Jorja Smith @ King Tut's, Glasgow, 6 Apr

Live Review by Kenza Marland | 11 Apr 2017

Having recently featured on Drake's latest album More Life, 19-year-old Jorja Smith is approaching the end of her sold-out UK tour with tonight’s performance at Glasgow’s King Tut’s. Dressed mainly in white and almost glowing, Smith confidently strides on stage as the lights go down, instantly stealing the show with her stunning vocals.

Beautiful Little Fools, inspired by The Great Gatsby, and released by Smith on International Women’s Day this year, is second on the set list. The young artist lyrically challenges gender inequality and female stereotypes with her play on the famous Gatsby lines: "I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."

Oozing poise and self-worth, her stage presence in the tightly-packed Tut’s is dazzlingly hypnotic – at times her voice echoes with the power and talent of Amy or Adele, at others she tends more towards the subtlety and poetry of Jill Scott.

With a limited back catalogue, Smith uses this lack of releases to her advantage. After a heart-breaking performance of Goodbyes, a song she wrote when she was 16 after losing a friend, her set progresses to include a live cover of T2’s Heartbroken and a nod to Dizzee Rascal’s Sirens in 2016 single Blue Lights.

Unfortunately when she performs Get It Together – the Drake track on which she features – the use of recorded backing vocals, tracks and microphone effects massively detract from the power of her voice, and at one point the band appear to be pretending to play, further weakening the performance. Smith has the talent to front an entirely live set, and her rawness should be celebrated and embraced.

Alongside a guest performance from Maverick Sabre, Smith’s show tonight is a tapestry of popular youth culture references demonstrating her interesting musical influences. Ending with a cover of Luther Vandross' classic disco track Never Too Much leaves us on a high as Smith leaves the stage. Impressing with her beautiful vocals and self-assured performance tonight, Jorja Smith is probably about to get famous, and fast. She should.

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