Live Review: George Ezra and Sigrid at The Brighton Centre

The Brighton centre was fully packed when Sigrid entered the stage. The Norway “nursery” has produced many talented young artists the last few years, and Sigrid is one of them who captured the heart of the UK audience with her catchy songs and even won BBC Music’s Sound of 2018. The Norwegian pop singer, still in her early twenties, is supporting George’s UK shows and warming up for her own European and UK tour scheduled for later this year. (www.thisissigrid.com) The young singer/songwriter rose to fame immediately after releasing her debut EP “Don’t Kill My Vibe”. With the massive success it gained, both in her home country and other European countries, including the UK, she never stopped working on new music, delivering fresh synth-pop hits like “Strangers”. 

With a stage similar to her personality and songwriting, simple and authentic, she performed some of her most beloved songs “Don’t Kill My Vibe”, “High Five”, “Business Dinners”, “Strangers”.

Contradictory to most pop stars Sigrid might look like the girl next door and there is nothing extravagant either about her stage presence or her songwriting, and that is what makes her and her songs so enticing and relatable. With strong vocals Sigrid sings about young love, female empowerment, managing her newly found fame.

The last song of Sigrid’s set was the more upbeat “Strangers”, smiling while singing and dancing vibrantly; it was inevitable that the audience would follow her enthusiasm dancing along.

The stage was ready for George Ezra. The baritone singer/songwriter received amazing commercial success and he is capable of selling out his ten-city UK tour that is followed by a European tour. Ezra with confidence and charms entered the stage, that resembled an old-fashioned living room. With the help of his musicians handling many different musical instruments (keyboard, drums, guitar, trumpet, trombone, saxophone and even maracas) he created an ethereal atmosphere. George with childlike enthusiasm described his experiences travelling around the word in between songs. From Spain to South Africa his set, musically and lyrically was obviously inspired by his travels that transferred us to different exotic lands.

Ezra started with the show with the massively popular “Don’t matter now” and continued with songs from both his first and second album. As he explained his second album is about his room sharing “escape” to Barcelona and subsequently, he sang his song Barcelona. With a lot of time in his hand during his time vacationing the city he took his notepad and visited a park near the mountains of Barcelona and while he was people watching he got inspired his next song. “Pretty Shining People” a quintessential George Ezra song, powerful and fun with a catchy chorus and of course his signature low pitch vocals. The crowd was singing along the lyrics that brought a little of the bright sun rays of the Spanish town.

Some of Ezra’s songs had Blues influences ( “Listen to the Man” ) some of his songs with darker rock influences ( “Did you Hear the Rain?” ) however they all contain Georges unique charm, in the production and vocals, catchy and bright, a perfect mid-week mood boost.

The set list for the Brighton show was as follows:

Don’t Matter Now

Get Away

Barcelona

Pretty Shining People

Listen to the Man

Saviour

Did You Hear the Rain?

Paradise

Song 6

Hold My Girl

Leaving It Up to You

Sugar-coat

All My Love

Blame It on Me

Budapest

Cassy O’

Shotgun