Pink in Cardiff review: Summer Carnival's UK opener shows she's the very best at what she does

The queen of mind-blowing, live pop performances, Pink, bounced back into Cardiff's Principality Stadium five years on from smashing expectations on 2019's Beautiful Trauma tour. Back then, gig-goers were in awe of the singer, now 20-plus years into a phenomenally successful career, whose vocals shone through a visually and acrobatically impressive show.

Five years after seeing the Trustfall singer here in Cardiff I was delighted to have the chance to witness another high-octane, exciting and impressively gymnastic gig, all performed with impeccable vocals and the just-right amount of goofiness and tongue-in-cheek.

With Pink, the only things taken seriously are the safety of the harnesses and the quality of the performance - everything else is delivered with a twinkle in the eye and some hardcore sequin application. From a Max Headroom-style opening to flamingo segues, (apparently) off-the-cuff banter with her band and backing singers, Pink's show oozes an appearance of relaxed class but you know every minute is planned to give everyone a bloody good time.

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One of the overriding things I love about Pink, and the reason she is so adored by her fans, is her unabashed honesty. From being open about anxiety to her relationship with husband Carey Hart Pink's never held back in telling us what she's thinking and this honesty saw her reveal to fans ahead of the Cardiff gig that she'd been suffering from a stomach bug and was on her period.

Throw those two ailments at me and I'm staying home lying on the sofa mainlining tea and binging Gilmore Girls - but that's not Pink and that's why her live shows are so rich with personality and passion, she loves what she does and she really wants her fans to have the best time by putting her all into her production and performance.

And we all did, from the stream of classic tracks kicking off with Get the Party Started, Just Like a Pill, Raise Your Glass to newer tracks like Turbulance and Never Not Gonna Dance Again the show also had some cracking covers including Pat Benatar's Heartbreaker, Bob Dylan's Make You Feel My Love and, my favourite What's Up by 4 Non Blondes. Singing the latter got Pink arrested, she says, when she was younger for "disturbing the peace" and Cardiff's peace sure was disturbed tonight by the artist and her thousands of fans participating in one epic singalong.

Even the small issues with Pink's sound and a teleprompter glitch couldn't detract from the good feeling buzzing around the 72,000-seater stadium. The night saw the singer hand over her sparkly platform boots to a fan, compliment audience members and two couples got engaged down the front. We were even treated to an appearance by her daughter, Willow, as the pair duetted on Cover Me in Sunshine.

The acrobatics and aerial stunts executed throughout the performance leave you open-mouthed and the anticipated - though always jaw-dropping - bungee, fly-over during the crescendo that is So What? is possibly the gold standard for finishing a massive stadium gig.

Now, I'm never going to get the chance to fly around the Principality Stadium like Pink, but despite that the overall feeling you come out of a Pink gig with is that, life happens and you've got to give it your best shot and have fun while doing it.

As she said in her 2012 hit, "you've gotta get up and try, try, try," luckily for Cardiff, though, we got a five-star performance.