GABRIELLE + JAHMÈNE + AMIR – BRIGHTON DOME 03.04.19
The Brighton Dome Concert Hall hosted Gabrielle ‘Under My Skin Tour’. This was the name of her latest Top 10 album, and is her first studio recording in eleven years, with the previous being ‘Always’ in 2007!
The band came on, warmed up and were followed by the backing singers, then the iconic pop goddess graced the stage to a very excited and energetic audience. Looking slick and gorgeous with a hint of her very high heels underneath her lovely trousers.
Starting with a couple of songs from her new album to get our taste buds going, she moved on to ‘When a Woman’ it had everybody standing up (as it was an all seated arena) dancing and clapping. Gabrielle really mixed up the night with some great classic tunes and music from her new album. Considering there’s some twenty to twenty five years of her written music it all seemed to be timeless and relevant today. Written from experiences of her life then and now.
She took a break halfway through her set and introduced the backing singers Natalie Palmer and Louise Chambers who carried on the night with a Sister Sledge song ‘Thinking Of You’ which was brilliant and kept the audience dancing. Bringing Gabrielle back on with ‘Teardrops’ from Womack and Womack really brought out the soulfulness of her voice, how lovely it was.
She carried on with some more tracks off the album ending with ‘Rise’, which had the audience demanding more! more! Gabrielle encored with a couple of classics, finishing obviously with ‘Dreams’ . . . aaarrrhhh that seemed to be the fix we needed! It all went too fast considering she did about seventeen songs. What a great show, voice and music from an iconic goddess of pop.
More information on Gabrielle HERE.
She had a couple of special guests to start the night. First up was North London born AMiR, who I thought was a sound engineer. He was so casually dress as he came on stage and picked up the mic, he was so unassuming.
The music started then BAM! The Voice! What a sound, Olly Murs/ NeYo/ MJ ‘ish. Musically it was RnB, soul funk pop very upbeat. Playing tracks from his up and coming album ‘All Or Nothing’ and his new single ‘Stolen’.
This young man seems very talented not only musically but he had some serious dance moves Chris Brown/Justin Timberlake like. A well put together set just wished he made an effort on his outfit (only cause I did think he was a stage hand, lol) and maybe have some backing dancers to complement his great moves, suppose that’s the life of a solo artist.
More information on AMiR HERE.
Next up was Jahmène, now this was a sharp dressed man in his shiny red suit. His band warmed up to Stevie Wonder’s ‘My Cherie Amour’ to bring him out. ‘Is This The Time?’ from his album ‘Unfathomable Phantasmagoria’ started his set. Then his version of Whitney Houston’s ‘Saving All My Love For You’ really brought home the vast vocal range of this very talented singer. It was amazing.
I didn’t recognise him at first till my wife told me who he was. Jahmène Douglas runner up to James Arthur in the 2012 ‘X Factor’! Boy! Has he grown up, I remembered how shy and innocent he was. He followed up Whitney with ‘Love’ then ‘Forever And Eternity’ from the same album. His voice was soulful, angelic and to die for. No matter what music you put in front of this young man it would be beautiful. These were definitely very special guests that added to the Gabrielle tour!
Jahmène sure enjoyed himself as he has posted on social media….
”Thank you for singing along with me & giving me so much love! You were amazing last night.🙏🏽💙”
More information on Jahmène HERE.
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