...In which Leona Lewis DANCES

So we've just returned from the very first date of Leona Lewis' first ever tour. Expectations on the way there were not high for two reasons.

1. It was taking place in Sheffield.
2. There was a genuine fear that the entire night would involve Leona talking about everything being "amazing" and how she's "just pleased to be here."

And, to be fair, there was a fair bit of the latter.

THAT SAID, any doubts about this girl's ability to perform and put on a show were completely and utterly smashed on that stage last night, which bodes well for the upcoming dates.

Firstly, the whole thing was themed (loosely) to the movie Labyrinth. Calm down, calm down, Leona never came out wearing trousers like this:

Truth be told, the Labyrinth thing was basically an excuse to have some plastic looking trees and a swing involved but the whole concept worked genuinely brilliantly. It lent the whole show a real atmosphere which from the very opening gave the whole thing an energy and a darkness which worked fantastically with Leona's voice, the staging and the choreography.

Yes, readers, Leona Lewis danced.

Without wanting to give away the entire setlist for those who are planning to attend the future dates, we'll point out some of the real highlights.

Firstly, there was a definite "horse" theme but at no point did Leona ride an actual horse. Health and safety were probably involved.

Secondly, Better In Time was majorly ramped up and was guitar rather than piano driven. It definitely worked and injected a real energy into the song. Leona looked absolutely commanding up there during this and the darker and rockier tone to the song was a sublime choice. To this end, can we please advise SyCo that this girl is more than comfortable singing up-tempo songs. Indeed, she can more than keep up with a guitar or three. Please, please, don't make the next thing she releases a mid-tempo ballad. If we left with one impression of Leona after this concert, is that she is incredibly versatile when she's given the chance.

Thirdly, there was nothing "safe" about these performances. Forgive Me, one of her few naturally up-tempo numbers, was chuched out in the first half and massively re-jigged, again to lend the whole thing a darker sound. Remember Cheryl's Brits performance with Loretta Holloway mixed in to the second verse. Think that type of effect. It was VERY good

Fourthly, the costume changes were hidden with some amazing work by the dancers (she's borrowed the aerialists which P!nk used on her last tour performing "Glitter In The Air"). Usually, this was accompanied by some properly amazing VTs. One featured Leona looking demented while riding a swan. Another featured a mash-up of Daft Punk's "Harder Better Faster Stronger" and Michael Jackson's "They Don't Care About Us" this was properly amazing. And frankly, was good enought to be released as a single. It would certainly stop her being seen as a one trick pony.

Fifthly, there were some cover versions. Run of course was there and was the climax to the pre-encore show. It was suitably epic and elicited a genuine standing ovation. Also, The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face was a choice we really questioned at first, but she delivered an absolutely blistering vocal which slowed the tempo down without killing the momentum. She completely won us over. What was truly special, however, were the decisions to cover Could It Be Magic and Sweet Dreams. The latter was full-on mental with strobes, amazing choreography and got the whole place finally on their feet. It was an excellent choice, a very competent cover which did something new with the song not only by its choreography but also by the very fact that Leona's vocals were involved. She also did a very acoustic version of Cry Me A River which was brilliant as well.

Sixthly, there were some very interesting omissions to this setlist. There was no Stop Crying Your Heart Out, no My Hands and, amazingly, no Footprints in the Sand. This was not a concert for playing it safe. And my God it worked.

Seventhly, we've mentioned elsewhere how we felt that Outta My Head should have been released as a single. She did it last night and the place went mental. For the first time in the night, people were on their feet which, given that this is just an album track, is no mean feat. There was strobe lighting, laser shows, and Leona danced and didn't look terrified about the prospect of moving. Why this hasn't been released as a single is just beyond us as it's one of the strongest showcases for Leona's evolution as an artist and a performer. The video below really doesn't do justice to how well this was put together. Think about 50x more stuff going on with the lighting and you'll be there.



Finally, the encore was, predictably Bleeding Love. Watch the video below and just witness how much improved a performer this girl has become.



It was an absolutely stunning concert, which certainly reminded us of why we thought she was such a special talent from the start. Crucially, it proved that this girl is not just "a big voice for hire". She's an accomplished, polished performer who clearly isn't afraid to take risks with her live showcases. We just hope that Syco learn from this and allow her to take risks with her recorded output.

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Also, Gabriella Cilmi was there. On A Mission was alright (is it supposed to sound like Van Halen's jump, or is that just us being mental?). On the other hand we're so over Sweet About Me it's ridiculous. Also, the whole thing would have been better if she'd done the song from the Co-Op ad at Christmas.

Spot the difference #4: Cindi's gonna be pissed

Compare, if you will, the new Leona Lewis single featuring Jennifer Hudson, "Love Is Your Colour" with thanks to our friends at My Fizzy Pop for giving us the heads-up.



This is the song which will be featured on the upcoming Sex and the City 2 soundtrack. Now take a listen to the Cyndi Lauper classic "True Colours"



Now, far be it from us to get all litigous, but surely Cyndi has the grounds for a lawsuit here? The two songs are pretty much exactly the same. There is little to no perceptible difference!

Litigation aside, this adds to the cumulative case which is building up against Leona. For Christ's sake, this had the potential to be the power ballad of the 21st century. Instead, Leona and Jennifer chuck out what is tantamount to a lazy cover version but try and skip out on paying the royalties on it by shifting some lyrics about. Leona simply cannot get away with putting out these lazy efforts at the moment. Not when it is abundantly clear that the novelty of her astounding voice is clearly wearing off with at least the British public at present.

In other news, we're going to see Leona at the o2 in two weeks. We'll obviously be reporting back and letting you know how she got on. We're hoping for something amazing which reminds us exactly why we've been such big supporters of her career from the start. Hopefully she leaves this out of the set list.

Kylie Minogue: "All The Lovers"

Kylie Minogue's new single "All The Lovers" premiered on the radio this morning, and to commemorate the fact, the good folks at Parlophone have put it up on youtube to share with the world.



To put things very simply, it's absolutely bloody amazing. The lyrics are fairly standard Kylie fare (i.e. fairly simple with a real emphasis on repetition) but what really sets this apart is the amazing production job courtesy of Stuart Price. The whole thing positively bristles with energy and it hits the middle ground between club and radio playability perfectly. Kylie's voice sounds amazing and frankly the whole thing is exactly the sort of return to form that we'd hoped for and envisaged a couple of weeks ago. This absolutely deserves to be the song that propels Kylie back to the top spot after the mis-fire that was "2 Hearts". All this really needs is the kind of epic video which she pulled out for "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" and this thing is pretty much destined to be THE pop hit of the Summer. If we were to compare "All The Lovers" to a drink it would definitely be a G & T as it works equally well at that bit of the dinner party where everyone's gone out to the balcony to reflect on how amazing everything is and also at that point at a club when you think you've reinvented the medium of dance, but you've actually just fallen over and possibly broken your girlfriend's nose in the process.

But we digress. "All The Lovers" is amazing. Well done everyone.

"Oh, we're halfway there"

To commemorate The Pop Web's migration to its brand new domain (bookmark www.thepopweb.co.uk) we invited our twitter followers to suggest the first "Web-surfing" challenge in our new home. Mikeinlight didn't disappoint when he suggested this:

Bon Jovi to Sigur Ros. Good luck.

Well, Mike, we're pleased to announce that we've gone and cracked it. In spectacular fashion if we do say so ourself.

                                   
                        







Ch-ch-check it out after the jump.

Scissor Sisters, JLS and a couple of other glaring errors

Remember our effusive and searching preview of what The Scissor Sisters album might have in store for us over the summer? Well, the Sisters have lifted the lid on the first single from that campaign, "Fire With Fire". In the absence of a proper video, here's a one nabbed off the Chris Moyles' Breakfast show a recording of it courtesy of the good folks who populate youtube:



We have tried so, so hard to like this song. And, lest we be misunderstood, let us stipulate that we do not dislike "Fire With Fire". In the same way that we didn't dislike "Just Might Tell You Tonight" from Ta-Dah. In fact, lyrically, Fire With Fire picks up that incredible ability of The Scissor Sisters to write heartbreaking and emotionally resonant lyrics in amongst all of the seedy darkness which pervades their work. Lines like "love was just something you found to add to your collection" are definitely on the amazing side of things. But, ultimately, this song does not scream "comeback" or, indeed, hint towards the darker and more underground sound that Jake Shears alluded to when interviewed by Popjustice. In the same way that "Invisible Light" is definitely an album track, despite its obvious amazing qualities, so too "Fire With Fire" should occupy that point on the album where everything becomes a little more introspective. For our money, the only way we can see this catching on is if it really catches the imagination of the festival crowd who use the whole thing as a "singalong album". Otherwise, there's a real danger of this single just being a little too soft an option and thus killing the momentum of the album campaign before it's even got going. As huge Scissor Sisters fans, we sincerely hope that Jake, Ana, Del and Baby Daddy know what they're doing.

Moving on to a slightly different end of the pop spectrum, JLS' new single is seventeen shades of awful, and not just because it references The Sound of Music with the subtlety of a brick with "THIS IS A REFERENCE TO THE SOUND OF MUSIC" scrawled all over it. "The Club Is Alive" sounds a little something like this:



It's all a little bit "Blue" isn't it really? And given they're already confirmed to be reforming, there's probably no need for JLS to be raining on their parade. The problem with this song is that it takes anything which might have been catchy or engaging, and ruins it amongst some ludicrous production. The vocals are fairly typical JLS fare, and the "you could be the DJ, I could be the dancefloor" bit is alright. But it's almost like the record company dragged them in and said "Well, boys, you know how Beat Again, Everybody in Love and One Shot were fairly pleasant efforts which resonated well with our key demographics? Well we need to put something out there which proves beyond a doubt that you've all still got Y chromosomes. So you're all going to warble on about screwing someone in a club. Is that OK?" And they all nodded and lived happily ever after.

As an aside, we also can't abide Julie Andrews. Indeed, in our dim and distant past, we set up a facebook group expressing our dislike for Ms. Andrews. Four years on, and the hate mail still comes flooding in. Good times.

And on one final point, they're re-jigged and thrown a video together for Josh Dubovie's Eurovision entry "That Sounds Good To Me" (the only place where you can see the video is the BBC's website). It was very kind of Pete Waterman to delve into his bag of tricks and throw some outdated production at this godawful effort but it's plain to see that there are some turds you simply can't polish. It still sounds bloody awful.

And that's your lot. Except to say that we've been extremely remiss in stating that it's not all bad news for pop music. Alphabeat's new single "DJ (I Could Be Dancing)" is actually brilliant.



Thank God for that. It's out on 31st May and it would be just swell if y'all could download it and prove that pop hasn't quite eaten itself just yet.

Chartramble - Sunday 9th May

This week's top ten:

1. (1) Roll Deep: 'Good Times'
2. (2) Usher ft. will.i.am: 'OMG'
3. (3) Plan B: 'She Said'
4. (-) Pendulum: 'Watercolour'
5. (-) Aggro Santos ft. Kimberly Wyatt: 'Candy'
6. (10) Taio Cruz ft. Ke$ha: 'Dirty Picture'
7. (5) Chipmunk ft. Esmée Denters: 'Until You Were Gone'
8. (4) Diana Vickers: 'Once'
9. (8) Timbaland ft. Justin Timberlake: 'Carry Out'
10. (9) Kelis: 'Acapella'

Reactions and this week's new releases are to be found, as ever, after the jump

Chartramble - Sunday 2nd May

Le top ten.

1. (-) Roll Deep: 'Good Times'
2. (2) Usher ft. will.i.am: 'OMG'
3. (4) Plan B: 'She Said'
4. (1) Diana Vickers: 'Once'
5. (3) Chipmunk ft. Esmée Denters: 'Until You Were Gone'
6. (6) Professor Green ft. Ed Drewett: 'I Need You Tonight'
7. (5) Scouting For Girls: 'This Ain't A Love Song'
8. (8) Timbaland ft. Justin Timberlake: 'Carry Out'
9. (7) Kelis: 'Acapella'
10. (12) Taio Cruz ft. Ke$ha: 'Dirty Picture'

"Jump" for reactions and this week's new releases