Jorja Smith, 02 Academy 2, Birmingham - review
While TV viewers were locked into ITV's The Voice last night, the O2 Academy was treated to a better voice in Walsall's Jorja Smith.
The Black Country-born singer was performing in Birmingham for the first night of her sold out Tour Back Home series.
Having been featured on BBC Radio 1's ones to watch list for 2017 and more recently collaborating with Canadian rapper Drake, the 19-year-old is one of the most exciting up and comers in the industry.
But last night's show started rather flat and felt more like a fashion show as Jorja, dressed all in white with sunglasses on, was more interested in parading around than singing during her first few songs.
With the Drake collaboration and having more than 90,000 Instagram followers, it was easy to get the impression that Jorja had no interest in this gig, and her home roots. How wrong an assumption that was.
All of a sudden Maverick Sabre came on stage, the sunglasses came off, and Jorja's voice was transformed.
It felt like a completely different gig.
That girl who collaborated with Drake became Jorja again, Walsall's Jorja.
With the crowd packed out with people from all over the Black Country, Jorja gave a special shout out to WS4 and at one point even forget her words after catching the eye of her dad - himself a former musician.
Her soulful voice, compared to the likes of Amy Winehouse and Lauryn Hill, came to the fore.
The audience hanging off every one of her notes.
Drake unfortunately could not be in attendance as he was still in that Co-op in Walsall but that did not stop Get it Together being belted out, with the crowd more than happily obliging with Jorja's request to be the award winning rapper for the night as they sang the chorus.
The night finished with a spine tingling rendition of Blue Lights.
The song samples UK music royalty in Dizzee Rascal but Jorja proved she can easily hold her own. She is a future star.
By Jack Averty
