French Singer-Songwriter Pomme Performs in San Francisco for the First Time

Pomme played an intimate set at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, CA on Tuesday June 18. This was the penultimate tour stop of her North American tour, which ended in Los Angeles, CA on June 19. The French singer-songwriter received a warm welcome from the crowd, and expressed how grateful she was that people showed up for her first ever show in San Francisco. 

She started the show with “_jun perseides”, a romantic orchestral piece from her latest album “Saisons,” followed by “je sais pas danser” from her 2019 album “les failes,” and “Nelly” from her 2022 album “consolation.” The show was very intimate, with Pomme pausing between songs to talk to the audience, explaining the stories behind them.

Pomme told fans about how she attempted a Dolly Parton cover at her New York show and it was “very bad,” but she printed out the lyrics for this show to give it another shot. “Don’t have high expectations,” Pomme said as she began her cover of Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” with an autoharp in her lap. The cover was beautiful, and the crowd loved Pomme’s rendition of this throwback hit song.

“San Francisco, are there any queer people in the room?” said Pomme. “I want to sing the next song for you guys.” She continued with “On Brûlera” - which translates to “We Will Burn” - a queer song from her 2017 album “A peu pres.” Pomme described that this song is for anyone who feels like they don’t fit in, as it details the tragic story of two lovers who are willing to burn in hell to be together.

“This song I wrote in English because it was not going to sound good in French, this is going to be cool in English,” said Pomme. The first time she performed this song - “Very Bad” - was in 2022 for her first ever shows in the US in Los Angeles and New York. 

“I wrote it about toxic relationships because I was trying to transform my anger into something softer,” said Pomme. “Writing songs in English about toxic [people] is a good way to get rid of it.” 

Before starting the next song, she took a picture of the audience on a disposable camera. Pomme then asked them to pass it around and take pictures of themselves. “The concept is to find my crush around the world, so everyone has to be inside of this.” Pictures from each show are posted to @when_i_c_uuu on Instagram.

She asked the crowd to sing the next song with her, teaching them a few French words. The audience carefully listened and waited for their part, joining her as she harmonized with them.

Pomme told her fans that she doesn’t like pretending she’s not coming back when she leaves for the encore. Before the next song, “Jardin”, she asked them to call her back for the last two songs. The show ended with “B”, “Grandiose”, and “weird”. She accidentally skipped “weird” earlier in the show, but she made sure to play this special track which was released prior to the tour.

View the full gallery here.