Manchester Arena
Pop
Enrique Iglesias/Lemar Manchester Arena ?????
While Lemar's bland-to-amenable urban-pop-soul is met with polite applause, every time he mentions the headline act he is met with a sound like 15,000 screaming kettles. Eventually realising he can't get away with this all night, he tries to play Iglesias's game, promising to leave everybody "hot and moist"; more nice chap than lustful lothario, he sounds like someone watering an aspidistra.
With 55m record sales and one decade-long relationship (with tennis pin-up Anna Kournikova), Enrique Iglesias is way behind his father Julio's 300m units and boasted bedding of 3,000 women. But he's trying.
"I know you want me," are the first words the absurdly handsome Spaniard sings to an undoubtedly hot and moist female audience, setting the scene for two hours of crotch-thrusting, glad-handing, kissing, replaced-hormone eruptions and, occasionally, songs reminiscent of Euro nightspots. When he swaps the "loving" in Tonight (I'm Loving You) for a F-word, he rolls back years of female liberation.
In fact, while this should be a ribald hoot, there's a disturbing undercurrent. At one point, the 32-year old hauls elderly audience members on stage, seemingly purely to humiliate them. A grey-haired schoolteacher who insists he doesn't drink is plied with rum, while an equally embarrassed lady is told: "Think of me when you're having sex tonight." When Iglesias discovers she's out without her husband, he suggests to the schoolteacher: "Fuck her."
He's more caring towards a trembling 14-year old girl (apart from an uncomfortable pause as she reveals her age), but seems to almost drop her off the stage. Hero and Do You Know? are almost drowned out by screaming, but it's a cynical show at the expense of people who've paid to see it.
Dave Simpson
At Capital FM Arena, Nottingham on 8 June. Box office: 0844 412 4624.
Charisma Carpenter Hilarie Burton Kelly Carlson Sara Foster Natassia Malthe
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