The capacity crowd — teeming with “Darlings,” Chinouriri’s affectionate term for her diehard stans — greeted the 26-year-old London native with a full-throated roar, the sort of sound you hear at sporting events, a vocal spasm of unbridled joy.
Chinouriri, beaming and backed by a trio of musicians whom she didn’t identify, didn’t miss a beat and tore into “Garden of Eden,” the opening track from her 2024 full-length debut What a Devastating Turn of Events. Phones outstretched, cries of joy filling the air and her words screamed back at her full force: “Too young but too old for this / The kids are throwing up in the garden.”
The singer-songwriter is in the midst of her first American headlining tour, cheekily titled All I Ever Asked For Was a North American Tour, a wry reference to her song "All I Ever Asked." If her Dallas debut was any indication, she wouldn’t be playing such intimate stateside rooms for much longer. “You guys are crazy!” Chinouriri exclaimed. “I love you guys so much.”
The bond between performer and audience cracked throughout her roughly 80-minute performance. Chants broke out between nearly every song, and more often than not, those gathered inside the Cambridge Room were singing audibly enough to almost drown her out.
Having begun by releasing tracks via SoundCloud, she began gaining traction after her 2019 EP Mama’s Boy and its single “So My Darling,” which took hold on TikTok.
From there, she was signed to Warner Music Group’s Parlophone label, which released multiple subsequent EPs, Events, and its follow-up EP, Little House, which just dropped in April. Chinouriri has cut her teeth as an opening act for Sabrina Carpenter, Lewis Capaldi and Louis Tomlinson, and counts Florence Pugh and Adele as some of her high-profile fans.
“I’m from south London, and I’m a Black woman in an indie pop space,” Chinouriri said early Friday. “It was quite a journey to get here, but we did it guys! ... I have a message to every Black girl and Black woman in this room ... in this life, you can do whatever you want. ... Thank you all for carrying me here because of my songwriting and my storytelling. It is unbelievable coming from the UK and seeing the support. The crowds have been crazy.”
Rachel Chinouriri had the sold-out Cambridge Room at the House of Blues in the palm of her hand.
Preston Jones
Friday’s set showcased nearly all of Events, a record that owes a debt to path-breakers like Lily Allen, Estelle and Kate Nash, artists deft at folding the personal inside of pop gloss — “Dumb Bitch Juice,” a mid-set highlight, could’ve easily been mistaken for one of Allen’s tracks — and positioned Chinouriri as a magnetic, breezily charming figure who appeared utterly at home in the spotlight’s glare, and armed with a voice as formidable in quiet moments as it was at full blast.
But for all the frenetic joy Chinouriri stirred up inside the Cambridge Room, Friday’s most arresting moment was also its most still. Standing at the microphone, she sang “Pocket,” a tender, achingly beautiful tune about finding comfort in genuine affection: “Little did I know / Love could be so easy.” The room was silent, almost seeming to breathe as one, as Chinouriri’s band filled in delicately behind her.
That tension — between respectful rowdiness and blunt reckoning with real feelings — makes Chinouriri a fascinating figure, and one of the most refreshing pop stars to materialize in recent years. As easily as she embraces the love, she can also break your heart with clear-eyed candor — the title track of Events was another stand-out moment, as was her breakthrough hit “So My Darling,” each quietly devastating in their own ways.
“Love is the one thing that has no currency,” Chinouriri told her adoring audience late in the evening. “I love you all ... tell someone if you love them. Tomorrow is not promised.”
It was a well-worn bromide, sure, but one that cut through pop music's inherent evanescence. Looking around at the fans clutching posters, T-shirts and tote bags, her words were being received almost as liturgy. Rachel Chinouriri felt nothing but love in Dallas Friday, but her performance lingered, marking her as a talent eminently worthy of the reception she received.
