Alicia Keys, Alicia Keys, Alicia Keys was all I was saying for the days before the show. With excitement and anticipation I traveled to Cardiff International Arena, I had expectations of what the show would be like and I was not let down by this vocally impressive, musical inspiring, stylish and beautiful performance.  

Arriving at the arena slightly before time giving me a chance to see the beauty of the surrounding architecture. Being a reasonably new building it was clean with stunning sense of space. The audience full of well dressed ladies and there boyfriends, fitted right in. I think I caught glimpse of 3 different Alicia Keys before the show actually started.

I expected to have to sit though a poor English R ‘n’ B group as the supporting act, but the performance that came out in front of the curtain was much more entertaining than I had hoped. It certainly was a small name act. Well a big name and a small man. The act was a DJ and his MC appropriately named ‘Freak Nasty,’ a 4ft tall black man that definitely kept me laughing, and the crowd grooving. He sang, shouted and danced to a lot of RnB and Hip-Hop tracks, such as ‘Hot in Herre’ and ‘Destiny’s Child’, but the one thing I’ll remember for the rest of my life about this little guy will have to be when he came out of the curtain dressed up as Michael Jackson dancing to ‘Billy Jean’ doing the Moonwalk and jiving around.

The time finally came over the loud speaker came the words ‘the show will start in approximately 5 minutes,’ the crammed fans in the pit started to cheer, as did I. The curtain came back to reveal a live band, including 2 drum kits. The scene was a New York street, even with its own phone box. Alicia’s silhouette appeared in one of the windows. The crowd started to go wild. The front door opened, and there she was looking amazing, sporting a pair of tight jeans, a loose of the shoulder number and a sparkly cap, wow. She walked down and took position sat at a piano, her and the band began to play.

At first the music was up beat and truly funky and hard hitting, being able to compared to a jazz concert. Everyone was dancing. In this section the backing vocals were given a chance to shine… and shine they did. Each took a chance to sing the chorus of call me, and you expect they did their jiggly bits in between each note. But there voices were so strong and truly awesome. Then by harsh contrast you were able to hear the soft tone and beauty to Alicia’s voice. At this moment I realised why I was here, to her a truly mellow and romantic singer, I felt the band was taking over a bit. I think they read my mind, because it wasn’t long until the curtain fell and a grand piano rolled out, Alicia Keys sat there and stunned us with not only her voice but her amazing musical talent as well.

Towards the end the pace built up again, and the crowd were electrified again. She finished. You could here the audience feeling as though something was missing.  The band began to play. The silhouette had now re appeared… and out it came at the top of her voice “I, I, I, I ke eep on for all ing in n out o lurve, wid you”. You can imagine what happen. The pit started to ripple, and the sat audience all arose to give one last jive.

I have to say this was one of the best evenings of my life. It was worth every penny, ‘but didn’t you go free’ I here you cry. Well yes I did, but I had my mobile phone stolen. Even with my most prize possession gone. I still went away thinking that I wanted to relive the whole event.

This certainly was the Alicia Keys show. She showed us Alicia and Keys. She spoke, sang and played to us. She managed to make the audience feel special; it was hard to imagine she’d done this show many times before. I want to marry this woman more than I did before I went. Truly Amazing!

 The Tick List

 Enjoyment

 Set List

 Lighting

Set

 Band

 Overall
 

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