Review: Jessie J at O2 Academy Newcastle 

Bouncing back from cancelling a show just 24 hours earlier, the pop powerhouse delighted her Tyneside faithful with the likes of Price Tag & Bang Bang

There was an air of expectation in the air at Newcastle’s O2 Academy on Thursday night as after cancelling a show in Glasgow 24 hours earlier Jessie J returned to the stage.

The Brit Award winner and multi-platinum singer is known for her huge voice and highly enviable vocal range but with a throat infection the catalyst for her Scottish no show would her usually powerful pipes be up to scratch?

Well any concerns shared by her capacity crowd were put to bed when the pop powerhouse exploded onto the stage to Ain’t Been Done, the opening track from new album Sweet Talker.

It’s a song that requires plenty of energy and as good as she is there’s no way a below par Jessie would have managed it.

So it was fortunate for her and her captive audience that she appeared on fine form and looked very much the part in a sheer black top with Newcastle emblazoned across the middle.

Holding nothing back, she then flung herself into Sexy Lady, with a nod to Blur’s Song 2, and then played one of her trump cards Domino with a winning result.

Jessie could have played it safe and eased herself back into her live shows but that’s not a tactic she’s known for and certainly not one she adopted for her Newcastle gig.

The first of the ballads arrived in the form of stand out album track Keep Us Together which was followed by an acoustic cover of Whitney Houston’s I Have Nothing.

As Simon Cowell keeps reminding X Factor hopefuls, you shouldn’t even attempt Whitney if you haven’t got the chops to pull it off, but even with a slightly raspier than usual voice, Jessie nailed it.

With some challenging notes to hit throughout her repertoire, Jessie needed to be at her best and while at times the cobwebs of her illness weren’t 100 per cent blown away, holding back slightly on Who You Are, she proved why she is the owner of one of the UK’s best voices.

Speaking of the title track of her debut, it was particularly special for Lydia, an unsuspecting fan sitting at home, when Jessie used her friend’s phone to ring her and sing it to her on speaker.

This was the first of two memorable fan moments, the other arriving when Jessie ad-libbed into the mic with 16 year old Kelly from Essex.

The three way of Sweet Talker, Burnin’ Up and Laserlight saw the ex-Voice judge brush off any lingering signs of vocal fatigue before a rocked up Do It Like A Dude left the crowd wanting more.

Sounding as fresh as it did when it topped the charts four years ago, Price Tag kicked off the encore, swiftly followed by new single Masterpiece.

One of the songs of 2014 was undoubtedly Bang Bang and Jessie’s fans will have seen her absolutely tear the stage up when doing it at the likes of the MTV VMAS and American Music Awards.

So the pressure was on for her to bring the curtain down in Newcastle, well with a bang, and from her now famous opening line she revelled in each lyric.

Jessie J is a pop star, rock star and diva all rolled into one.

If she needed a night off to get back to the top of her game it was very much to the benefit of her Tyneside devotees.

Sass, , swagger, star quality and stage presence- the four Ss that make Jessie J a fierce force to be reckoned with.

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Darren was appointed editor of the Chronicle in September 2011, following a six-year spell as editor of the Evening Gazette in Teesside.

He has held a number of senior roles on regional newspapers across England, Scotland and Wales over the last 15 years and is now editor-in-chief of Trinity Mirror North East.