For pop-R&B leaning millennials, the pairing of Ne-Yo and Akon on this co-headlining tour certainly has a heavy dose of nostalgia, which kicks in almost immediately with the smoke that billows around Ne-Yo’s black fedora and Michael Jackson-inspired moves. But there’s an undeniable magic beyond that, as the two artists pull from careers that produced eight UK No 1 singles and 410 weeks in the Top 40 between them in the mid-00s to early 10s.
Over the course of just under three hours, the duo take turns in the spotlight, the mood seesawing in line with each of them. Beginning with a snippet of Jackson’s The Way You Make Me Feel before segueing into his 2008 hit Miss Independent, Ne-Yo is smooth and suave in his vocals and dextrous choreography, an effective contrast to Akon’s all-out charisma and party-starter energy which arrives with classics like Smack That – the first time, of many, that the crowd fully loses it.
