She balanced new material with fan favorites like “Perfect Pair” and “Real Man,” before moving into “Glue Song,” a track with special significance for her Philippine audience. She spoke briefly about filming its music video in Iloilo last year and how being in the country again brought back those memories.
Midway through the night, she surprised the audience with a cover of OPM icon Apo Hiking Society’s “Panalangin.”
The latter half of the setlist kept the crowd in motion. “Coffee” arrived as a tender moment, with voices from every corner of the venue joining in. Then came “Girl Song,” “One Time,” “I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus,” and “Beaches.”
She continued to deliver performances of songs “Care,” “Apple Cider,” “She Plays Bass,” and “Cologne.” The final stretch of the concert saw the crowd fully engaged, swaying and singing along to “The Way Things Go” and “See You Soon.”
