One of the world's top R&B singers, Grammy award-winning Chris Brown has landed in Manchester on his European Under The Influence tour for not one, but three dates in the city.
At one point reportedly banned from Britain for the assault of his then -girlfriend Rihanna, then facing multiple other assault allegations, the 33-year-old artist is no stranger to controversy. His latest tour is no exception, with reports of a phone-throwing incident involving a female audience member.
But with extra show dates added to an already big tour to meet demand, his reputation certainly doesn't seem to have harmed ticket sales.
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What it does do though, is invite a razor-sharp focus on his performance. Will his talent shine through tonight and make the audience simply unable to focus on anything else but his music?
Descending from the ceiling on a wire in a red jacket and black pants, he kicks off the night with the slinky Indigo to a chorus of deafening screams, followed by the poppy Beautiful People.
There's no build-up - we're in and he's off, not a second wasted.
"I gotta lotta f***ing songs!" he clarifies, launching into Yeah, Party, Ayo and other anthemic tracks.
Donning a black and red T-shirt with the slogan: 'Emotional Support Animal', he pulls off a series of Michael Jackson-esque dance moves that can't fail to make you smile.
Don't Judge Me is a rather apt inclusion with its lyric: "Take me as I am and not who I was."
And it looks like the crowd definitely are.
2005's Run It kicks off a retro whirl of tracks - we only get snippets but they're all good.
Next it's Take Me Down, or rather 'get me up' as one female audience member gets invited on stage for a lap dance from Mr Brown and actually manages to look pretty relaxed as one of the biggest artists in the R&B world gyrates in front of her. It's short enough to be fun rather than sleazy though.
The thirteen backing dancers are excellent, if a little gynaecological at times with their thong bodysuits and energetic leg lifts.
The stage goes up in flames - in a good way, as Heat heralds the start of the next section, featuring tracks mostly from his latest album, Breezy.
Warm Embrace sees the screen fills with naked nymphs sitting on clouds, while Brown changes into another black top and black jeans combo. He does don a white set of clothes later but it's actually refreshing how few outfit changes he has. Substance triumphs over style in this show.
Brown's material goes from poppy to soppy in a heartbeat but the sexy highlight of the night is the hot and heavy Under The Influence with a dancer simulating a kiss with the man himself.
The crowd chant the lyrics - they really do seem to know EVERY word to every song, no mean feat when we get nearly 50 of them, albeit only snippets of some.
Crucially though, he chooses the right songs to snip and the ones to sing fuller versions of and even gives the crowd a choice of tracks to pick from on a gameshow type board.
Yo, No Air and Forever are what the audience want so that's what they get.
Then it's Iffy, Loyal and all too soon, it's over, with Brown urging, rather unnecessarily: "Before we get outta here let's go f***ing crazy!" before launching into the eponymous song.
Whatever you think of Chris Brown’s personal life, he's undeniably a great showman. His vocals, dancing and backing dancers are flawless and the show is perfectly paced.
There's no posturing, no boring displays of ego or dull chat, and no messing about. It's just pure unadulterated fun and the crowd lap it up.
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