Live at the Marquee: I’m not ‘So Sick’ of singer Ne-Yo

WHEN I first heard that Ne-Yo was coming to Cork, I excitedly added some of his most well-known songs to my Spotify playlist.

This resulted in me singing ‘So Sick’ — ‘I’m so sick of love songs, so sad and slow’ — on repeat.

So, when my friends and I rocked up to the Marquee, we couldn’t wait for what we thought was going to be a show full of nostalgic sing-along hits from the American R&B star.

However, we got a bit more than we bargained for.

Upon first arriving, we were surprised to see that the crowd had a very low average age, despite most of Ne-Yo’s songs being released in the mid-2000s. That was before most of them were even born.

This did mean that there was never really a queue at the bar, though, which is always a plus.

The crowd was warmed up by a man who ran through searching for three adult female audience members to join Ne-Yo on stage.

Ne-Yo’s arrival was well received as he opened with the popular song ‘Come Closer’.

He navigated through the hits and some of his newer music with surprisingly impressive vocals and my friends and I happily bopped along until mid-show, when the mood shifted.

I could sense the discomfort of some of the crowd as the show turned more provocative than it needed to be, completely changing into something I can only describe as R-rated, especially when the female audience members were invited up on stage to dance with the singer.

Then, once more, the mood of the show returned to the happy, upbeat chart toppers, with the artist reminding the crowd of some of the hits he has written for other artists, including Rihanna and Beyoncé, before finishing with the classic ‘Miss Independent’.

Ne-Yo was a great performer, his costume changes dazzled, and his vocals impressed, but we were left reeling over those very sexualised and uncomfortable 20 minutes.