13/02/2026

Maren Morris – Aotea Centre: February 11, 2026 (13th Floor Concert Review)

MAREN MORRIS brought her D R E A M S I C L E world tour to Auckland – and brought joy to thousands of fans of the Texan country/pop crossover star. Carin Newbould was there to see whether Morris would make their dreams come true at the Aotea Centre.

MAREN MORRIS dressed down for her Auckland crowd, taking to the stage barefoot, in jeans and a laid-back, lacy black shirt. By contrast, many of her audience were in sequins, cowboy hats and boots, referring back to Morris’ start as a country singer. But after taking to the stage to Donna Summer’s I Feel Love she started off strong with cry in the car , which leans far more toward indie pop. 80s Mercedes has more country sensibilities and set the tone for the catchy, relaxed vibes of most of the material which follows throughout the gig.

While the youngsters of Tamaki Makaurau were packing out the Spark Arena for local lass Lorde, an older demographic were seated in the Aotea Centre. There was an air of anticipation, healthy merch sales and a respectfully large number of bums on seats as the evening kicked off with twentysomething singer songwriter Jack Gray.

Jack Gray

A good choice as a support act, Australian Gray was backed up with a guitarist and a drummer for a pacy set of songs warming up the already excited crowd. He spoke about what an honour it was to be touring with one of his favourite artists (presumably he said the same when previously accompanying Dean Lewis around Europe and Tate McRae around Australia and NZ?) and plugged his soon to be released debut album.

He was indie, poppy, a little bit folksy, but perhaps a tad too young for the older crowd there for Morris. Gray closed with I Got Three from 2020, which is worth a listen. Overall, it’ll be interesting to see what’s on the new release and how soon he comes back to Auckland with his own show after his next set of dates in the UK.

Maren Morris

She may not be a household name to many – possibly only known for her vocals on international smash hit The Middle, written and released with Zedd and Grey. She’s sold over 1.6 million albums in the US (less than a tenth of those flogged by fellow country-crossover artist Taylor Swift), which isn’t too shabby, but Morris may also be recognised more as a member of The Highwaywomen, alongside fellow stars Brandi Carlisle, Natalie Hemby and Amanda Shires. But there were plenty of fans who were clearly familiar with Morris’ solo material and ready to sing and dance along to the Texan’s back catalogue.

However, this tour is all about last year’s album release D R E A M S I C L E, with all tracks featuring in the setlist (note lower case titles – like E.E. Cummings, Morris appears to have an aversion to capitalisation). It’s strong material, drawing on her personal experiences over the past few years: becoming a parent, divorcing and starting to date again, as detailed humorously in bed no breakfast and the sassy push me over. She’s at ease talking to the adoring audience throughout the 90 minute set, ruminating on her life changes since her last visit here in 2018, telling us about her day off “drinking wine on Waiheke” and talking about how much she likes writing with other people. A special mention is given to Kiwi Joel Little, who co-wrote cut! and too good, and who will apparently be attending the Christchurch show – who possibly had a prior engagement down the road tonight and was with one of his other co-writing mates Lorde?

Morris shouldn’t be categorised as a country artist, despite her Nashville performance roots and the jangly guitars evident in several of the older tracks. She swaps between self-accompaniment on the guitar and full star singer mode, with electrical fans blowing her waist-length hair in a glamorous approximation of Mariah Carey’s style. Maren definitely has the pipes to challenge Carey too – her vocals are powerhouse, wide-ranging and soulful. There’s R’n’B, pop, folk, indie and even gospel elements to the material, with pounding drums in because, of course and i hope i never fall in love. Morris’ four piece band were tight, professional and didn’t miss a step all night.

Standouts were holy smoke, The Middle (predictably popular), a terrific cover of the Natalie Imbruglia version of Torn and My Church, with Morris (and many of the audience) raising their arms to sing “Hallelujah”.

There was no encore after Morris finished with her Grammy-nominated hit The Bones, which had the audience singing along and left them wanting more. I’m sure she won’t leave it so long until her next visit… and will hopefully avoid Auckland schedule clashes with other female powerhouse singers next time around.

Carin Newbould

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Michael Jeong:

Maren Morris: