We know King Princess (the moniker of Mikaela Strauss) as a pop-adjacent singer-songwriter multi-instrumentalist who makes unapologetically queer music but lately, her name has been popping up in news articles related to an entirely different artistic endeavor: acting. She recently made her acting debut as Tina in the second season of Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers, which stars the likes of Nicole Kidman and Christine Baranski. Later this year, she will make her movie debut in Song Sung Blue, a film about a musical couple forming a Neil Diamond tribute band starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson.
With this recent foray into acting alongside such big names, one would think that any further musical output from King Princess would be temporarily put on the back burner. After all, her last new music release was a song from last year that was included on the soundtrack for the Netflix animated series Arcane and, aside from a special guest appearance at Radio City Music during Hugh Jackman’s residency, the last time King Princess played a show in New York was in October of 2022, coincidentally also at Radio City Music Hall.
However, on the 28th of May, she posted on her Instagram account announcing an intimate show at Market Hotel on June 4th. The day before the Market Hotel show, King Princess performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, debuting a new single, “RIP KP.” During the introduction, Colbert announced that King Princess would be releasing a new album called Girl Violence. That album will be released in September courtesy of Section 1.
Taking the stage at Market Hotel alongside King Princess were Lilly Graves on guitar, Wynne Bennett on keys, Logan Leland on bass, and Antoine Fadavi on drums. After finishing the first song of the set, King Princess greeted the crowd and said, “I’m going to play the whole new record. Is that okay?” The crowd answered back with enthusiastic cheers, which did not let up for the entire night. As the evening progressed, the temperature inside rose to sauna-like conditions but it deterred neither the band on stage nor the audience packed into the space. While there was certainly plenty of enthusiasm for hearing so many new songs for the first time, the biggest reactions of the night came in response to “Prophet,” “Ain’t Together,” and “1950,” which all afforded those in attendance the opportunity to passionately sing along with material that they were familiar with. The evening ended with dramatic flair as King Princess “collapsed” on stage after performing “RIP KP” and needed to be carried off the stage by a pair of nurses.
This fall, King Princess will tour North America and Europe in support of Girl Violence, with a hometown show at Brooklyn Paramount on October 29th.
For a full gallery of King Princess at Market Hotel and the setlist from the evening, continue below:
King Princess
Join the conversation