For those who want a summery festival experience without the expense, frenzy, and general slog of Glastonbury, Kew the Music makes for a damn good night. This Saturday evening in the lush Kew Gardens – picnic blankets and hummus containers galore – brought together three female artists across the spectrum of soul music, the headline slot held by Britain’s own Beverley Knight.
First up was theatre star Marisha Wallace, who still delivers showtune ‘And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going’ with the same vigour and abandon she did when playing Effie White in the West End production of Dreamgirls. Knight’s second support act was Paris-born Nigerian artist Aá¹£a. Though not a conventional belter in the vein of Wallace and Knight, Aá¹£a sports her own brand of soul music – blended with folk, pop-rock, and Afrobeat. She eased her way through semi-acoustic, reggae-tinged tracks like ‘Jailer’ and ‘Fire on the Mountain’, lilted beautifully on new single ‘ODO’, and, ever so coolly, rocked out with her band.
By the time Beverley Knight took the stage, just before 9pm, the rosé had been flowing freely. A frisson of nostalgic excitement rippled through the audience as Knight, clad in a figure-hugging red number, launched into fan-favourites like ‘Greatest Day’ and ‘Keep this Fire Burning’, as well as newer material like the brilliant nu-disco ‘Systematic Overload’. Hitting the appropriately sauced audience with three back-to-back ballads midway through the set risked losing their attention, but, of course, Knight’s vocals have their own gravitational pull. Her piano-driven take on Whitney Houston’s ‘I Have Nothing’ underscored why she was scouted to lead The Bodyguard musical back in 2013. Knight brought Wallace out for the finale performances of Chaka Khan’s ‘I’m Every Woman’ and house-gospel tune ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Alright’; their voices in tandem was the stuff of gay fantasy.
