Alicia Keys. |
Alicia Keys is returning to New Zealand for the first time in five years and I would still rate that December 2008 concert as one of the top 10 I’ve been to. Auckland’s Vector Arena felt like the Apollo Theatre that night as Keys delivered a show looser, rowdier and more gospel sounding than she is on record.
Album tracks like As I Am’s Go Ahead became arm-waving hits-in-waiting and actual hits like Fallin’, You Don’t Know My Name, If I Ain’t Got You and No-One made me feel like I was watching a young, female Stevie Wonder.
Keys has released a further two albums since that concert with highlights being the Jay-Z #1 duet Empire State Of Mind, Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart and her return to a more classic soul sound with Tears Always Win.
If the wailing bombast of the recent hit Girl On Fire scared you off a little and you haven’t heard Tears Always Win, here it is below. And beneath that clip is the Bee Gees song I haven’t given up on Alicia Keys one day doing a cover of, the sad and soulful Please Don’t Turn Out The Lights from 1972.
WHEN: Alicia Keys (with John Legend), Vector Arena in Auckland, December 19th.