Rating: ****
Being one of the apparently very few people (gay or straight) in the whole of the UK and Ireland that shies away from the madness of X Factor, I’ll be honest: I wasn’t too sure what to expect from Alexandra Burke’s ‘All Night Long’ tour concert at the Hammersmith Apollo.
This being her first solo tour, though, the stage was set for a strong debut. The turnout was pretty impressive, though I’d never been to the Apollo as a fully seated venue before. The supporting act, Parade, controlled the stage at first, with a great pop mix that worked well; although their styling needs work, I’m fairly confident we’ll be seeing more these girls in the near future.
Burke opened her set with a barrage of up-tempo tracks and soon had the audience right with her. The arrival of four attractice and scantily-clad male dancers certainly helped this along; It was as raunchy as you could be at a family show.
A swift costume change saw Burke move into a deeper and more meaningful middle section during which she demonstrated exactly why she won the show with a soulful performance of her first single, ‘Hallelujah’. Another costume change followed (sadly, including a little more clothing for the backing dancers), after which we were dancing in our seats thanks to a Destiny’s Child/Beyoncé medley. As the show ended with the tour’s title track ‘All Night Long’, it’s safe to say the crowd wanted more. The encore was the chart-topping single ‘Bad Boys’, and everyone left happy.
Despite this being her first tour, Burke worked the stage like a seasoned pro. This might be due to the show business baptism of fire that is X Factor – or, perhaps, that like all good divas she’s borrowed the best of drag and made it her own. Who can tell? One thing is for certain in the infamous words of RuPaul: Alexandra chanté, you stay!
The tour continues across the UK until the end of February. You can find out more about Alexandra Burke and her supporting act, Parade on Twitter @AlexandraMusic and @Parade.
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