Little Simz's Second Night at Manchester Victoria Warehouse

There are a handful of artists and musicians that come to the top of my head whose stage presence alone can transfix an audience, however, Simbi better known as Little Simz’s performance on Monday night her second consecutive headline show at Manchester Victoria Warehouse was spellbinding.

we watched from the vantage point of the balcony as a sea of people came out in the cold to the Warehouse for Simz. It was dark and then there was light on the stage as three pastor silhouette figures rose from the backdrop from a projector as Simz stepped on stage with a bright and simple “hello”.

The 29-year-old North Londoner was magnetic in her artful performance. Opening with ‘Silhouettes’ to thunderous applause before following it up with ‘No Mercy’.

“Manchester you're amazing”, she calls out. Before announcing that she’s going to play some tracks taken from her Mercury Prize-winning 2021 album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.

She styled slickly into ‘Two Worlds Apart’ before exploding into ‘I Love You I Hate You’ with a directness without pause. Addressing the crowd, Simz says “Manchester I need you to realise that you are witnessing greatness and I say that with confidence, not arrogance.”

Returning to No, Thank You she passionately raps ‘Heart’s On Fire’ against an angry red backdrop with flames erupting as the crowd watch in silence enthralled.

She then revisits the GREY Area days to the joy of the crowd before taking it one step further and emcees to fan favourite ‘Venom’ with bravado and energy as the crowd jumps.

The Londoner swaggers on the swag performing ‘Gorilla’ before Two guitarists join Simz on stage to cue the start of ‘Introvert’, immediately jumping into the energetic ‘Point and Kill’ afterwards.

Nearing the end of the show Simz's performs the Self-loving ‘Energy’ with an electronic futurist vibe, before moving along to having a sing-along with ‘Selfish’.

You get chills listening to the sampled soul vocals of the female vocals and Cleo Sol throughout the show, you can hear it on ‘X’ and other tracks, and towards the end it summarises the feeling of peace and healing during the show.

You witness Simz’s vulnerability throughout, which in turn makes you transparent as well. On ‘Angel’ Simz raps acappella before the drums and instrumental kicks in providing a rawness.

The visibleness is explored more on the frankly honest ‘Broken’ as opens up about the hardships she’s faced over the past few years, and the importance she found in giving voice to her troubles, as the piano plays the melody.

It really was a night, that made you feel closer to Simz and taken away by her undeniable talent. She signs off on the empowering ‘Women’