Twenty nine year old Callum Scott burst onto the music scene with his sensational cover of “Dancing On My Own “last year having earlier by catapulted into stardom through an appearance on Britain’s Got Talent. The British born singer was eager to please the mature crowd as he supported Emeli Sande at the half filled Birmingham Genting Arena.
The penultimate gig of the Long Live the Angels tour saw Callum praise Emeli in giving him the opportunity to play the large arena venues as well as thank the crowd for supporting him in what he described a whirlwind 18 months.
Accompanied by a four piece banking band he promoted his new single “You Are The Reason “ as well as a cover of Ed Sheerans “Thinking Out Loud” coaxing the fully seated audience to sing along with him.
Heads bopped up and down when the opening chords of “Dancing On My Own “ filled the arena before promoting his new album was due out next year.
Hearing rave reviews from friends about prior tour dates and twenty two song set lists off the Brit Award winning MBE, the excitement started to build up within the now three quarters filled arena as it fell darkness. With a tribal clap filling the air as the beat got stronger, a red light engulfed the stage to reveal a full band and Scottish starlet Emeli Sande elevated on the platform being them looking over the twelve members opening with “Hurts”.
Perspex boxed cages projected feathers enclosed as the funky beat dropped for “Free”, which she guested with Rudimental back in 2013. Powering through tracks “Give Me Something “ and crowd pleaser “My Kinda Love” it was sad to see such a static audience as the usually soulful voice seemed to be distorted slightly by the equipment with at times the band drowning her beautiful melodies.
Leaving the audience to view an poignant inspirational video from her fans on the large screens Emeli and her band left the stage to appear five minutes later in the middle of the arena with her piano. She apologised for the sound of her voice, giving an inkling to the earlier audio issues on the main stage, before thanking the audience for coming out and giving an insight to her background growing up in Aberdeenshire and writing songs for others and when she wrote “Clown” others really wanted it for themselves yet her connection was too strong to part with it. The audience finally rose to their feet as she performed this and Olympic closing ceremony favourite “Read All About It” gaining the biggest cheer of the night with a rousing applause from the captivated audience. The rawness of her vocal talent projected ten fold during this segment showing her music talent.
Returning to the main stage she gave a short and sweet set of some of her well known up earlier tracks “Wonder” and giving spotlight to her backing singers performing “High and Lows” before a finale of “Next To Me” as she exited the stage thanking the crowd the audience looked a little lost to what they had just witnessed as some exited before the encore of “Beneath Your Beautiful” which projected soulful vibes around the arena.
As the house lights arose the arena quite a few fans looked lost as they looked at their watches, their was no denying Emeli could easily rival Adele in the best British female stakes however they wanted more and having saw so many rave reviews about previous nights some took to social media to express distain at why the Birmingham date had been only 2/3rd length of the other dates.
After the four year hiatus, Emeli showed on this tour throughout she has the vocal talent to be top of the game once again, for the normal job blogs on the street I don’t actually think they would of realised how short and sweet the night was however I feel the arena being all seated didn’t really help Emeli as an artist on the night, ninety percent of the audience were very static apart from the
smartphone sea of Emeli and a piano, up to the point they resembled statues through the rest of the night and a group of fans that got on their feet to the stage left but by that time I think the atmosphere had gone. That being said Emeli in a standing venue or festival field would be electric and even though short and sweet there is a lot more to come from her as her voice is on point.