Emeli Sande's songs are straight from the heart as she sings with conviction and hope about topics including world peace and political issues. Her gig at Glasgow's Old Fruitmarket was a lot of fun and she owned the stage from the outset. She kicked off with the ballad 'Daddy' and followed with a series of dramatic and thoughtful numbers: Tiger, Suitcase and This Is Where I Sleep.

Sande was full of energy and press photographers found it difficult keeping up with her as she moved continuously across the stage. She broght the mood down when she sat at the piano and played the moving song Clown. This was followed by Breaking The Law, which was acoustically performed with backing guitar giving her the chance to show off her voice to some advantage.  Sande also sang the song Mountains, written for her parents, and then changing the pace again she sang her surging new single My Kind of Love. A new song Wonder, with its singable chorus and shades of Coldplay, went down well and is surely another hit. for Emeli. She had the lively crowd enthralled as they joined in numbers such as Heaven and Next To Me.

It's good to see this talented performer enjoying such success and hear her sing songs from her Platinum Album, Our Version of Events, which was released in February 2012. She has had two number-one UK charts singles Read All About It and Next To Me and her debut single Heaven reached No 2 in the UK Singles Chart in 2011. It was also a worldwide hit. Sande has also been writing songs for other singers and she has performed as a guest singer on other artist’s albums. She recently won the 'Brits Critics' Choice Award 2012".

For me the strongest parts of the concert were Read all About It, My Kind of Love and her new song, Wonder.  She has a band of excellent musicians with her and possibly they could be given greater opportunity to add to the music, however, I enjoyed her powerhouse voice and all the emotion she puts into her singing. All in all it was a heartfelt, warm and feel good gig. As Emeli says:  'This is my time to show you who I am.'

It was good to meet her very proud parents. I have previously met Sande and found her to be charming. Her smile is sincere and she speaks with great earnestness about her music and her influences. Previously a medical student, she misses her days spent in the library and it couldn't have been an easy decision forsaking a career path in medicine to pursue her music.

Plans for the future include supporting Coldplay on tour again; her next single My Kind of Love will have a tear jerker video and her album is due for release in America in June, where I suspect it will be equally well received.

Set List -  Daddy/ Tiger/ Suitcase/ This Is Where I Sleep/ Clown(piano)/ Breaking The Law/ Mountains/ My Kind of love/ Read all About It (Professor Green)/ Maybe/ River(piano)/ Hope/ Wonder/ Heaven/ Next To Me.  

Review by Pauline Keightley - www.musicfootnotes.com/