Twenty years ago, 16-year old Joss Stone released The Soul Sessions. Comprised primarily of 1960s/70s deep-cuts – with a White Stripes cover thrown in the mix – The Soul Sessions intrigued both critics and casual listeners with the mature, unexpectedly soulful vocals at its core. It was just the beginning for Stone, whose illustrious career includes 9 studio albums, collaborations with the likes of Common, Raphael Sadiq, and Lauryn Hill, and multiple awards. She’s also toured the world – which involved an unfortunate deportation from Iran – and masqueraded as a sausage for several weeks on ITV’s The Masked Singer. (Yes, seriously; she won the competition though!)

And twenty years later, Stone came full circle with an anniversary concert at the London Palladium on Tuesday night (08/03/22). She thanked her audience for sticking with her through the ‘shit lyrics, good lyrics’, ‘shit songs, good songs’, and the questionable pink hair phase. 

In the run-up to her concerts this year across Europe, Stone tweeted a link to an online form inviting respondents to select their favourite songs from each of her albums. The likely challenge of honouring fan-favourites across 9 albums in a 90-minute set meant audiences heard only snippets of ‘You Had Me’ and ‘Free Me’. But that didn’t matter when we were treated to full-length versions of  ‘Jet Lag’ (sung with gossamer tenderness) and the Lauryn Hill co-write ‘Music’. She honoured her late collaborator Burt Bacharach with a wispy ‘The Look of Love’ and Jeff Beck with a blistering ‘I Put a Spell on You’. The Dells’ ‘The Love We Had (Stays on My Mind)’ was a personal highlight, the delicacy of the verses giving way to the devastating choruses. Stone’s performance of ‘Right To Be Wrong’ – the opening track of 2004’s Mind Body & Soul, her first album of original material – was tempered with a retrospection and wisdom: 35 year-old Joss speaking to her 16 year-old self. 

With a storming band and trio of backing singers behind her, the evening effectively turned into a rock concert with floor-trembling, wall-of-sound arrangements. Yet, Stone’s voice – gritty, soulful, utterly marvellous – cut through it all.