CityLife

Estelle

ESTELLE'S first words between songs are utterances of disbelief that she’s finally back home in the UK.

The ambition of ‘breaking the States’ doesn’t seem so ambitious for British artists these days, with Estelle being coerced into superstardom by Kanye West and Leona Lewis warbling herself across the pond.

So here returns Estelle after a summer of international success, sipping tea on stage and on stunning form.

Hyped up by her MC, flanked by two male dancers and bathed in purple light her entrance is loud, her name in sparkling lights above the stage.

The album that’s shot her skywards, Shine, opens with Wait A Minute (Just A Touch), so it’s a suitable place to make a lively start to her show.

R&B superstar

Dancers, band and R&B superstar are perfectly in sync from the beginning and pressure shifts to the audience to keep up with the pace.

No Subsitute Love’s breezy pop is underpinned with a tale of spurned love, which Estelle takes the audience through (’He was an idiot’) with perfect comedic timing.

Her stage banter and invitations to members of the audience to dance with her makes her feel like the hilarious, naughty cousin you want to sit next to at Christmas dinner.

The men in the room could have felt out of place with stories of male incompetence, but the battle of the sexes is declared a draw later when she introduces the ‘I’m sorry’ song, Back In Love Again
 
She admits to genre hopping and there’s the grittier side of hip-hop and diversions into reggae like the buoyant, danceable Magnificent.

Then there’s pop. Dedicating Pretty Please (Love Me) to Tina Turner and The Supremes, the song has a lot to live up to.

In a swirl of retro soul it does just that, evoking the best of Motown complete with stabbing strings and tinkling piano.

The smash hit American Boy seems faster and harder with a live band behind it, although it would have taken the roof of if it had been played with spoons.

With 1980 finally being played during the encore the show became complete, it’s a shame that such pure entertainment had to end.
 

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