Stunningly beautiful british pop star Leona Lewis took to Singapore to perform a five song set during an interval at the Clash Of The Continents 2012 in the Singapore Indoor Stadium. This was Leona’s first time in Singapore, and judging by the reaction she received from the crowd she was welcomed with open arms. Leona looked absolutely stunning, in a magenta dress showing just a little bit of skin. When moving around the stage the dress glowed under the warm lights, it really complimented her and accentuated her refined yet slightly sexy style.
Her stage was small and intimate, reflecting the idea of a small cafe gig. With just a piano, a guitar, and two backup singers it was interesting to see that not every performer needs all of the elaborate gimmicks to entertain a crowd. A massive part of the appeal of Leona Lewis is her raw talent. Her voice is so astonishingly beautiful and seemingly effortless that it leaves us mere mortals to wonder how someone could be blessed with such immense vocal talent.
After walking around backstage for quite sometime, we finally saw Leona emerging from her dressing room strutting toward the stage. We called out and said hello to her, but unfortunately we weren’t properly acknowledged by her or her team. We did get a nod and a “Hello! Enjoy the show.” But that was about it. We watched Leona stand around with her band (and ignore the media) until we decided to take advantage of our media passes and try to get a fantastic view of the show. Eventually an usher escorted us onto the tennis court, where we sat right in front of Leona and watched her extremely brief show. The crowd was quite small, with the upper balconies completely empty while the lower tiers were adorned sporadically with people. This worked to the advantage of the crowd, who could move freely to basically any section that had vacant seats.
Initially there were some lighting and sound problems. There were moments when the lighting was way too dark, and Leona was barely visible. If this was bad for us and we were essentially right in front of her, one can only imagine what those in the lower tiers could see through the darkness. The sound started off okay, but during her second or third song it cut out for a good fifteen seconds. The atmosphere in the Indoor Stadium was not fantastic, with the crowd being so small and spread out it was hard for Leona to make a connection with audience members when they were so far away from her. Most of the crowd seemed to be there for the tennis, which definitely put a damper on the vibe during the concert.
Despite the sound problems, Leona really did sound fantastic. It’s very clear as to how she so effortlessly won a vocal competition as she really has an incredible voice. She floated around the stage breathlessly with every note ringing crystal clear throughout the stadium. She dazzled the crowd especially on her hit “Better In Time” which was paired with two back up singers and an acoustic guitar. Though Leona has a good stage presence and an excellent voice, her music really isn’t strong enough to enforce these two things that she’s got going for her. She needs to find her niche in the industry and stick with it, it seems as if she hasn’t really found her footing yet in her musical style.
All in all the event was pretty good. Leona sounded fantastic and looked gorgeous as usual, but her set was extremely short and not nearly long enough to satisfy the fans that were in attendance. The disappointment was evident throughout the stadium when she walked off stage after her final song “Bleeding Love”.
Leona has got a lot of things working for her; she’s beautiful, incredibly talented, and has a decent stage presence. What she lacks is a sufficient musical repertoire to function as a backbone for her performances. The first two numbers off of her second effort “Glassheart” were honestly forgettable. We’d love to see you again Leona, but with some better music and a better environment. We’d have to say that this event (although it had it’s moments) was more of a miss than a hit. If you’d like to see more photos from the event, visit our facebook page and check out the album.
Thanks a lot to Natalia for taking some of the photographs used in this post!
