EMELI SAND É

LIVE @ THE KOOL HAUS 2012

FEATURE EDITORIAL REVIEW

By: Fridae Mattas

Friday November 23rd the latest Scottish vocal talent Emeli Sandé hit Toronto’s Kool Haus with Shawn Hook as supporting act. When I found out she was coming to the city I had to go see and hear her perform live. Emeli is one of the newer legit talents to reach the mainstream waves, the “Our Version Of Events” tour is her first headlining tour. In the past Emeli opened for acts like Cold Play performing at huge venues across the globe, she even sang a cover of Cold Play’s “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” in this set. Emeli’s real name is Adele Emeli Sandé, she started using her middle name “Emeli” as a stage name when fellow British songstress Adele’s star began to rise. My ears discovered Emeli’s music late last year just before she released her début record and began to explode in North America. Many people still don’t know who Emeli is and that is why I created FridaeTV, to introduce the world to fantastic new artists like Emeli Sandé! Once you listen to Emeli’s music you will understand.

Arriving just in time to catch the last two songs from Canada’s Shawn Hook who was opening the show for Emeli. He wasn’t too bad from what I caught and he even did a little autograph session at the merch table for his fans after the set. Watching the last bit of his set I could not tell if there was a pit, far too many people were crowded in front of the stage. All I know is, I will definitely have to check Shawn out again when he’s back in Toronto.

Once given our media passes we were escorted to the stage area, our Live Nation escort then informed us there wasn’t a media pit to shoot from. She didn’t know in advance because she did not check the stage area of the venue prior to the show. I should have listened to my intuition and brought the 70-200 lens but decided against it because my confirmation email stated we were to shoot first 3 songs no flash from the media pit. Now, I had to shoot from the crowd with my regular lens and the fans were going to get upset for being in their space. So I did what I had to do, worked my way into the large crowd getting close enough to the stage as possible, explaining to the fans around me that I would only be there for three songs. Managed to capture a few feasible photographs to use in this editorial. Thank the Lord it wasn’t a rock concert without barricades because that would have been deadly.

After putting my camera away I came back to the venue to watch the rest of Emeli Sandé’s fifteen track set. People want to have fun and dance but they also have different issues going on in their lives and look for an escape, that’s where music comes in. Everyone can relate to music about relationships and heartbreak because life is filled with both.

My favorite songs of Emeli’s are “Heaven”, “Next To Me” and “My Kind Of Love”, she performed them all and more. A few other tunes I took a liking to are “Clown”, “Breaking The Law” and the final encore “Read All About It (Part III)”. She sounded incredible when she sang and utilized the large stage to the best of her ability with her band, a piano player and a guitarist. There were a few pitchy moments, very few! I can remember only one incident mid set during an acoustic track. She played a few songs on the piano herself while singing her heart out to the crowd and they were loving every minute! Well…The majority of us paying attention to the amazing talent on stage. These bobblehead broads in front of me kept taking Facebook or Twitter profile shots throughout the entire set and that was getting played out fast! Other than the bobbleheads, I enjoyed the rest of the show and was able to feel the music. If you like genuine talent with soul, your ears need some Emeli Sandé therapy! Go see her live if she’s in your area, I can guarantee that you will not be dissapointed!

www.EMELIESANDÉ.com