Loreen strolls onto the Electric Brixton stage into a cloud of fog and flashing strobes. Staring out over the sold-out venue, she raises her trademark nails above her head to a wall of screams – before even opening her mouth the room is taken over by the star’s aura.
The vocal power and stage presence contained in her slight figure has always been Loreen’s pull and her headline London set is a fiery showcase of just what the singer can do.
The double Eurovision winner opens the night on the electronic ‘In My Head’ before moving into another deep cut in ‘Crying Out Your Name’.
The star’s production has been designed by Tobias Rylander, the brains behind her Eurovision staging and that of Beyonce’s Renaissance tour. Everything about the set in the 1,500-capacity venue feels arena-sized, although we shouldn’t be surprised, Loreen is after all a performer who knows how to hold the hold continent in her palm.
The first half of the night in Brixton is choreographed to a tee. “I wanna invite you into my heritage,” she murmurs as she drops to her knees and extends a hand towards the audience before ‘Is It Love’.
Her first release since this year’s Eurovision success, that track is an early highlight of the night as her hair dances in the wind and points to an artist with so much more still in her locker.
The night plods on with a series of tight electronic hits after that, the kind that hold too much intensity for a Eurovision entry. As lights blare behind her, Loreen turns and swaggers towards the audience for the melodramatic call of ‘if we die, we die together’ of ‘Jupiter Drive’.
The intensity of the show starts to loosen up as Loreen throws some shapes to the pulsing chorus of ‘Dreams’ and when the soaring club hit ‘My Heart’ ends she cries, “Are you ready for some dancing?”.
There aren’t too many words to describe the monster hit that comes next in ‘Euphoria’. A track to see live before you die, Loreen fully unshackles ahead of a final flurry.
Fan favourite ‘Neon Lights’ is rallied back to her before one fan screams, “She’s doing it!”, to the opening tones of ‘Tattoo’.
Even Loreen’s powerhouse vocals can’t drown out the crowd during this year’s Eurovision-winning hit, which has clearly soundtracked the year for so many.
Before closing on the riotous ‘Statements’, a tempest of a track, Loreen drops the production for an intimate and acoustic encore of ‘Is It Love’.
Watching the Swedish star in that moment as her siren vocals echo around Electric Brixton, one thing is clear. Loreen is no Eurovision gimmick, she’s verging on a generational talent.
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