You have to feel for Kehlani. Last night was supposed to be a victory lap for 2024’s Crash; a moody, prowling genre grab-bag of an album which drew from trap, heavy metal, and country. Their headline show at The O2 represented a huge personal milestone, and the biggest gig of their entire career. Instead, the Oakland singer-songwriter could barely speak for most of the day after being struck down by a particularly potent strain of flu, caught earlier on tour in Amsterdam, but back again with vengeance.
Just a couple of hours before showtime, they resorted to a steroid shot in a last bid to avoid cancelling. Nobody would’ve blamed them for reluctantly throwing in the towel – Kehlani’s speaking voice was strained and incredibly croaky in the Instagram stories they posted earlier on – but they were clearly determined to press on anyway.
“Welcome to the biggest show of my career,” they quipped, after a Crash-heavy first song run of Next2U, Groove Theory, and What I Want. “We were two minutes away from cancelling because I was on my death bed. So I wanna say, you have a really big responsibility tonight.”
As you might well expect, it was not Kehlani’s finest vocal performance. Understandably, they occasionally held back from fully letting loose, but did well at playing these limitations in their favour. Involving the crowd heavily during the acoustic guitar-led Honey, and connecting with particularly vocal audience-members on the barrier, they fostered a genuine intimacy that often can be tricky to harness in a huge arena like The O2. Considering the challenging circumstances, they did an impressive job of rallying.
Another surprising highlight came in the shape of Kehlani’s live band, who brought a distorted, rock-tinged edge to proceedings and toughened up the smooth, slinking R&B of their back catalogue to suit the more experimental sound of Crash. Elsewhere, East London artist KWN – one of Kehlani’s support acts, and a collaborator on 2024’s mixtape While We Wait 2 – brought plenty of star power to a guest appearance for Clothes Off, and treated The O2 to an unreleased, Kehlani-featuring new remix of her single Worst Behaviour.
For penultimate song Nights Like This, the entire room dutifully held phone lights aloft, while Crash’ pulsing lead single After Hours – Kehlani’s dancehall sampling, 2024-dominating summer banger – made for a perfectly chosen closer.
“Y’all better get drunk for me,” they told fans who were headed off to the official afterparty. Rather than getting an early night, Kehlani planned on attending anyway, and hanging out “in the corner with a box of tissues.” Somebody get this trooper a Lemsip.
On tour; kehlani.com
