Doechii Performs Star-Making Set at Montreal’s Osheaga Pageant

Osheaga has a knack for reserving budding superstars proper as they blow up. Last year, it was Chappell Roan. This yr, it was Doechii.

The Grammy-winning, Florida-born rapper took the stage on the primary evening of the Montreal music pageant on Friday (Aug. 1), and it felt like a star-making efficiency. The Killers headlined the mainstage, however not like Chappell Roan, who performed for 40,000 folks at 3:30 within the afternoon final yr, Doechii did have the consideration of closing out the pageant on the secondary Forest Stage.

Her set was pushed again barely to start out at 10:10 p.m., which means she was the ultimate performer of the evening earlier than the noise curfew at 11 p.m. And for many who needed to catch each acts, The Killers made it straightforward by enjoying their belt-along favourite “Mr. Brightside” as their first music and packing the primary hour of their two-hour, 9:10 p.m. set with hits.

Doechii’s stage set was decked out to suit her Swamp Princess persona, lined in greenery and a big, elevated swampy platform for her to face on. The group was packed in, so the followers caught on the again nonetheless had a visible feast. “I look good from the nosebleeds,” she rapped from her 2025 hit “Nosebleeds,” and this present proved it.

For a full hour, Doechii stored the power up. She rapped a mile a minute, all dwell with virtually no reliance on a backing observe. She confirmed off her full ability set, from pure hip-hop to sung R&B/pop hooks, and comedic banter to thought-out stagecraft. She introduced unbridled charisma, taking time to bop and twerk and exhibit some vogue strikes as properly. She confirmed off a reverence for traditional hip-hop, rapping over Wu-Tang’s “C.R.E.A.M.,” and later screaming over a distorted guitar pattern — virtually veering in direction of nu-metal. She confirmed she will do all of it.

The viewers stayed captivated, rapping alongside and matching her power all through. It was Doechii’s first time in Canada, and you might inform she was impressed by the response. “As an artist, you may get a lot hate and negativity,” she mentioned. “Then you definately exit in actual life and see your actual followers.”

She took a while to thank her homosexual followers, her feminine followers, and the followers who introduced their boyfriends. “In case your boyfriend hates feminine rappers, then go away him instantly,” she mentioned.

Seeing all of the telephones out, she seized her second. “Ya’ll can’t be scared to face up for what you imagine in, you’ll be able to’t be scared to say what issues,” she mentioned. “Free Palestine.”

Doechii broke out her largest hit, the Billboard Scorching 100 top-10 charting “Anxiousness,” and thanked all her followers for streaming it. The “Anyone That I Used To Know” sampling music is a little bit of an outlier in her catalogue, but it surely’s a viral TikTok favorite, and he or she’s discovered a technique to match it completely into her set. After enjoying the music, she thanked Gotye for approving the pattern.

The true spotlight of the set was “Denial Is a River.” The music, which options Doechii rapping together with her inner monologue, took on a complete new call-and-response dimension with followers chanting alongside to each phrase.

It felt like she was nonetheless simply getting began when, halfway via the subsequent music, the beat minimize out. “F— that, they minimize me off!” she yelled. She put her thumbs down, inciting the gang to boo, then threw her fingers up. “No matter,” she mentioned, strolling off the stage.

Sadly, Osheaga has a tough 11 p.m. noise curfew. It’s clear the subsequent time she’s again, she’ll should have an extended headliner-length set.

Doechii performs tonight (Aug. 2) at Lollapalooza in Chicago, the place she’s teased a special guest. If Osheaga was something to go by, her set will possible be throughout social media quickly.

This text initially appeared on Billboard Canada.