SOFIA ISELLA is a powerhouse ready to explode. She performed at Théâtre Fairmount for her first headline show in Canada on October 17th, 2025. The crowd skewed towards late teens and early twenties, but she did vocalize her surprise that she hadn’t scared away the grown men from the audience, yet she also commended their bravery before she dove into “Everybody Supports Women.” I’ve never heard another performer that sounds like her. She has a truly unique voice and style. Her international school accent was blended with her classically trained violin skills, which were electrified for our entertainment. Combined with her screams of the injustices in the world, she is definitely an artist to watch. I personally recommend “Hot Gum,” “Us and Pigs,” and “The Doll People” if you want to dip your toes into the oil-slicked waters of her discography.
I’m collecting Taylor Swift openers like Pokémon cards at this point, since Sofia also opened for The Eras Tour. In my defence, I didn’t know about their connection or that her parents had a following until I got to the concerts. I did know she’d exploded on TikTok and that one of my favourite artists, Nxdia, opened for her on the European leg of her tour. I will also note the violin should never be considered a quiet instrument, and electric violin I can feel in my teeth (I love every second of it). So imagine my delight when it turns out that the tech guy I was talking to before the show was also her violin instructor, who has been teaching her since she was eight! They also performed a violin duet entitled “The Well” on stage together.
I definitely understand the comparisons between her and Billie Eilish; she was only 15 when she started blowing up on TikTok in 2020. Combine that with the baggy clothes and general creepiness, and she reminds me a lot of the WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? era, which came out when Billie was 17. Her stage production is also a family affair. She didn’t perform with a live band, opting instead for a backing track. Her sister is her tour photographer. Her mom helped set up the stage, took a lot of videos and photos for social media, and helped Sofia back onto the secure side of the barricade when she was done crowd surfing. And as lovely and capable as the security is at Théâtre Fairmount, Sofia didn’t leave her mother’s sight for a second. The entire operation was an incredibly well-oiled machine.
She also had a great concert ticket purchasing experience. All her tickets were GA, and then the first 200 people to buy merchandise got a wristband that said “LISTEN TO SOFIA ISELLA,” which guaranteed that they would get to meet Sofia after the concert. This meant that scalpers couldn’t buy a Meet and Greet ticket and artificially inflate the prices for fans. You just had to get there early enough. I will say there were still wristbands after the opener, Ayleen Valentine, finished, which I noticed when I was laden with all of my camera gear trying to get back to the tech area. But then again, the capacity for Théâtre Fairmount is 600 standing, so even at capacity and removing the staff from those numbers, a third of those in attendance got to meet SOFIA ISELLA, which is pretty impressive. I was lucky enough to be one of the people who got to meet her! She wasn’t supposed to talk during the fan interactions, but when I told her I was covering her show for an independent publication, she said that was “very cool.” So it’s good to know I’m still hip with the youths, even if the photo I have of the two of us exposes how truly pale and reflective I am. I’ve also said it once and I’ll say it again: always keep your eyes on artists who play Théâtre Fairmount. Once someone plays here, they don’t seem to ever play a venue that small again.
Sofia not only has a powerful and unique voice, but she also has a very commanding stage presence. And her fans lap it up. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an artist so willing to interact with fans, making direct eye contact, holding hands, pressing foreheads together, and one fan even got the lollipop Sofia opened and started on stage. She was also in and out of the crowd more than any other artist I’ve seen. She hopped into the crowd for “All of Human Knowledge Made Us Dumb” while fans waved their flashlights. I’ve also never seen someone crowd surf at Théâtre Fairmount, but during “Orchestrated, Wet, Verboten,” Sofia counted down from 10 and jumped into the crowd as fans yelled “Happy New Year!” It’s also been a hot minute since I’ve had water spat on me by an artist, but that just took me back to my more punk days, and that’s why my camera is water resistant! Even the tour name You’ll Understand, Dick. is thinly veiled and tongue in cheek. She is clearly fed up with how women are treated, and she has the rage that burns brightest in your late teens, early twenties, to carry her forward.
She has a new song that she played during her set where she sang about the objectification and profitability of young girls while she slipped her pants off her hips, exposing her boxers to the frenzy of the crowd. To paraphrase the Dr. Doofenshmirtz quote that exploded on TikTok, if I had a nickel for every time I went to a concert and the artist on stage flashed me their boxers in the last month, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice. Apparently, my type in artists includes a good amount of rage and genderfuckery with a sprinkle of synth, a splash of grit, a smattering of expletives, and a dash of Christian criticism. She even addresses her pointed lyrics between “Everyone Supports Women” and “Us and Pigs” by saying, “I was told for a very long time not to make political what I say or what I do because it would divide my audience and make people uncomfortable and so [crowd booing] so I did that for a while, I was fifteen years old, but eventually Roe v. Wade was overturned and I realized that the reality is that everything is political.” She also said we were the loudest show on tour, so Montreal can continue resting on its laurels. I just hope that SOFIA ISELLA doesn’t forget about us when she tours again.
Setlist
- Out in the Garden
- Hot Gum
- Josephine
- Cacao and Cocaine
- Man Made
- Muse
- Dog’s Dinner
- All of Human Knowledge Made Us Dumb (partially in the crowd)
- Unreleased song – unknown name (the setlist I got says “ABOVE THE NECK,” but most of the song titles on the setlist are shortened)
- The Well (instrumental violin duet with her violin instructor)
- Everybody Supports Women
- Us and Pigs
- The Doll People
- Sex Concept
- Orchestrated, Wet, Verboten (sung while crowd surfing)
- I Looked the Future in the Eyes, It’s Mine
Encore
- Hot Gum (from the crowd)
Review & photos – Ashtyn Turner
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