Beverley Knight and Gabriella Cilmi

I’ve always wondered why Beverley Knight has never become a true superstar…and I’ve come up with nothing. The Wolverhampton-born soul diva has a voice that could knock down a wall from one hundred yards away has the pipes, the stage presence and the song writing talent to have become the UK’s version of Beyonce or Whitney, yet she’s never quite done it. Of course, Knight has countless Brit Award nominations and MOBO Award wins but where are her string of number one singles that should have come after killer albums The B-Funk and Prodigal Sista in the late 1990s? I have no idea! Live, you’ll have caught her at festivals and solo gigs up and down the country, in session on various radio stations and on TV with Jools and it’d be a hard heart that would tire of Knight belting out ‘Shoulda Woulda Coulda’ like it’s a lost soul classic and the independent woman spirit of ‘Made It Back’, a song that shows Knight wouldn’t give up her dream without a fight. You’re as likely these days to catch Beverley treading the boards in roles seemingly made for her in musicals The Bodyguard and Memphis. Wherever you find her, you’ll be blown away by that timeless voice.

In an unsettling way, it’s fitting that the root of Gabriella Cilmi’s unmistakeable voice comes from a back problem known as excessive lordosis. The 22 year old Australian sings with such a tangible, unrestrained presence that it’s almost like the act itself physically hurts, and if that was the case then her pain would undeniably be this packed St Pancras Old Church’s gain. Hunched over until nearly bent double she captivates us completely with songs from her new record The Sting, an album inspired by breaking up with her label, management and boyfriend at the same time. Her intense performance sees her fall to her knees during the hypnotic I Am Just A Girl and gripping her mic stand for dear life during a rollicking strut through Symmetry. If there is an issue it’s that this deeply passionate performance feels a little misplaced when applied to previous singles like Sweet About Me and On A Mission, which are great pop songs in their own right but feel slightly flimsy when lined up against songs from The Sting, where the painfully heavy times that inspired it deserve a performance of a matching heaviness. It’s nit-pick though, for sure, Cilmi and her backing band are on fine form here, and if sets and songs as powerful as these become the norm then we should expect to see a lot more of this rare talent in the near future.