Samia Live at O2 Forum Kentish Town - 05/09/2023

 Samia stuns at O2 Forum Kentish Town as she ends her very short stint in the UK. After playing the End Of The Road festival and Electric Picnic in Ireland, Samia performed her only headline show in Europe. Touring her sophomore album ‘Honey’, she performed a mix of songs from ‘Honey’ and her debut ‘The Baby’.

Starting with ‘Pool’, Samia instantly creates an eerie atmosphere that captures the attention of the audience. It is extremely intimate and allows the band to make a powerful entrance, especially the drummer who shines with his entry as it takes the audience by surprise and instantly changes the tempo of the first song to a louder and faster performance. This change in tempo allows for the swift transition into ‘Fit N Full’, a beloved song perfect for dancing and raising energy. Soon after, the band is properly introduced by Samia.

It is clear that her return to London was highly anticipated. Multiple times during the show she appeared overwhelmed with emotion as the crowd cheered and clapped, showering her with praise. Most notably after ‘Triptych’, a vocally stunning and emotionally rich song, the crowd cheered for around three minutes.

Accompanying Samia’s performance was illustrator Chris Riddell who drew visual representations during each song. This was a fantastic choice from Samia as it was not only beautiful to watch a talented artist draw but it was also interesting to watch the song being played live be visually represented in real-time and allowed for another dimension of thinking and emotion to each of the songs.

Rounding out the show, Samia sang a cover of ‘Born On A Train’ by The Magnetic Fields and ended with ‘Honey’. Encouraging the crowd to sing along with her, the show closed to what sounded like every member of the crowd singing along and causing the words to echo around the venue.

Though her stay in the UK was short, it was still spectacular. Each song was played perfectly and there was a great balance of slow and more emotionally intimate songs as well as songs that were more fit for dancing and singing along with. It was truly a wonderful performance that would convince even the most stubborn to check out the rest of her discography after the show.