Show Review by MCB's Barouch
Emeli Sandé at The Crofoot Ballroom on Monday,
January 21, 2013
At
this time, Emeli Sandé seems
poised to become a breakout star in the US in 2013. When I saw Sandé open up for Coldplay in
August 2012, one thing was clear.
Sandé
wasn't an opening act
The way she commands the stage and her powerful
vocals put her in the class of a select few. Already a major star in the UK, Sandé returned to metro Detroit
this Monday evening at The Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac with Emily King in tow.
Live, Sandé exemplifies
many of the honed characteristics found in veteran powerhouses like Beyonce, Alicia
Keys, Adele, and the late Whitney Houston.
Sandé flawlessly
transitioned from pop song, to dance song, to r&b song, doing equal justice
to each respective genre.
Sandé’s "Our Version Of Events" was the
UK's bestselling album of 2012, displacing Adele for that position, and Sandé had the honor of singing at
the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2012 London Olympics and this year she
has been nominated for 4 Brit Awards. She is currently working on breaking through
in the US with her single "Next To Me" being worked to US radio at
the present time. If her current momentum is any indication, we'll be hearing
from Sandé quite a lot this
year. During this tour she is making time for promotional appearances in the US
media, hosting segments on SiriusXM channels, as well as many television
appearances including Letterman and The Today Show.
Sandé opened her Crofoot show with her #2 charting
UK single "Heaven" giving it a ballad-to-dance transition that
perfectly set the tone for the rest of the evening’s performance. Following
"Heaven", Sandé treated
the audience to rousing renditions of the organic "Tiger", a reworked
reggae version of “Where I Sleep” and a surprisingly upbeat version of
“Breaking The Law”, which is a ballad on her album. She then sat at the piano
and performed an passionate version of her current UK single, “Clown”. Sandé continued her set with the dance-beat
driven "Wonder", the hip-hop tinged “Daddy”, and ignited the crowd
with her biggest single yet, "Next To Me."
Much
like her cohort Adele, Sandé will
likely play much larger venues than The Crofoot Ballroom when promoting her
in-the-works sophomore album in the US. At many points throughout the show the
crowd was silent as you could tell that they were enraptured by Sandé’s brand of vocal gymnastics. Sandé
is currently touring with a tight 4 piece band, which captured her albums
production while adding new twists to many other songs. The way that Sandé
works the stage and her strong vocal capabilities would have anyone believing
that she was a seasoned veteran and not a newcomer to the music industry. At
this point, it would be hard not to expect much to come from her in the near
future.
Grammy
nominee, Emily King, opened the show with her blend of r&b and soul music.
King’s set thrived on songs where she was able to convey strong emotion. She
closed her set with an intense cover of The Isley Brothers song, “Work To Do”,
which had the crowd playing into her every syllable.
