REVIEW: Alessia Cara inspires little girls in Edmonton
Security sure had their hands full at the Alessia Cara concert in Edmonton on Wednesday night. What a tough crowd.
Once the 22-year-old star started high-fiving and clasping hands with all the girls in the front row of the Jubilee Auditorium, everyone wanted a piece of her. Moms carried up their little ones to get a touch of the singer’s hand during songs, prompting gaggles of teenage girls to run up to the front of the stage for more high-fives – which Alessia was more than happy to give – only to be shooed back to their seats by the yellow-shirts. The kids kept coming. Alessia kept glad-handing. The yellow-shirts kept stressing over being forced to enforce crowd control on small children. It was crazy!
Meanwhile, the words “I love you!” echoed through the hall at regular intervals.
“I love you, too!” Alessia would shout back almost every time.
“I love you MORE!” came one retort. There was laughter.
OK, so everyone knows this artist is huge with young women, but it was still an unexpectedly large and jubilant turn-out of little girls – and their parents. It was like Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. The payoff for all was a stripped-down love-and-empowerment festival from one of the brightest Canadian female stars since Alanis Morissette. Our teenage girls have a worthy new role model!
By now a veteran of showbiz tropes, Alessia Cara blows Alanis away in the vocal department. She has a gift from the Gods: Shades of the greats, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, yet a style all her own and strongly influenced by current trends. Like many great new artists, Cara’s music is difficult to classify. It’s got R&B, it’s got soul, neo-soul, it rocks, it’s folk, it’s hip hop, it’s pure pop confection, all at the same time. Also a surprising number of hits: Wild Things, Scars to Your Beautiful – a powerful song seen by some as a validation of the pain that results in self-harming behaviour. And the riveting Stay, which ended the show proper; along with Growing Pains, which opened it, and for which the tour is named.
Like many great singers, Alessia is a sucker for the slow songs. Out of Love – as in “when did you fall out of love with me?” – was particularly devastating.
Sadly, there was a major downside that likely went unnoticed by the younglings – all the goddamned tracking. There were even pre-recorded back-up vocals! God knows what else. There were tons of other sounds in the mix obviously not produced by humans.
To be fair, touring is expensive. Her three hired guns were pretty good, and at least there was an attempt to do the important parts live – but they didn’t sing a note. Would it kill her to hire a back-up singer or two? Canned back-up vocals are the cheesiest thing in the world. From an artist of this credibility – not to mention a reputation for being real, it was disappointing. Saving the night from pre-fab doom was a mini-set where Alessia sang three songs accompanying herself on guitar. The fans were rightly mesmerized.
Cara talked a lot between songs – explaining what inspired them, and that she talks about her songs so much because “they’re important to me.” At one point, she asked her fans if they’ve ever suffered from heartbreak. Many girls raised their hands, sadly. Heartbreak is not exclusive to adulthood.
The set design was interesting, theatrical, and added to the intimacy. It looked like a well-appointed loft apartment in New York City, where you could see the framing in the walls on which were projected various images. There was also an old-fashioned king-sized bed, couch and a comfy chair. The keyboard player appeared to be set up by the night-table, the drummer in the en suite, with tasteful lamps all around.
The atmosphere was honest, welcoming and – despite the canned back-up vocals – real. Cara even did a mindfulness exercise late in the show, not easy to do for more than 2,000 people: “Raise up your arms, let all of that negativity go!” she said. And we did.
She asked her fans, whom she knows well: “Are there any Disney fans?” Yes, there were! Cue How Far I’ll Go, from the Moana soundtrack, before which she announced, “To all the parents who were forced to be here because of this one song, this is your moment to shine!”
And they did.
