Before a certain televised music competition in 2008, Alexandra Burke was just another jobbing singer, performing in clubs at weekends to make ends meet. Then she entered The X Factor, beat boyband JLS to first place, and since then has had four number one singles, sold four million records in the UK alone and advertised antiperspirant.
All the hits from debut album Overcome were performed at the 22-year-old’s gig at the Colston Hall last night, as well as a cover of Closer by Ne-Yo and a Destiny’s Child medley which included girl power anthems Survivor, Bootylicious and Independent Women as well as Listen, a Beyonce solo number from the Dreamgirls movie soundtrack.
After two support acts, singer songwriter Carrie Mac, a poppier version of her fellow Scot KT Tunstall, and girl band Parade, like the Saturdays but with slicker dance routines and enough sparkle on their trousers, hot pants and tops to prompt a UK shortage of sequins, Burke opened with one of her most-well known songs, Broken Heels.
Joined on stage by a live band and four mostly shirtless backing dancers, Burke was an energetic performer, going through several changes of what was no more than a bikini as she mixed the dancehall groove of Dumb and the soulful ballad of The Silence with modern pop classics such as All Night Long and the set-closing Bad Boys.
For many of Burke’s detractors, her cover of the Leonard Cohen classic Hallelujah, which bagged her the Christmas number one spot in the year she won X Factor, was verging on sacrilege. But at the Colston Hall it was greeted with cheers from her fervent fans, many of who may not have ever heard the Cohen or Jeff Buckley versions.
Throughout this show, Burke seemed genuinely thrilled to be living her dream of being a pop star, something at which she is already particularly polished.
Imploring the sell-out crowd at the Colston Hall to get out of their seats and dance, Burke put on a consummate show. She may have been propelled to fame via the power of a televised singing contest, but the chances are that with a talent like hers she would have become a pop star on her own, broken heels and all.
