Did Kendrick Lamar & SZA’s Grand National Kickoff Show Feel Like the Beginning of One of the Decade’s Biggest Tours?

We’ve been talking about it on the Greatest Pop Stars podcast for nearly half a year already, but it didn’t actually get here until last weekend: The Grand National stadium tour, co-headlined by Billboard‘s No. 1 Greatest Pop Star of 2024 (Kendrick Lamar) and our No. 2 Greatest Pop Star of 2023 (SZA) finally began its 39-date trek on Saturday night (Apr. 19) in Minneapolis. The performance, which featured the superstar co-stars trading off every 5-7 songs — aside from a couple mini-sets where they performed their collaborative hits together — ran 51 songs and nearly three hours, and of course included their teamup “Luther,” which has been the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks and counting.

On this Pop Star Performance Review of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard deputy editor Joe Lynch — a Minnesota native who was in attendance for the show at U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday — to go full “30 for 30” on the kickoff of the year’s most anticipated pop tour. Joe answers all our questions about every element of the experience, from the crowd to the staging to the pacing to the energy to the “A minorrrrrrrrr…..”

Among the more pressing topics discussed: What is the dress code for a Kendrick/SZA stadium show? Does a 5’5″ rapper have any issues filling a stadium space? When did SZA become the bug queen of popular music? What kind of joint message were both artists trying to send by both playing previous Drake collaborations? Does “Luther” really hit like a potentially career- or generation-defining smash when performed live? And perhaps most importantly: Does Grand National feel like a proper stadium show from two of the greatest pop stars in the world right now?

Check it out above, and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!

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