BRITS Week has long been a mainstay of the early year music events, signalling a lead up to the BRITS themselves and facilitating growing musicians to play intimate shows whilst raising money for the charity Warchild, a benevolent NPO that stands up for the rights of children displaced by war. This 2022 round has already highlighted Anne-Marie in the Lafayette and is soon to showcase Fontaines D.C. in Tufnell Park’s The Dome and Damon Albarn later this month in the revered Troxy. Tonight we are blessed with Joy Crookes in the Omeara; a breakout star of 2021, her rise has been meteoric and well-deserved. 

Crookes is supported by the comedic neo-soul provocateur Chrissi, who chats and remarks over her R&B driven love stories. She is beaming on the stage, with an aura of natural belonging surrounding her performance. She serves as the perfect appetiser, stirring the crowd up and coercing them into the palm of her hand with her sultry, slow beats. As we prepare ourselves for Crookes, a representative from Warchild recites a harrowing story of her mother’s displacement during the Ugandan civil war, inviting us to close our eyes and attempt to relive the horrifying experience with her. It serves as a humbling interim to an otherwise buoyant evening, bringing home the reason we're gathered in the Omeara on this February night.

The talk of the town, Joy Crookes’ remarkable debut Skin came to surface late last year presenting a modern and youthful take on gentrification, racism, dating and everything in between. Crookes’ allegory of early-20s life resonated with a frustrated, disenfranchised audience, and the candid delivery of her pared-down soul anthems acted simply as the cherry on top. Her inevitable rise has seen her smothered with praise, drawing comparisons to a young Amy Winehouse, and acting as the leading lady of London’s burgeoning neo-soul movement.

Tonight, Crookes commands the audience like the moon does the waves. Her relaxed stage presence conveys her ease in the swing number ‘Poison’ but channels the raw hurt in her voice during the anthemic ‘Power’. Her voice soars when required and otherwise leaves her band to fill in the spaces with their smooth, rippling R&B swing. When she offers shoutouts to both FIFA in ‘Feet Don’t Fail Me Now’ and the humble Stockwell in ‘19th Floor’, it has a joyous grounding impact on the audience, filled with the knowledge that Crookes is, and has always been, one of us. Conflating this with a Kendrick Lamar cover and her willingness to encourage a singalong from the crowd, it is clear Crookes is married to her music, and finds delight in her ability to perform it.

It is no question that Crookes is a prodigy. Infusing her adventurous stories of growing up in South London with the vivacity and exuberance of an NY soul club, it wouldn’t be heresay to predict her headlining the Brixton Academy in the very near future, spearheading an entourage of the newest names in British soul.