At London’s O2 Arena on Friday night, beacon and trailblazer Little Simz reminded us why she’s the UK’s stargirl. Looking out across a crowd almost 20,000 people strong, Simz was a vision of resilience and talent, wearing her North London roots like a badge of honour. No matter how far she’s flown, she was deeply proud to be home.
For a long time, Simbi has shown us that her greatness cannot be confined. Her talent folds in on itself: she’s a cultural commentator and a creator of culture too; a lyricist and a poet, with music that can make you reflect, but equally, make you get up and dance without restraint. The different colours of her art were wholeheartedly presented in this concert.
Embracing her artistic agility, Simz took us on a journey through projects and soundscapes, inflected with rock, hip-hop, neo-soul, Afrobeats, jazz and dance. The live arrangements of the tracks was a feast for the ears, filling the arena with a concoction of sounds unique to none other than Simz herself.
The set began right where it should: at the birth of Little Simz’s artistic journey. Through grainy and nostalgic video footage filling the stage screens, we were shown a pre-teen Simbi rapping to an audience, spitting bars into a mic with ease, dancing and rhyming, and holding the crowd in the palm of her hand. This was the perfect foreshadowing of the career that lay ahead of her back then, and the night that would unfold in real-time.
Emma Corrin, actor and voice of the almighty, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert album, welcomed us to the show, just as she did for that Mercury Award-winning 2021 project which changed the trajectory of Little Simz’s career. When Simz herself arrived on the stage, met with a roaring audience of supporters, her energy was larger than life.
The set was both simple and powerful – a large, luminescent lotus flower served as the permanent backdrop to represent her current era and sixth official studio album, Lotus. Credit must go to her longtime creative director Jeremy Cole, who masterminded the concert visuals – technicolour hues and powerful imagery, spanning from London scenery to African tribal patterns, representing all facets of Little Simz as a person and an artist.
At times, things were stripped right back, like the powerful spotlit rendition of “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert”, or the heartfelt “Lonely” from Lotus, where Simz opened up about struggling to find her voice and navigating self-doubt whilst creating this recent album.
Juxtapose this with the most exhilarating segment of the show, a medley of tracks from EP Drop 7: Simz rose from beneath the stage behind a DJ decks to perform tracks infused with dance, baile funk, electronica and techno. She declared, “This is the part of the show where we just dance” – and we had no choice but to follow. A special mention for the electrifying performance of “SOS” which set the audience on fire.
Other stand-out moments included her unapologetic performance of “Venom”, a heartwarming rendition of “101 FM” where Simz came out to greet her fans, and roof-raising fan-favourites “Point and Kill” and “Lion”. Guest appearances from Wretch 32, Sampha, Cashh and Deela took the show to new heights.
All in all, the concert was sensational. As she performed one of her smoothest tracks “Two Worlds Apart”, Little Simz raised her voice for the lyrics, “London-born estate girl to international sensation”, and that’s just what we were witnessing. One of North London’s greatest exports came home and gave it her all – what a joy to see her soar.