Jalen Ngonda plays his biggest sold-out London headline to date
The American transported the entire room back in time.
Photo: Rosie Cohe
With a dramatically draped curtain and, as the person next to me called it, a “big fat” band, Jalen Ngonda commandeered the stage like it was his own. Confidently walking out on the stage, backed by a string quartet, percussionist, drummer, back-up singers and a saxophonist, it’s clear that this comes naturally to Jalen.
Born in the US but now a London resident himself after studying music in Liverpool, the musician slotted right into place — front and centre — with a spotlight shining an orange-tinged light upon him. If I weren’t wearing a jumper that I had bought just last week, I might’ve been fooled I’d stepped back in time.
After the roaring success of his debut Motown-inspired album Come Around and Love Me, Jalen has shared several follow-up singles that continue the eloquent, vintage sound his debut paved the way for, including Illusions, Here To Stay, Anyone In Love, Just As Long As We’re Together and the recently released All About Me.
The night kicked off with the unreleased Doctrine of Love, and, later on in the night, Jalen performed more unreleased tracks, including Train Conductor, to which he announced, “You’ll be the first to hear this new track tonight,” before adding, “You… and the four cities I’ve performed this to before you.”
When you leave your most popular track to the end, as most people often do, and choose to include three songs no one in the audience knows, you’ve got a big task on your hands and, somehow, Jalen managed to get everyone up on their feet and dancing, as if the beat alone was all that was needed.
There’s something about Jalen’s music that can’t quite be pinpointed, and perhaps I shouldn’t try. When introducing Anyone In Love, he asked the audience to raise their hand if they “think they’re in love with someone”, and then proceeded to sing lines that’ll put anyone off falling in love: “One of these days you’ll learn / Anyone in love / Those walks in the park / Will soon lose its spark”. As much as his music evokes emotions bubbling under the surface, Jalen consistently proved tonight that, if the music doesn’t work out, at least stand-up comedy is waiting for him.
He’s anything if not balanced; professing his love on memorable tracks Just As Long As We’re Together and album title track Come Around and Love Me, and bearing his vulnerable side on heartbreak-heavy tracks I Need You (arguably one of his best, and only the third track he ever released) and Give Me Another Day, to which all were welcomed with rapturous applause.
Of course, even if it wasn’t his most popular track — the track that he will forever be known for and defined by — then it would still be the only one that makes sense to finish on. If You Don’t Want My Love was welcomed, naturally, with cheers, and somehow better with a full band in tow, despite already being one of the greatest songs of the 21st Century.
Despite attending alone, it never quite felt like it; when the lights went down and Jalen’s figure was lit up — playing his electric guitar like he was born to do it — it didn’t feel as if he was playing to a sold-out Eventim Apollo, but rather something more intimate and homely.
With hope that a second album is on the way, Jalen’s soulful sound is begging to be heard in vaster venues and played loud, everywhere.
