June 4, 2026
Holly Humberstone and Diva Smith swing by Montreal’s Beanfield Theatre
It is finally beginning to feel like summer in Montreal, and England’s Holly Humberstone showed up to Beanfield Theatre to help turn up the heat. Having won the Brit Award for Rising Star in 2022, Humberstone is now on a quest to win over North American ears,
With her, is American singer-songwriter and actress, best known as the daughter of Tears for Fears’ Curt Smith, who has been hard at work carving out her own slice of the pie, and moving out of the massive shadow of her father and his pals.
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A little less than two months ago, Humberstone was performing at the world renowned Coachella Festival, which draws as many as a hundred and twenty-five thousand people per day, or a half million across the entire festival. Tonight, Montreal gets to witness Holly Humberstone at the far more intimate Beanfield Theatre. For those here in this quaint room, this night may one day become folklore.
Diva Smith
Under a blue hue, emerged Diva Smith who is taking a break from her other life as a pre-school teacher, to tour around North America.
Smith remarked about how beautiful of a place this is, and at first I thought she meant the century-old theatre inside which we all were, that still features paintings upon the ceiling if you know where to gaze. Until Smith remarked that she tries and plans to continue spending time on the streets of wherever her musical journey takes her – and Montreal is a perfect city for such things.
With a new EP set to hit the streets next week, Smith began her set with three new pieces that will be on that recording. Moving into pre-existing tracks from that point, as the room about her filled with the usual careless late-comers. The je ne sais quoi attitude.
Playing dreamlike pop tracks, with a heavy dose of melancholy about them, seemed to really resonate with the young audience. As Smith began to lament about the times and trials of her life, and how she thought she would have it all figured out by now – at the ripe old age of twenty-six, I felt like calling out that some of us, meaning myself, still haven’t gotten a thing sorted out more than two decades past her age. I refrained and held that thought to myself, feeling a smile come across my face instead.
The more interesting people never do figure that sort of thing out anyway.
Dive Smith came to prominence roughly six years ago now, when she began to perform a rendition of the Tears For Fears smash hit, Mad World, with her father Curt Smith – and while that track helped introduce Diva Smith to the music realm, she doesn’t perform Mad World as part of her repertoire, unfortunately. Perhaps to keep herself from riding her fathers success while chases her own career in the could, hard mad world of music.
Still, I personally would have to hear her set end with that classic number. That’s just me though, and truth be told, I also respect her for not playing it at the same time.
Holly Humberstone
Just prior to disembarking the stage, Smith said she took the tour just to have the chance to see Holly Humberstone every night for free – and that was now where the night was headed.
Humberstone walked out onto the stage, a long way from Nottingham, but the applause from from an eager Montreal crowd hopefully made her feel right at home.
Songs about heartbreak seem to resonate with the young crowd that had shown up tonight. Singing along, shoulder to shoulder, swaying in unison as Humberstone eloquently worked through her setlist.
As song each song finished, the cheers grew louder and louder, until the shriek from the audience was as long as the backing band itself.
Humberstone stood centering a creative setting, that included cut-outs of bushes, headstones and a huge crucifix that stood to the right of the set-up. The instrumental section; drums, guitar, bass and keyboards, remained in the background, while Humberstone alternated between acoustic guitars and just her microphone.
When the guitars went away, Humberstone danced across the stage, making full use of its width and doing her best to greet as many as the front rows as she could.
Her dream-like pop, during the slower renditions, gave off Portishead like vibes. Sort of a strange comparison, I know, but repeatedly that was the first thought that came to mind, and it was wonderful.
As the night was churning to a close, Humberstone mentioned how she thought Boston was incredible, but that was Montreal was going to be hard to beat – that our fine city was going to become a core memory, and while that is surely just pillow talk; everyone in the room ate it up.
A chant of “Holly, Holly, Holly” erupted, luring Humberstone back to the stage (something I’m sure my bratty little sister would get a kick out of – sharing the same name and all).
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The soothing piano announced Lucy as the first track of Humberstone’s encore – and again, as they had done all evening long, the Montreal faithful sang along as if the lyrics were the groups official backing choir.
Concluding the night, was Scarlett, which seemed to be the ending everyone wanted, and well, they got it.
