Given that her own debut album, Love And Compromise, only saw release early in September, the popularity of this young R’n’B star has risen so quickly that this short run of dates around the UK was completely sold-out by the time they rolled round in November. What this meant was that, if you were lucky enough to get a ticket for one of these dates, you were one of the lucky ones witnessing a singer who will surely be one of the names to make an impact on the British r’n’b scene in 2020.
Striding out to a heavily decorated stage and to a crowd illuminated by a sea of mobile phones, Mahalia bounds around the stage with a huge grin on her face dressed a knee length jacket and black bodysuit. Opening up with Hide Out from the album, the predominantly young female crowd danced and sang along with her. “I’ve been told that I do talk a lot so, if I go on, just tell me to shut up!” jokes the singer during her first interaction with the crowd. A huge cheer goes up as Mahalia reveals her love of Leeds comes from spending a lot of time while another cheer goes up from both the singer and the crowd as she announces her brother is somewhere in this packed room.
Swaying about the stage, the singer seems to have a boundless level of energy which she maintains throughout a set pulled together from her hit album. Mesmerizing the room with tracks like “Good Company”, “Simmer” and “Sober”, Mahalia put on the kind of star performance that fully explains the sold-out shows which are surely going to be a springboard to much bigger and better things over the next twelve months.
