Live Review: Freya Skye w/ Adrian Lyles @ The Anthem — 2/20/26

February 23, 2026

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Sixteen-year-old British sensation Freya Skye is touring the USA on her Stars Align Tour, and she recently made a stop in Washington, DC, for a sold-out show at The Anthem. Skye is currently promoting her new EP Stardust, which was featured heavily at the DC show.

Skye, who is playing about 15 concerts on the current leg of her US tour, is building a huge global following and most of her shows are sold-out at this time. Skye first became famous as a contestant about four years ago in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and then became a real star appearing in Disney’s Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires movie in 2025. Since then, her popularity has continued on a spiral upwards as she is now selling out music venues all over the world.

Skye’s voice is outstanding and very mature, with a great stage presence for a young lady. Her ability to talk with fans and discuss topics of interest at this young age is amazing to experience and should help her tremendously in her music and movie journey.

At The Anthem, Skye had a very dynamic opening, showcasing her great voice with tons of energy on stage. She moved the entire set back and forth on stage with intermittent breaks sitting on a prop made of stairs while resting to converse with the audience from time to time. At one point early in the show, Skye advised the crowd that they were there to have fun and she even requested the house lights be turned on at one point so she could observe the audience telling them they looked incredible.

Skye opened the show with a fan favorite “Can’t Fake It” with a fine display of her vocal range, and dance ability. Her stage presence could be compared to Swedish superstar Zara Larsson in looks, energy, and singing ability. About midway through her set, Skye noticed a fan holding a flag with a photo of her dog Ruby on it, which she laughingly stated she needed that for her wall.

Watch the official music video for “Can’t Fake It” by Freya Skye on YouTube:

Her song “Why’d You Have to Call” was one of the highlights of the concert for myself, and fans alike. This song really shows Skye’s vocal range and intensity of her voice. “Golden Boy” which she played near the end of the show is also in the same category of great vocals, lyrics, and intensity for such a young performer. Skye is an emotional singer, revealing emotion in her singing throughout the performance. This emotion and raw energy only make the fans want to see her sing more. There is a huge connection between Skye and her fans.

Skye closed out her show with “Gold’s Gone” and definitely left fans in attendance wanting more. After playing nearly an hour and a half, 16-year-old Freya Skye departed for the evening after having left the predominantly teen aged fans extremely happy and jubilant after the outstanding performance.

Setlist:

1. Can’t Fake It
2. Petty
3. Walk Over
4. Why’d You Have to Call?
5. Bad Taste
6. Who I Thought I Knew
7. Maybe Tomorrow
8. Someone to Love
9. Golden Boy
10. My Own Way
11. Silent Treatment
12. Gold’s Gone (encore)

Before Skye took the stage on Feb. 20, the show was opened by Adrian Lyles from Dallas. Lyles has a great voice, and huge stage presence and energy, continuously moving around the stage. Lyles also was a Disney star like Skye, and both young artists and both are signed to the Hollywood Records label. Lyles was very popular with the audience, receiving enormous support and applause throughout his 40-minute set. Lyles was a solid choice to open the show playing his set with great enthusiasm and just a solo guitar player on stage with him. Lyles advised that he was 13 when he first started his young career; he is 21 now and expressed hope that all in attendance would come back to the next show he plays in DC in the future.

Here are some photos of Freya Skye performing live at The Anthem on Feb. 20, 2026. All pictures copyright and courtesy of James Todd Miller.