Melanie Martinez performs at Oakland Arena in Oakland on May 12, 2024. Matt Pang/STAFF. OAKLAND — Alt-pop singer-songwriter Melanie Martinez has broken out of her cocoon and entered her diva phase. That’s true both in terms of exposure to her music—her Trilogy Tour is her first arena trek—and metaphorically,…

Melanie Martinez performs at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on June 6, 2023. Derek Fisher/STAFF. SAN FRANCISCO — A few thousand camera phones shot into the air at the utterance of simple phrase, played along with a recorded video, to open Melanie Martinez’s sold-out show at Bill…

Melanie Martinez, “Portals.” “Death is life is death.” The harrowing cadence opens Portals, the third album from alt-pop songstress Melanie Martinez. The 13-track album leans heavily into darkly vibrant art-pop. Upon hearing Martinez’s music, it feels like a lifetime ago she was a young upstart auditioning for her big break on…

Lizzo performs at Outside Lands in San Francisco on Oct. 30, 2021. Adam Pardee/STAFF. SAN FRANCISCO — There was only one point in her show at Outside Lands on Saturday in which Lizzo was wrong. Lizzo. “I’m the worst headliner,” Lizzo said while coordinating a TikTok video with the…