Suuuup!!
I spent the later part of the weekend in the big LDN!
Aside from attending A day of workshop sessions at the Roundhouse for the BBC,
I was also booked to headline the ‘I Love Live’ Event in Camden!


REVIEW by Sian Anderson
ILUVLIVE
Yesterday saw another ILUVLIVE show in our venue Proud Camden, which might I add was looking very suave with flashy lighting! This wasn’t any ordinary ILUVLIVE show though; the winners of the BBC Performing Arts Fund were up in the building to wow us with their talents. One of the winners of the £10 000 BBC grant Illum Sphere spun us some exclusive tunes on the decks to begin the event and get the crowd warmed up. Another winner of the Urban Music Talent Scheme DJ NSway the took over for the rest of the night mixing and spinning like a true pro whilst getting our heads bobbing during the intervals.
Our usual host Ras Kwame was replaced by the resident ILUVLIVE DJ Twin B, who stepped up on the stage to introduce us to the evening, crack some (really bad) Ghanian football jokes and dance… call him a man of many talents, thankfully though, he didn’t sing. With the audience and the live band more than warmed up it was time for last weeks open mic winner Greg Dwight to step on stage. With a soul-like amazing voice he performed ‘Holding On’ and then went on to perform a more up–tempo tune ‘Find What I’m Looking For’, he had a great stage appearance and the crowd really warmed to him.

Next up was The Spectre, another open mic winner who ‘rapped’ the audience up… literally. He was a good performer, not your typical rapper, but very well received by the ILUVLIVE crowd and the band worked amazing wonders with his tunes. Gotta love the band!
Singing her lil lungs out next was Ianna Love, (yes that is her real name), she had a nice melody, stylist attire, pinkish lipstick, the whole shebang! She performed a tune written and produced by Crimson and had a little dance along, the crowd liked her, she was evidently nervous at the beginning but became visibly more confident for this song. Finally she performed a cover of Music Soul Childs ‘Merry Go Round’, which went down well with the audience as she left the stage on a high!
In true rapping style Bundi hit the stage next, He performed ‘Girl’ and then grabbed the audience in to get involved with his second and third song. I must say he thought he was better than I thought he was but the confidence was appreciated and the crowd interacted with him when he attempted to get them involved… the girls seemed to love it, dancing along and he got a whooping round of applause at the end of his performance.
Then came the interval, the usual bar, toilet and cigarette breaks, think mingling, chatting and having a little dance. Host Twin B comes back on stage with more jokes and charm and puts the band on the spot asking them to freestyle Garage, R n B, Hip Hop, and Funky House beats on the spot, they reacted perfectly for all genres, I loved it, Twin loved it, the crowd loved it, it was all very lovely.
Next up was another BBC winner Jai Amore. After walking around and talking to the crowd it was clear to see that singer Jai Amore was who’d pulled in a large majority of this weeks crowd. He performed his first tune with no backing singers, no band just his sweet sweet melody, adding some comical touches to his lyrics and really acting out his song. The crowd were stunned, I was in love, I wanted to put him in my pocket and take him home with me, it was a beautiful performance, the band joined him then as he performed ‘She Wanna Fly”, which was up-beat and racy, he danced and swaggered it up and had the whole place loving him. He then sang to us, his website url. (Www.jaiamoreworld.co.uk) and then performed his last tune “Bachelors Girl’ before literally dancing off of the stage to a standing ovation.

Now I thought on sight, that the next artist, BBC winner KOF was an emcee, but you know what they say ‘never judge a book by it’s cover. Now he is an emcee but he’s also a singer, a very charming singer at that. He sang his first tune without missing a note, the melody was lovely, he was confident and shone on the stage. Next he performed a rap tune, where his flow was mastered, he successfully switched up his flow about 100 times during the track from fast to very fast to slow then back to fast again, it was troublesome trying to keep up with him but amazingly talented nevertheless.

All in all the last two acts were my favourite, the 60 second open mic began with Kelly Lee and Jessie (both singers) winning a place at the opening of next weeks ILUVLIVE show. Next week we’ll see singer Obenwa Obah and Lowkey (also winners of the BBC Performing Arts Fund) hit the stage, make sure you’re there cause it’s going to be a show no to be missed!
For more information on the BBC Performing Arts Fund which was designed to specifically support the urban genre in the form of emcee’s, DJ’s, rappers, beat boxers, producers, promoters, label bosses agents, journalists, managers and writers visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/performingartsfund/urban/winners09a.shtml
Peace out!… Sian x