P!nk

Kings Hall Complex, Belfast Wed 5pm £48 (sold out) 0818-719300

It’s taken a while for Alecia Beth Moore to transform herself from a plucky pop singer and performer into the global success story known as P!nk. According to Billboard’s Top 40 Money Makers in Music List 2010, she was the sixth highest-paid artist of 2009, with an annual income of more than $36 million (€30 million) – and that’s before endorsements and merchandise are included.

P!nk, whose influences include her Vietnam veteran father and her teenage experiences as a skateboarder and gymnast, is a writer of smart, confessional lyrics. Initially pitching herself as a pop act in the mid- to late-1990s (her first outing was in all-girl pop act Choice; she was also an opening guest for ’N Sync), P!nk reverted to a more assertive style while at the same time fashioning a stage show that mixed punk rock, pop smarts and the performer’s love of gymnastics.

What to expect at a P!nk show? Very decent and tough pop music, and – most unusually – a performer who can thrill on the trapeze as well as behind a microphone. She also has shows in Limerick and Dublin next week. And yes, she fully deserves the exclamation mark.

Can’t See That? Catch This

Paul McCartney Sat, Dublin