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Alicia Keys blazed a trail with a world-class performance worthy of a goddess on the first night of her UK tour in Liverpool.
A giant white canvas dominated the stage before bursting into colour, filled with projections of the Brooklyn Bridge with purple, pink and piercing blue lights swirling across the audience to announce the arrival of the Girl On Fire.
Alicia appeared on a raised stage donning a dark fedora encrusted with sparkling diamantes and surrounded by four male backing dancers.
Striding centre stage Alicia exuded grace and elegance with an old money New York look, which fits perfectly with The Great Gatsby style currently riding high in the fashion stakes.
Her contemporary dance troupe wore black, contrasting with her white Yamaha grand piano and leather stool.
Alicia opened proceedings with one of her fierce breakup songs Karma, which put the gathered throng of mostly female fans at Liverpool Arena, in the mood.
The Manhattan-born piano prodigy showed her prowess on the black and ivory keys, warming the crowd into sing along mode with her classic You Don’t Know My Name.
A special treat was a mash-up of the James Bond theme with Woman’s Worth, featuring an energetic routine from her male dancers in secret agent style suits.
Falling won one of the biggest cheers and sing a long moment of the night, but she still had many hidden gems in her tuxedo pants pocket.
Following with Unbreakable, boasting a feel good Soulful breakdown, Alicia tried to get audience to clap along and get into a stone righteous groove.
But only a third of the audience appeared to take up her direction as the rest seemed stunned that this Goddess had broken the fourth wall to interact with them via plain speech for the first time.
The 14 time Grammy winner is too cool and detached for mass audience participation, the like of which Beyonce excels at – the type of accessible artist who every girl wishes was her best friend.
Alicia maintains an air of mystery with her audience, which she works hard at and is no doubt a huge part of her success, so she falters at moments of interaction with the crowd – they are already won over by the dazzling beauty and performance of her songs.
The whole show was a shining example of professionalism throughout. Clearly Alicia and her team had put a lot of thought and preparation into every aspect of the show and it didn’t sell itself short on any front.
The backing dancers costumes reinforced the touches of class, with not an inch of flesh on show at any point and her backing band and singers, who kept the show tighter than one of her famous braids, deserve a special mention.
Alicia ended the main set with another anthem No-one, before being called out for an amazing encore, which rounded the show off in inimitable style.
For her latest fan favourite Girl on Fire, she again lead from the front of stage, taking charge with a marching beat on timpani drums.
A personification of elegance, Alicia re-emerged for Empire State of Mind following a quick change of costume (the only one of the evening), while Jay Z’s rap was projected onto the stage.
Alicia strode across the stage in a slinky purple number with glitz and whipped her audience into an emotional crescendo, as she made her exit, leaving everybody wanting more.
Pictures courtesy of Mercury Press & Media Ltd / Tim Edwards & Ian Fairbrother