Guardian UK Review D'Banj's UK Concert

D'banj took the stage by storm in London on 27th
August. Here's a review of the concert courtesy of
the Guardian, UK.
Check it out
"As he's the figurehead of Nigerian Afrobeats, it
feels appropriate that D'Banj's debut UK headline
show takes place on the final day of the Notting Hill
carnival. Alongside the usual dancehall and soca, a
good proportion of the anthems that fuelled this
year's sound systems and floats are the hits that
have propelled the rise of Afrobeats in the UK:
Atumpan's The Thing, Ice Prince's Oleku and, of
course, D'Banj's own Oliver Twist, a song of such
popular reach that it even made it on to
EastEnders.
Keeping that carnival spirit going is D'Banj's MO
tonight, as is that of a significant proportion of the
audience, who have hotfooted it down the road
from the carnival. As an entertainer, D'Banj treads
the line between suave and rambunctious with
ease: his dapper yellow-lapelled blazer is swiftly
shed as he starts to rival his own dancers in snake-
hipped, low-grinding ability, and the gold chain
follows as he plunges off stage for a spot of crowd-
surfing. By the show's climax, D'Banj is half-naked
and essaying moves that seem to refer mostly to
the title of his forthcoming album, Mr Endowed.
After a late entrance compounded by technical
difficulties leaves the crowd slightly restless,
D'Banj may feel putting that level of work in is
necessary – but it transpires that the music does
the trick just as well. "This is not a fluke," he
announces midway through the show, perhaps
mindful that not everyone present is aware of his
seven-year career before Oliver Twist. Tonight,
though, his older material goes down almost as
well, from the call-and-response of Why Me to the
lovelorn Scapegoat, and D'Banj bridges the gap
between his more lilting, organic songs and his
recent tougher, trancier dance-floor anthems with
ease. His between-song patter has a tendency to
ramble, but the show's culmination in Oliver Twist
is stellar proof that an international hit can be
engineered with ease if based around a resonant,
inarguable statement such as"I like Beyoncé"."
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