Michael Bublé

Seeing Michael Buble live was something I’d dreamed of for years, and when I finally was able to experience an O2 Arena performance, I was not disappointed at all. The show, beginning to end was spectacular. The vocals, performance, and atmosphere was stunning.

The supports were pretty good at warming up the crowd ready for Michaels performance, and by the time he was ready to come on stage, the arena was buzzing. It’s awesome how he really interacts with the crowd, and even in such a massive venue he was addressing all areas of the stadium and even hopped down to grab the hands of some of the standing audience in the front which was so cool.

All his classic songs were so amazing and everyone was on their feet and singing along. It’s incredible how he can maintain such a strong vocal performance throughout 2 hours of nonstop singing with so much energy. Even if you’re not a fan, I think that it’s a concert for everyone and seeing him live will convert you.

With a name like that, she was surely born to sing, although there’s plenty more to Melody Gardot than meets the eye; she hails from Philadelphia, but considers herself a “citizen of the world”, and despite being just twenty-nine years of age, she’s already made a major impression in the jazz world, a genre often seen as inaccessible for people of the younger generation. It helps, of course, that Gardot writes all of her own material, but it’s also true that there’s touches of the Latin influence to her sound. She’s been nominated for Grammys and seen her records go platinum in parts of Europe, but she’s not all about recording; she’s also a committed advocate of music therapy, dedicating a sizable amount of her time to helping others through sound. As a touring artist, she’s stuck reasonably close to jazz convention at her own shows; with her extensive live band, she can deliver career-spanning sets that delve into every aspect of her music - as well as the typical guitar and drums setup, she brings a brass section, including a saxophonist, on the road with her too. She’s just completed an extensive European jaunt, which kicked off with a performance at London’s Barbican Hall and included a stop in Brighton further down the line; she’s seldom away from the territory in which she’s met with the most success, however.

Ivorian reggae isn’t a genre of music that I feel I’ve been overly exposed to, but I thoroughly enjoy listening to it. When I had the opportunity to watch Tiken Jah Fakoly perform live, I jumped at the chance. The venue was huge and they’d really pulled out all the shops for the show. The costumes, lighting, backing singers choreography, and positioning of the band were all spot on, and I knew from the moment that they all walked out on stage that it was going to be a great show.
They opened with a lengthy instrumental number, where each instrumental section, the brass, drums, vocals, and guitars got their own solo. At the end of the largely improvised track, all of the musicians joined forces and played together, creating an incredible crescendo of sound. Fakoyly then went onto introduce the set, and they played Dernier Appel in its entirety, which was incredible to hear live.
His lyrics are famous, and although a lot of the lyrical content wasn’t in English, through his expressions and narrative skills, It was easy to depict the storyline. It was a fantastic show that I wish could have been just a little bit longer!