“I’m here all week!”
has every right to be in ebullient form. Her mood is like a firework, exploding into the night air – a South London girl, she’s just launched five completely sold out nights at the O2 Academy Brixton, and her fans absolutely adore her.
But let’s rewind a few minutes. On the way here, CLASH makes its way past countless fans warming outside the venue, a seemingly never-ending parade of women who clearly have a strong – – connection with Skye. Just two projects deep – ‘SE9’ parts one and two – her emotion-focussed soul-pop has gone viral multiple times over, and there’s an inter-generational appeal at work. For every gaggle of blondes swapping BuzzBalls in the queue there’s a batch of mother-daughters, each seeing a fragment of their own lives in Skye.
The performance is, it has to be said, exceptional. By now a well-oiled machine, Skye Newman is able to retain her impish – ever so slightly chaotic – sense of humour while scaling upwards. She’s a pristine pop star with the towering vocals to match, and she’s clearly in her element.
‘FU & UF’ and ‘Lonely Girl’ are the perfect way to open this, two fan-obsessed anthems. The screams resonate around the venue, before ‘Crawling’ takes the tempo down a little.
Backed by an all-female band – each of whom get a shout out – Skye’s vision is based around empowerment. Clad in high heels racing from stage-left to stage-right, she’s a pop star who is both explicitly feminine while refusing to be filtered through the male lens.
It helps that her voice is absolutely breath-taking. ‘Hairdresser’ is joyous, while ‘Vicious Cycle’ and ‘Man Of The House’ resonate with subversive energy.
Playing virtually every song she has – except the viral ‘cup song’, which is only utilised on very special occasions – Skye pulls out a surprise for fans, covering 90s mega-banger ‘Dreams’ with its original author, the one and only Gabrielle. It’s a fun moment, a colossal karaoke challenge for the feverish crowd, but there’s also an emotive aspect – it’s dedicated to Skye’s late aunt, who played such a formative role in her life.
Closing with ‘Survival’ and ‘My Addiction’, there’s a quick stage reset before Skye emerges – shoe-less – to tackle some of her core songs. ‘Woman I Am’ could scale a skyscraper, while moving closer ‘Family Matters’ remains one of her most personal, autobiographical moments.
As a performance, it’s almost flawless – little more than a year ago CLASH caught Skye at KOKO, and the manner in which she’s accelerated is truly breathtaking. Five Brixtons? Not a problem for this South London girl. Her next challenge could well be arenas.
