Last night MTV hosted a showcase of some of Britain’s freshest and finest upcoming artists at the London Forum. Little Nikki, a former third of girl group SoundGirl, and rising star Gabrielle Aplin supported headliner Conor Maynard.
Day two of the event, the finale if you will, had to close with a bang, and boy did it. Little Nikki was up first. To be honest I had trepidations about seeing her, but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised, In fact I thought her performance was brilliant. She just oozed swag. Her urban yet widely accessible music had the whole place on its feet, myself included actually. She entertained the audience with her debut solo single ‘Intro Intro’. Both her DJ and Hype Man had the crowd jumping around throughout her whole performance to songs like ‘D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F and ‘running’. She looked good and sounded even better, there was nothing little about her voice!
The hosts Bluey Robinson (son of Smokey) and Rebecca (lesser known, but no lesser talented) brought on the next act Gabrielle Aplin. She was the previous winner of the MTV Brand New unsigned act last year, and came back this year to show why she won. Her stunning voice, although in my opinion a little out of place among the crowd, was received well. I mean there are only so many love ballads a person can take before things start to get a little depressing. It felt like a bit of a wind down after Little Nikki’s energetic set, and while not my tastes I could at least appreciate the undisputable beauty her voice has.
When headliner Conor finally graced the stage he was greeted with the most amount of high pitched girly shrieking and screaming I have ever heard. Mostly coming from the man behind of me. The ladies (and some of the men) lapped up his set. The girls at the front completely lost it and hurled their bras at the poor boy; he was gentlemanly enough to overlook these moments of insanity, and continue to thrill the audience by performing ‘Vegas Girl’ and ‘Turn Around’. At one point about half way through he stopped to make the day of Charlotte who was celebrating her 16th birthday. Not forgetting the rest of us he continued the set, but slowed things down a little with soulful covers of Nikki Minaj’s ‘Starships’ and Swedish House Mafia’s ‘Don’t you worry child’.
His wonderfully smooth voice was amazing and I really loved the covers he did. For a minute I thought it was rather abruptly over, Conor had run off stage and the music finished. Alas fear not, Conor was only teasing us! After about 20 seconds of the audience cheering his name he came back on stage to finish the set with his debut ‘Can’t say no’.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening; the acts were amazing, the venue was lovely (if not a little cold) and an overall brilliant event to celebrate British talent.
Check out the Music-News.com recent interview with Conor Maynard prior to a show at the BT Tower.
