Miguel at Forum, Kentish Town

Last week saw the welcoming of LA rising star Miguel to London’s HMV’s Forum, Kentish Town.
Although Miguel was signed to Jive Records in 2007, his debut album was only released in November 2010, only to be prompted by J Cole’s single All I Want is You.
A year later, he headlines his own gig, supported by the UK’s own CleoSol and Bluey Robinson.I’ve been a fan of CleoSol since her days of performing at iLuvLive, so now it’s great to see her really coming into her own. I really loved the way she saluted Jill Scott’s presence by opening her set to “The Way”, which really complimented her soulful jazz sound. Even though she soared through Free My Mind, it’s a shame her band out-noised her. She definitely increased her fan base that night, but it was apparent that

Bluey Robinson had a much stronger fan-base. Surprisingly, this is the first time I’ve managed to catch Bluey Robinson and I got a warm welcome as he open up with an acoustic version of Luther Vandross’ Never Too Much.

With just him and his guitar man, he also covered Craig David’s Fill Me In and Frank Ocean’s We All Try before performing his own track Show Girl. I love this dude; his sound reminded me of Justin Timberlake at his peak. Understandably, all the girls loved him.

The girls were on absolute heat at this concert as Miguel entered the stage in a grey fitted suit and approached his red-lit mic stand. His energy is very Monae-like! Although his dance moves are questionable (thank God, he’s stagnant in his videos), it is clear to see that he is inspired by Prince and made sure that it was evident in the musical arrangement of his band and his stage production. Although he puts on a great show, this may be the first time I’ve seen a show that does not give stage time to the band, or even have backing vocalists! I was disappointed by this as is this is usually the highlight of a show for me, but admittedly his energy and connection with the crowd pleased his audience – not forgetting his female fans, who were clearly aroused by his various display of “talents” that even Trey Songz would have been shocked at. But evidently, his biggest track Sure Thing is now big enough of a song to carry without having a great display of vocals.