Tuesday 10 August 2010

Leona Lewis' Labyrinth tour: O2

Having seen plenty of Leonas' live performancespre and post X-Factor via youtube, I was pretty sure that I wasn’t in for an energetic, highly choreographed show, but rather an evening of solid vocals. However, having never seen her sing more then one song in succession I wondered how she would muster the stamina for a whole show. The short answer is she kind of didn't.

It took at least 3 songs before she really hit her stride and connected with me. It was also around this point that I noticed that although she was able to deliver on the low and high head notes she did seem to be avoiding any high octave belting. Instead, she substituted those notes with its head voice equivalent or, in the case of the belting in “Can’t breath”, just not attempting any notes whatsoever. The crowd didn’t seem to mind though and were clearly enamoured with the singer from the first note, screaming and clapping wildly regardless.

The ballads in the middle tended to blur and a T-rex cover sang by her backing singers just left me perplexed, but I held on like a trooper and was rewarded by the closing half of the show.

First came a surprising and inspired cover of the Eurythmics song “Sweet Dreams”, which seemed to inspire Leona to show a bit of attitude and charisma,which succeeded in rousing the audeince to their feet without having to be asked as Leona had previously done in the show.

Then came the two gems of Leona’s repertoire. First “Run” and then an encore of “Bleeding love”. Knowing these were the two songs that the audience would know note for note both songs were sung perfectly with the high belts included. This being the case I'm guessing Leona had been smartly pacing herself throughout the early part of the show so she could shine on these signature tunes.

Coming out of the concert I ultimately felt satisfied. I could have done without the dancers and the props, which frankly cheapened the production, and would have loved to have Lewis and the beautiful lighting be the show. But it was probable Leonas' show was an attempt to silence critics who see her as just a singer. Although her voice is truly stellar its Leonas’ humility and affection for her fans that has remained with me after the show.With a few more hits under her belt she's only going to get better.



Rating: 3.5/5



3 comments:

  1. Just to let you know Leona's backing singers didn't sing the cover, she did. It was a pre-recorded video interlude, similar to the They Don't Care About Us interlude, where she goes offstage to get changed.
    And to my knowledge, from the 5 times I saw the show - Leona's vocals on Can't Breathe were actually better than those on the record, particularly at the end where she uses her head voice (which she does on record too).
    Other than those two parts, I think your review is made with fair points according to your views. I personally felt like the concert tied together nicely, although I would have liked to have heard tracks like Misses Glass which weren't included. :(
    Really, I just felt like I needed to clarify the cover issue lol.

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  2. Hey thanks for the comment! Maybe it was just the show i went to but I specifically remember the part in Cant breath, which is one of favourite Leona tracks, being missed because I was looking forward to it with bated breath. But just to clarify it wasn't the head notes that were missing, because she was on point with those all night, but the chest voice melisma at 3.24 (of the album track )when the music cuts out for a split second. But hey I love me some Leona and the closing half of the concert was electric. As for the pre-recorded part you're probably right as the review was written some time later lol. Oh and this post has made me listen to the song again, something which I haven't done in awhile! So Thank you very much, forgot how great the song is! :D

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  3. What about the amazing high belting in Homeless, Take A Bow and The First Time? And yeah I was also initially disappointed with no high belts in Can't Breathe but she MORE than made up for it with her amazing head voice on that performance!

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