If there is one singer in the whole world that blows us away every time we see her, it’s Leah McFall. Her vocals are seriously off the chart, and that’s from listening to the studio versions of her songs that she releases; in person, her vocals just outstands us, cutting us deeply in the heart and wishing she became a viral sensation, as the world over, needs to hear her music. This Birmingham date was one of three dates in her White X Tour, she also performed in Manchester and London.
The White X Tour was named after her single “White X”, and she has been dropping singles ever since, including “Somber“, “Marriage“, and “Freckles“; so, naturally, we expected them to be compiled into an EP to be released prior to the tour, perhaps named White X, as mentioned on her social media – instead, she plans to keep dropping singles and music videos, which we are living for. We also heard new songs from this talented Irish singer-songwriter, which are expected to be released later this year, and they sound amazing.
The tour kicked off with Peter J. McCauley as the support act, performing to a small number of us who had turned up for the whole gig. There were, perhaps, 20 people in the venue, ready to hear some Irish vocals. It felt very exclusive and personal as he talked about his songs and his life. It was the perfect way to warm us up for Leah McFall and those people who turned up late missed quite the treat – your loss.
He sang some incredible songs, and we still can’t stop listening to “I Don’t Like Monday”, that is one catchy song that stayed with us. He also sang his brand new song which was released at midnight on the night of the gig – which is new for this week, “Anywhere My Love Will Go”, so make sure you give it a listen – which he taught to us so that we could sing along.
Were we expecting more from a Leah McFall support? Yes, however, she is pretty difficult to live up to as her vocal range is off the chart. Peter J. McCauley still managed to make an impression and showcased his talented voice and songwriting abilities. He’s certainly one to keep an eye on as he continues to build his music career.
As anticipation built for Leah McFall, more and more people turned up. At one point, there was a group talking through Peter J. McCauley’s final song, at which point he stopped to call them out – raising our respect level for him as a musician and an artist because he deserves to be heard and listened to, and we didn’t appreciate people talking during his set. If you want a conversation during someone’s performance on stage, either whisper quietly or leave the room; don’t spoil it for everyone else.
As expected, Leah McFall was an absolute gem on stage. She started it off with “Rubber” and “Somber“, managing to showcase what she could do with her voice and that she’s ready to unleash her abilities into our ears. She started off strong and not only maintained it throughout the set but she built it up and up.
It’s astonishing how far she’s come in the two years since we last saw her. She’s certainly improved although she was outstanding back then, this time she blew everyone away. The crowd had all piled in and she included a personal side by talking about her life and her music. She also mentioned how she’s got married since she was last in Birmingham, and that’s where the awesome track “Marriage” came from. Her husband, Nate Catterson, was on the merch table greeting everyone as they came in, they’re certainly well suited and they have tonnes of happy years to come.
There were a few stand-out tracks which Leah McFall sang, one being “Freckles” which we adored from the minute we heard the studio version, and it only sounded 100x better live. She also confirmed that a music video for the track would be dropped soon.
She stunned everyone with a cover of Minnie Riperton’s “Lovin’ You” which she originally performed on The Voice UK season two, where she placed second. Now, upon introducing the track, she mentioned it was from the show, and whispers about Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” went around the room, yet we applaud her for choosing a different cover as we’ve heard her sing “I Will Survive” on her last tour and repeatedly on the single release we all downloaded at the time – as well as our multiple YouTube views – and so, it was refreshing to not hear it, allowing her to showcase her own songs, and stopping those people who came to see her just to hear that one song, it was clever and we weren’t disappointed at all.
Other standouts were certainly “White X”, “Happy Human“, and “Wolf Den”. We also heard some stunning unreleased tracks, titled “Fair Trade”, previously mentioned “Rubber”, “On My Own”, and “Eden” – all of them were amazing, and are bound to be tracks we will be playing on repeat as soon as they’re released. One hilarious moment was when she talked about being a child and how her voice was her toy, so much so that she found out that she could sing like Shakira, which she did right there on stage for us – now that is part of her set we wish we could have on repeat.
Leah McFall’s White X Tour is now finished, as it was a short three-date tour. We hope we don’t have to wait another two years until we see her perform on stage again. This independent artist is a total treasure who deserves to have massive success, as a vocal talent such as hers is beyond anything we’ve ever heard of before.
If you ever get the chance to watch Leah McFall live, don’t miss out – we also advise you to go and watch her support acts, they’re there for a reason and well worth listening to. While you’re at it, why not stream Leah McFall’s music right now, each one is pure perfection.