Just think about this for one second. In 2010 in her Dutch homeland, Caro Emerald set a new all-time chart record, with her debut album Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor spending its 30th week at number one on the country’s albums chart, beating the previous record set by Michael Jackson’s Thriller by one week. If you think about how many amazing albums have been released since Thriller in 1982 and how good Thriller actually is, Emerald breaking that record is a colossal achievement. You may say “yeah but that’s only in The Netherlands”, but she is not solely loved by her own nation.
In the UK, Emerald has also enjoyed a host of success with her debut album hitting the top 5 and her 2013 follow up album The Shocking Miss Emerald reaching the top spot. Having postponed her live shows last year in order to have a baby, fans finally got the chance to witness the chart topper in action and London’s O2 Arena, which hosted the evening was the perfect setting.
Dressed in an elegant and classy red dress and hat combo, although she did proceed to make two costume changes during the show, Emerald was joined on stage by a slick band which, whilst including the usual big band/jazz instrumentation, also included the massively skilled guitarist Wieger Hoogendorp whose dance moves lit up the stage alongside Miss Emerald.
Opening her set with would-be Bond theme ‘I Belong To You’, a track taken from her second album, Emerald set the sumptuous, glamorous tone for the evening right from the offset and although she clearly has bucketloads of talent and a note perfect voice, she remains humbled by the adoration of her fans, commenting numerous times throughout the evening that “this is the biggest hall I’ve ever played!”.
Performing a mixture of tracks from across both her releases, Emerald ensured that the crowd were up on their feet for the majority of the show, with tracks such as ‘Dr. Wanna Do’, ‘Pack Up The Louie’ ‘Wanna Love That Man’ and ‘One Day’ causing the O2 staff to go into panic mode as couples danced in the aisles and turned the arena, which was set out to be completely seated, into a jazz club dancefloor!
However, the set list wasn’t entirely filled with dance tracks and an acoustic version of ‘Paris’ allowed Emerald to showcase her honest and heartfelt vocals and offered the audience to take a breath, having burned off a number of calories from their exuberant dancing. Whilst the slower, more chilled tracks highlighted Emerald’s vocal talent, her voice was on point from start to finish, never missing a note during the entirety of the show, which made it obvious as to why she is so loved in her native Netherlands and is enjoying so much success around the rest of the world.
With an encore that saw Emerald turn conductor and coerce the crowd into singing along with the first track she ever released, ‘Back It Up’, as well as a final chance for the crowd to put their dancing shoes to good use with Emeralds most successful track to date, the aptly named ‘A Night like This’, the evening was brought to a conclusion, but not before the audience had been informed of a story from her childhood in which Emerald sang in her school production. The song she sang that day was ‘Dream A Little Dream’ and she closed the show with a mesmerising version of the classic track, with the audience captivated as a wave of smartphone lights engulfed the entire arena creating a truly magical ambiance.
Having listened to and appreciated Emerald’s music previously to this show, but not considering myself as a massive ‘Caro Emerald Fan’, I was more than glad that I decided to head down to the O2 and see what all the fuss was about. As I’ve said, Caro Emerald’s vocals were perfect and in this day and age, it is a rare thing to discover someone with the ability to perform an entire 2 hour show and not miss a note. With a new favourite song in the dainty ‘Riviera Life’, I can now officially say I am a Caro Emerald fan and I am looking forward to find out what’s next to come from this rising superstar.
Matt Tarr
@MattTarrJourno
Matt Tarr
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