Kelis took Manchester to bits last night. Took it to bits, put it back together again, and then took it to bits one more time before sending a sold-out crowd into the night to ring the sweat out of its clothes on the street.
When the Manhattan-born singer ram raided her way into the hipster R&B consciousness of the late 90s and early 2000s - when soul and R&B became very cool again in the wake of the perpetual bleeps of the rave era - she cemented herself as one of the most sought-after 'featured' singers in the world and a force to be reckoned with in her own right.
Caught Out There (notable by its screamed chorus of 'I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW') was accompanied by world class production from The Neptunes, at the time an emerging duo from Virginia Beach called Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams. It was a feminist call to arms, while follow-up Good Stuff was a straight up club banger.
Join our WhatsApp Top Stories and Breaking News group by clicking this link
She was not to be ignored, and quickly cemented herself as a enviable solo artist with the 1999 album Kaleidoscope, a stand-alone hit factory. Since her more aggro era, covered in paint and furious, she's calmed some. These days she lives in California wine country, on a farm hours from Los Angeles, where she grows vegetables, drives tractors, raises chickens and has rediscovered her early training as a chef.
Her Instagram is a genuine delight. She's a full-on renaissance woman, having dealt with a lot over the past decade. An awful lot. Too much, really, and not to be entered into here, because it's immaterial. None of our business.
On a swelteringly hot night on Peter Street, she commanded the stage of the brilliantly decrepit Albert Hall, surely one of the best - if not the best - live venues in the city, a warm-up (quite literally) for a stage-headlining set at Glastonbury this weekend.
If you're going, seek it out. You won't be missing anything better elsewhere. It was a set awash with hits - early doors bringing out Caught Out There, Millionaire (her collab with Outkast's Andre 3000), Good Stuff, Bossy and Got Your Money, her party classic with the late rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard of the Wu-Tang Clan.
Then when you thought maybe she'd peaked too soon, we were quickly reminded of the breadth of her work. Fire, with Sean Paul, Trick Me, Finest Dreams, her Human League-sampling collaboration with Richard X, and then Milkshake, probably the biggest of them all, which was mashed up with Wu-Tang's Gravel Pit. It's easy to forget how many hits she's plucked for herself or helped procure for others.
Other classics that blended into the mix - Crystal Waters' Gypsy Woman, Donna Summer's I Feel Love, Soul II Soul's Back To Life, and quintessential Hacienda anthem Where Love Lives by Alison Limerick are all referenced, along with Bounce, her pop smash with Calvin Harris which caused some ludicrously rowdy behaviour.
She remains as much a piece of work as she's ever been. But most of all, I hope seeing the entirety of the Albert Hall, singing the magnificent 2010 club anthem Acapella back to her brought her life, because it brought it to all of us, and for that, we are truly grateful.
