There a few things in life I enjoy more than discovering new music and thats why Spotify's discover weekly is where I like to find artists or songs that I've never heard of but end up loving.
MNEK was one of those people, his song " Every Little Word" popped up one week in April of this year and I was hooked instantly. I told anyone and everyone I knew about him wanting desperately for someone else to like him as much as I did so we could share this gem. Luckily my best friend has very similar music tastes and was as obsessed with him as I was right from the get go; I would see on Spotify her listening to him as often as I was.
When MNEK announced a one off show at Heaven in London we knew not going was not an option. It was a gig I had a countdown for and we would excitedly message each other with comments such as "10 more days!!" or "3 more days until I'm blown away by his voice". Neither of us had been to Heaven either which was going to be an adventure in itself and although a perhaps unconventional layout I loved the intimate feel of the place (we later learned it was an LGBT+ club so even better!).
After grabbing a drink, we took our place in the crowd which was about four people from the front of the stage and was happy to see most of the people were our age or older which made a change from the usual gigs we went to.
The first opener was a guy by the name of Leo Kaylan and despite never hearing of him before I left as a huge fan. His sound was something familiar yet new and after he left the stage I downloaded his songs onto my phone for the journey home. It was a nice moment to see MNEK at the side of the stage watching his friends with as much enjoyment as we all were.
Then it was onto Zara Larsson who we did know because of her song with MNEK and she was everything I thought she would be as a performer and then some. They both were the perfect fit to warm the crowd up and it seemed like everyone enjoyed them as much as the main event.
MNEK was even better than I imagined. His vocal ability blew me away and most importantly, he put on a show not a gig. He was dancing, riffing for his life and seemed to be having the best time of his life as he ended his set drenched in sweat. It was a high bar for every gig I go to now let me tell you. Even during the slower songs the room was captivated and not chatting amongst themselves or sneaking off to the bar for another drink. At this point MNEK only has about 15ish songs to his name but that didn't make a difference to the gig at all, I barely noticed that it was shorter than most because he brought out his friends to live it up on stage with him. I can't write about the evening without mentioning his back up singers on stage who were beyond incredible; they added so much to the night and were so so talented.
As we walked back towards the tube station when it was all over, we talked excitedly about him doing a proper tour or seeing him again soon and fingers crossed that happens because after that night I need another party with MNEK.
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