Jess Glynne - Metro Radio Arena Review

Toby Bryant reviews Jess Glynne at the Metro Radio Arena

Toby Bryant
5th December 2016

Jess Glyne is fast becoming a world-class act.

The pop-star has only risen to fame over the past two years but nonetheless wowed the close to sell out crowd that filled Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena with an incredibly well polished performance. Despite the music that she makes, mainstream pop at its best, she still managed to pull in a wide range of fans, young and old, male and female.

The concert opened with the ‘Strawberry Fields’ intro that kicks off her debut album I Cry When I Laugh. Images of Glynne filled the high quality screens to make what really was a mesmerising introduction. The digital effects were a key part of the show. Whether Glynne had much of a say about what was going on the screens behind her is anyone’s guess but, whoever was in charge perfected it. Images were simple, yet effective and the use of huge lyrics plastered behind the songstress helped fans to sing along.

"Images of Glynne filled the high quality screens to make what really was a mesmerising introduction"

Once arrived on stage Glynne opened with her single ‘Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself’ and the audience immediately sparked to life. There was no letting off early as this was followed by her collaboration with Clean Bandit ,’Rather Be’, whose infection chorus everyone knows – hardly surprising given that the track spent three weeks at number one, has over 500 million plays on Spotify and went Platinum three times.

It was only four tracks into her performance when the singer first opened conversation with the audience. If there was one area where Jess Glynne can be criticised it has to be her charisma. When speaking to the audience her questions were generic and, quite frankly, boring. Her voice is faultless, the production perfect and the performance of tracks polished but it did feel like the crowd struggled with making a personal connection. That said, later on in the evening she did comment on having “some of the best nights of my life” on the Toon which was met with rapturous agreement.

Throughout the evening the top hits kept coming. A short cover of another collaboration, this time with Tinie Tempah, in ‘Not Letting Go’ went down incredibly well then Glynne dedicated ‘My Love’ to her parents before the crowd started to sing it back to her. In ‘Ain’t Got Far to Go’, another single from her album, the singer used the classic tactic of dividing the audience in two to sing different parts of the melody. Without doubt the majority of the audience will have experienced this before but it, nonetheless, worked a treat for the performer.

"Her voice is faultless, the production perfect and the performance of tracks polished but it did feel like the crowd struggled with making a personal connection"

The last two tracks of the evening provided the icing on the cake. During the emotional ‘Take Me Home’ the singer walked across the whole front of the audience, left to right, singing directly to a number of fans and making their nights. For her encore, now an inevitable in pop gigs, she closed with her most successful song to date, ‘Hold My Hand’, which left the audience ecstatic when piling out of the Metro Radio Arena.

For an artist who has only released one album, the number of top quality songs that Glynne has under her belt already make her concerts a fantastic experience. What she has achieved in such a short space of time is mind-blowing and seeing her perform on future tours cannot be recommended enough.

 

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