American recording artist Mitski Miyawaki, often simply known as Mitski, released her seventh studio album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, on September 15, 2023. Her first touring show for the album was at The Fillmore in Miami Beach on January 26, 2024.

This Japanese-American indie singer-songwriter is most commonly known among youth, with her most popular hits Washing Machine Heart, My Love Mine All Mine, and First Love/Late Spring all reaching up to over half a billion streams on Spotify.

Mitski’s performances have a reputation for being powerful and impactful. They have even reached different generations at Fort Lauderdale High School. 

Former FLHS social studies teacher Shannon Patron attended a show in 2015, in which Mitski had been the opener.  

 “When I saw her open for another band in Tallahassee at The Moon, it was a simple but memorable show,” she shared. “I’m sure her performances have grown bigger since then, she was great.”

During her Laurel Hell tour in 2022, Mitski slowly started experimenting with interpretive dance. While singing the song Love Me More, she pretends to scrub herself to get rid of the unclean feeling that the lyrics mention. These are small choreographic dances compared to her current tour’s more elaborate and intense movements.

On this tour, Mitski decided to give life to the song I Bet On Losing Dogs.

I Bet On Losing Dogs is a track from Mitksi’s fourth album Puberty 2. It is not literally referring to betting money on weak fighting dogs, but rather an allusion to devoting energy and time to people in relationships that she knows will ultimately fail. 

The song begins with Mitski purposefully stumbling over and falling, embodying the image of a wounded dog—a visual depiction of vulnerability and resignation. This action represents the fate of the losing dogs in dogfighting, who are often physically abused and suffer emotionally as a result of their defeat. During the break of the song, she looks up at the sky and holds a dead dog position.

During the rest of the song, Mitski gets on all fours and wanders around the stage looking lost. With these movements, she creates the persona of a hurt animal while singing about losing someone.

First-time Mitski attendee, FLHS student Cyrah Emile (11) shared, “My favorite part of the show was the opening scene.” She noted, “They used light effects to make Mitski look huge behind the curtains, it was a cool little trick. When the curtains raised, she was tiny in contrast.” This is the first instance of her using light to perform the show.

Other uses of light include her song, Heaven, in which she uses the spotlight as her slow dance partner.

This clever use of technology was the topic of many fans’ conversations. “This is art, the epitome of the individual human experience,” said a TikTok user in the video’s comment section. 

Heaven’s performance could be interpreted as longing. Longing for someone to dance with, but there is only light. Her partner is off somewhere. As the spotlight disappears at the end of her slow dance routine, Mitski’s character starts to realize how lonely she is, only left with traces of her lover. She treats any sort of connection with this person as heaven. This can be inferred from this set of lyrics.

As fans eagerly anticipate Mitski’s next creative endeavor, one thing is certain: her impact on the music industry will continue to endure for years.