He might not be everybody’s Flava, but noughties garage sensation and comeback kid Craig David showed he could Re-Rewind back to his heyday with a show-stopping performance in the city.
The multi-award winning star, who burst on to the R&B, hip-hop, garage and dance scene in 1999 with his debut album Born To Do It, was at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre last night on his first arena tour in 15 years.
The 35-year-old enjoyed steady success in the early to mid-2000s. But the Southampton-born singer never quite reached those early heights again, until last year.
Following My Intuition, his latest album, was David’s first to hit top spot in the UK charts since his first. But would the crowd be Walking Away from this gig wishing they could see him all 7 Days of the week?
Dressed head to toe in white, David serenaded the audience with Ain’t Giving Up On You before launching into classic hits What’s Your Flava and Fill Me In, drawing huge roars from old and young. It was evident his popularity now spans a couple of generations as mums, dads and teens enjoyed the raucous atmosphere.
More bangers followed, including Walking Away and Actions Speak Louder Than Words before his biggest smash, 7 Days, drew the loudest cheers of the night.
After wowing the crowd with some of his top hits, David demonstrated his DJing prowess for the second half of the show, putting on one of his famed TS5 sets.
Sampling artists from Dr Dre, Skepta and Stormzy to TLC and Eve, David had the crowd bouncing throughout.
This performance serves as a telling reminder of just what he has achieved. To date, David has racked up 20 UK top 40 singles and sales of more than 14million records worldwide.
So many highlights in a show that went at a million miles an hour and was over in the blink of an eye. Time flies when you’re having fun.
The diva-esque big money notes at the end of songs may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but with a voice of his quality, anyone would want to show off what they can do. David belted out every tune as if it was his final curtain call and was determined to leave nothing on stage and leave the audience desperate for more.
David didn’t miss a beat all night and proved once again he’s the real deal. Hopefully he’ll be around for a long time to come.