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Megan Thee Stallion brings swagger and spice to LCA in first Detroit headlining show

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Megan Thee Stallion brings swagger and spice to LCA in first Detroit headlining show


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She may be just three shows into her first-ever headlining tour, but Megan Thee Stallion looked all the part of a seasoned star onstage Saturday night at Little Caesars Arena.

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Five years after breaking big with “Hot Girl Summer,” the Grammy-winning rapper has embarked on a transatlantic arena tour of that same name, with Detroit an early stop on the run.

A sellout crowd was there to greet the 29-year-old Houston hitmaker for what was a girls-night-out kind of affair, with many fans arriving at LCA in their own variations of the curvaceous body suits and flesh-baring monokinis Megan Thee Stallion would embrace onstage.

It was a night writhing with snake imagery, sexual bravado and near-nonstop booty shaking. The show was as much about Megan’s confident, assertive presence as it was her ever-growing repertoire of kinky hits — a salvo that started Saturday with her latest chart-topper, “Hiss,” and its barrage of cleverly barbed celebrity shade.

Joined by eight dancers who at one point joined the star for a synchronized twerking number, Megan Thee Stallion kept the pace upbeat and the downtime minimal. The only extended pause for breath came with a mid-show segment in which she invited groups of excited fans — her Hotties — onto the stage for their own personalized dancing exhibitions.

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Amid the extravagant raunchiness that often bordered on camp, that was a touch of come-one, come-all togetherness and accessibility, much like the assorted selfies she snapped on audience members’ mobile phones throughout the night.

As a rapper, Megan Thee Stallion is formidable — she built a name via her electrifying freestyles, after all — and her rapid-fire rhymes accentuated songs such as “Sex Talk,” “Kitty Kat” and “Stalli.” Elsewhere, numbers like “Thot S—” rode high on catchy hooks, with the likes of “Big Ole Freak” becoming arena-wide chant-alongs and “BOA” serving up her distinctive brand of side-eye.

After reported technical glitches on the tour’s opening nights, Saturday’s mix was crisp and full, and the star’s mouth-twisting vowels and spicy wordplay were only occasionally lost in the sonic boom.

Megan Thee Stallion’s trademark, defiant swagger did give way to a little vulnerability with the recent single exploring her battles with depression, “Cobra,” which wrapped up the concert’s opening segment.

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“Wanna Be,” with guest Glorilla, and the 2020 Cardi B smash “WAP” helped the show start a crescendo that finished with the biggest hit of Megan’s career, the Beyoncé-featuring “Savage.”

For all the night’s energy — and props to the likable Megan, that rarely flagged — the show threatened to become a monotonous affair, offering few variations in sound, movement or expression. At a crisp 85 minutes, it clocked out probably exactly when it needed to.

Rising rapper Glorilla had kicked off the evening with a 45-minute set of Memphis-fueled hip-hop and her own brand of self-empowerment.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

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Detroit, MI

PWHL players bond with women’s hockey pioneers at Detroit clinic | NHL.com

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PWHL players bond with women’s hockey pioneers at Detroit clinic | NHL.com


Both generations on the ice Friday are intent on growing the game for today’s kids. Hartje and the Polar Bears believe an important step for women’s hockey in Michigan would be starting a Division I college team.

“I think if the PWHL establishes a team in Detroit, it will put a lot of pressure on the colleges to make sure there’s a D-I team in the state,” Hartje said. “Michigan has the second-highest number of players in the league, and it would have been a dream for us to be able to stay in the state to play.”

It’s been a problem for decades. Pierson had to turn down the offer from Boston University, because her family couldn’t afford to send her to New England for college. Hartje ended up at Yale University, and Megan Keller, who scored the gold medal winning goal for the U.S. in the 2026 Winter Olympics and plays for the PWHL’s Boston Fleet, went from suburban Detroit to Boston College.

Meanwhile, 2026 U.S. men’s Olympic team members and Michigan natives Dylan Larkin of the Red Wings and Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets were able to stay in the state to play with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program, then based in Ann Arbor, before moving on to the University of Michigan in the same town.

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“Megan’s brother played at Michigan State, and I’m sure she also would have stayed here to play for a Michigan school,” Skarupa said. “It’s imperative that Michigan gets a college program.”

Skarupa is serious about growing the game. She is working with Keller and the NHL Foundation U.S. to identify recipients for its $100,000 Empowerment Grant Program for Girls Hockey.

“Every time I go back to a city, there are new teams, new girls and new faces,” she said. “It’s a testament to growth all over the world, but it is tremendous inside the U.S.”



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Detroit, MI

Retired Detroit sergeant faces new sexual assault charge involving 14-year-old victim from 2002

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Retired Detroit sergeant faces new sexual assault charge involving 14-year-old victim from 2002



An additional case, this one involving a victim who was then 14 years old, has been added to the sexual assault investigation against a former Detroit Police Department sergeant. 

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced the latest charges on Friday against Benjamin Martin Wagner, 68, who now lives in Greenville, N.C. He had retired from the Detroit Police Department in 2017. 

The victim in the additional charges was 14 years old when the assault happened in October 2002 in Detroit, Worthy said. The prosecutor alleges that Wagner approached the victim, pointed a handgun at her, ordered her away from the location and then sexually assaulted her. 

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In this case, he faces charges of kidnapping, two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. An arraignment hearing took place Friday in the 36th District Court in Detroit. A probable cause conference is scheduled for April 7.

The woman is now 37 years old. 

“She has lived with what happened to her for 23 years and has now bravely decided that she wants to be a part of holding him accountable,” Worthy said. 

Wagner participated in a court hearing Thursday and was remanded to jail, one week after he was charged with 15 counts of kidnapping and rape in five separate sexual assault cases. All of those incidents happened between 1999 and 2003 in the northwest side of Detroit, with the victims being young women between the ages of 15 and 23. 

The court dates for the earlier list of charges are April 7 for a probable cause hearing and April 14 for a preliminary exam. 

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Wagner joined the Detroit Police Department in 1989 as a police officer and was eventually promoted to sergeant. He retired in 2017 and moved to North Carolina. 



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Detroit, MI

Metro Detroit weather forecast, March 26, 2026 — 11 p.m. Update

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Metro Detroit weather forecast, March 26, 2026  — 11 p.m. Update


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