Review | Skye’s the Limit

Sixteen-year-old pop sensation Freya Skye took the Santa Barbara Bowl stage by storm on September 19. Skye was energetically received by the loudest audience I have ever experienced at the Bowl: droves of young girls and their obligatory chaperones. The former brought the volume; the latter, their wallets for merch. This also marked my first time seeing a performer who was closer to my 9-year-old daughter’s age than mine; strategically, I brought a true fan along as my guest: my aforementioned 9-year-old daughter. 

To say that my daughter and I prepped for the show by listening to Skye’s latest EP, 2026’s stardust, with great frequency would be an understatement, one that would also rob Skye of the numerous streams I amassed sans daughter: in the gym, on the bike, or just around town in the car. The melodies are infectious, the hooks memorable. The energetic tracks make you want to move and the slower ones make you want to cry. That’s pop music, baby. 

Skye, who hails from England, began singing and acting at the age of 5, gaining international attention when she represented the U.K. in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2022, winning the online global public vote and placing fifth in the competition. Her renown was bolstered with the role of Nova Bright in the 2025 Disney movie Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires (that’s right, there were three Disney Zombie movies that preceded it, and you better believe I have seen all of them multiple times), a character she will reprise in 2027’s Zombies 5: Secrets of the Sea. All the while, Skye wrote and recorded her own music, consistently releasing singles throughout 2024 and 2025, finally releasing her stardust EP in 2026. 

It was this not-exactly-deep-but-certainly-dense discography that was showcased at the Bowl as Skye launched into opener “Can’t Fake It” from atop a white, cylindrical platform, having appeared as if by magic while her three-piece band (guitar, bass/keys, drums) vamped on a triumphant musical intro. After gracefully descending a spiral staircase to the band-level, she went full sport mode, dancing from one side of the stage to the other, never missing a note. 

Skye’s brand of pop is ripe for the moment, musically toeing the line between keys-driven and guitar-driven with the lyrical earnestness of someone who’s yet to be jaded by a long list of heartbreaks. Think early Taylor Swift, before hyper-fans began combing her tracks for breadcrumbs on the identities of her celebrity relationships: Skye’s is a purer feeling pop music to sing at the top of your lungs in the car (recent breakup and accompanying group of besties optional). 

The crowd for Freya Skye, Santa Barbara Bowl, September 19, 2026 | Photo: Elaine Sanders

After powering through several hits, including the anthemic “Why’d You Have to Call?” (the track I was perhaps most excited to see live), Skye welcomed us to her “studio” as the monolithic platform on stage slowly rotated, revealing an intimate, living room looking space strewn with acoustic guitars and pillows. From here, cross-legged with an acoustic guitar, Skye performed stardust’s ballad “Maybe Tomorrow,” as audience members ignited the flashlights on their phones to sway with the music. I asked my daughter if she wanted to borrow my phone and she excitedly said yes, raising it to join the illuminated movement. 

The powerful synergy of music and the internet was on full display when Skye introduced her latest track “bad taste,” which had landed on streaming platforms just three days prior to the show. “Sing it if you know it!” she encouraged, and I’ll be damned if every person in my section, if not the entire venue, sang along to every word — my daughter included. But perhaps that should come as no surprise, seeing as the track has four million Spotify streams as of September 30. If that metric seems staggering, consider that the 16-year-old singer boasts millions of monthly listeners on the streaming platform and followers on Instagram combined.

The stage monolith rotated once more to reveal, not the living room set, but a baby grand piano. (“How did they do that???” my daughter marveled.) Skye seated herself at the instrument to play keys for the stardust closer “London,” reminding us where the singer hails from and fondly calls home. She then treated the audience to a new track, “Effortless,” from a forthcoming album she promised to be hard at work on. 

Needless to say, the crowd loved it. 

Skye’s character really shone through in the latter half of the show as she stopped her absolute earworm “petty” mid-song to check on an audience member in the very front who was having some sort of emergency. “Can we get some help over here, please? Can we get her some water?” Skye asked over the loudspeakers as she offered the audience member her own rhinestone-encrusted water bottle. Though this sort of thing isn’t completely uncommon at shows nowadays, I was totally impressed that a 16-year-old decidedly stopped one of her most popular songs to get someone the help they needed. I admired Skye’s consideration for her fans and appreciated the opportunity to sing along to the banger all over again as she counted off the band to restart the track. 

Yes, she closed with her hit “silent treatment,” and yes, there were confetti canons that went off when the track’s fierce ASF bridge dropped (“I’m an optimist / you’re a narcissist / name a deadlier combo.” OOF). The crowd roared louder than they had all night. 

After Skye bid farewell and the house lights came up, I saw kids scrambling across the rows to collect the star-shaped confetti, showing off handfuls to their parents. I got emotional at how wholesome it all had been: these kids seeing their idol, a true celebrity, in real life; experiencing music at decibels they could’ve never imagined; and collecting “trash” like it was gold. 

That’s pop music, baby.