Traveling across the country, celebrating two decades of pop stardom, we join him at the end of his UK tour in a sold-out show at the London Palladium.
The lights are dimmed, the curtains are still drawn, and a lone microphone stands front and center stage as a single spotlight dazzles.
A rendition of his infamous Pop Idol audition plays in the background and a very cocky Simon Cowell calls Will, “clearly average.”
How we laugh
The curtains are drawn and Will steps out looking incredibly dapper in a complete white suit with his extraordinarily polished backing band trailing behind him.
The show starts and we jump right into Evergreen from 2002.
As the soaring chorus begins, the lights bathe the stage, turning it into a perfect sea of emerald.
It builds, ending with a phenomenal key shift, reminding us why the Berkshire-born singer has been making it big for all these years.
The audience seems to sense what is to come, clapping in unison as Will, 43, kicks off the most upbeat beat of 2012, Love Revolution.
As he shows off his stuff, I’m amazed that Will Young is truly the Mick Jagger of the 21st century. More than a singer, Young is very much an artist and entertainer. Will captivates the audience with memories of him, occasionally going into a stand-up routine.
We dive into a story about how he was arrested at 18 and how the police are now using his photo as “how not to take a mug shot.”
The whole room is filled with laughter. This is what is so special about the night, it didn’t feel like Will was here just to sing for us, but something so deeply more personal and intimate. An audience with Will surely calls…
She sheds her jacket and rolls up her sleeves, wading straight into the mystically seductive I Just Want A Lover, and as the night progresses we reminisce about some of Will’s biggest chart-topping hits, including Jealously, The Long And Winding Road. , GO and so on.
Each track sounds more timeless than the last, and they fill people with an infectious need to dance.
Will has had eleven Top Ten hits, four of them topping the chart. That is an achievement.
As the night draws to a close, he invites us to Leave Right Now and gets some of the loudest applause I’ve ever heard at a show. This tour is a celebration of 20 years of Will Young, and it certainly was that, playing his most beloved songs and fan favorite songs from his career, just showing us that he still has a lot.
Young’s support act for the night was the incredible Liverpudlian singer-songwriter Kris James, who deserves more than an honorable mention here. Kris was the perfect choice to get the crowd pumped up throughout this UK tour.
Her graceful voice and clever melodies seem to captivate the audience as she performs her most popular singles, catchy numbers like Naive and Get Back To Love, with warm responses. This was a perfect opportunity for Kris to show the sold-out London Palladium exactly what she’s capable of, and that’s what she does.
A beautiful rendition of Cher’s Believe follows shortly after, garnering more than enthusiastic reviews from the crowd as the entire room fills with chants and enthusiastic applause.
It ends with his most recent single, Home, a beautifully soulful song with a gorgeous chorus that he performs in an exquisite style, very different from the funk disco of The Way You Move.
As their set comes to a close, applause erupts from the audience. No doubt there will be some young fans coming back for more the next time Kris is in London.
Maybe the Eurovision bosses should take a look. It’s in her hometown next year and I can’t think of a better local rising star to sell Liverpool and the UK to the world. He’s a pop idol in the making, with the “X factor” galore.
#Young #Review #Evergreen #Singer #Celebrates #Years
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