It’s a new era for Self Esteem.
The Prioritise Pleasure chapter closed 2 years ago, just a stones throw from where we are tonight, Don Valley’s celebrated grass bowl.
Tonight, we are indoors at the Utilita Arena, Sheffield, for the last night of the UK tour, a huge hometown show to round out an acclaimed tour.
If you’ve seen a Self Esteem show before, you’ll know that it’s never just a concert. It’s a statement, a carefully constructed concept, choreographed and produced to tell the story. A Complicated Woman, the third Self Esteem record, was released to huge acclaim in April this year. 6 months hasn’t dulled its impact and it fuels the anticipation in the cavernous arena, packed out tonight with loyal fans.
Album collaborators Moonchild Sanelly and Nadine Shah opened up this evening, joining Rebecca Lucy Taylor for this final show.
In the run up to Taylor’s entrance, the arena sounds like a 1980s school disco. Madonna, Whitney, Cher. Strong, powerful women who defined their eras – a theme that will carry through the night
The lights drop, almost catching us out, and conversations are cut short as one by one, singers appear upstage, clad in black but for the white, Handmaid’s Tale style headdress. As they assemble in the half light, the arena crowd erupts as South Yorkshire’s superstar takes her place centre stage and, if anything, looks slightly bashful and overwhelmed at the response.
Moving into the spoken word opening to I Do And I Don’t Care, the performance begins, moving through the precisely choreographed Mother and Lies. The latter sees Nadine Shah return to the stage to reprise the role she played on the album.
We enjoy the unique talent that Taylor possesses to wrap serious political statements in some tongue in cheek humour. It’s hard to see which other artist is going to successfully rank sex positions in a comment about sexual inequality, over a house beat, but if it was going to be anyone, I guess it was going to be Self Esteem. She acknowledges the shock value though, apologising to her parents and Auntie Sue as the song draws to a close.
We’re treated to some of the big hitting tracks from the Prioritise Pleasure record, before heading back into some stand out moments from the latest album. The Curse an exploration of the dichotomy of alcohol consumption as both comfort and trap. Moonchild Sanelly returns for In Plain Sight, before Taylor and her octet of singers gather around a metal pyre and and in almost complete darkness, deliver What Now. It’s a sumptuous, gospel-flecked 9 part harmony and draws us together, in communion, an intimate moment that’s a low-lit highlight.
“Let’s have a dance” Taylor implores, as we move into Cheers to Me. If we’ve been mulling over the heavy themes of the previous act, our palates are cleansed by the fizz of confetti cannons and waving inflatable tube figures.
As we approach the end of the main set, Taylor takes a couple of opportunities to express her gratitude to her hometown crowd. “Thank you Sheffield” she says, clearly touched by the magnitude of playing her biggest show just a short Supertram journey from the iconic Meadowhall dome, which adorned her iconic Glastonbury outfit.
When she re-emerges, wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “Sheffield Has Self Esteem”, she sits and thanks fans and family alike. Then, guard down, she says: “The ice is under there. It’s under there!!”, recalling her childhood wonder at the fact there’s a rink under the solid floor of the venue. It’s a poignant moment where we see an artist that took a little while to reach the heights, but having done so, is determined to remember where she’s from and what it took to get here.
The best has been saved until last. I Do This All The Time, the breakout single with its defiantly iconic lines echoing around the arena is followed by the affecting Focus Is Power. It’s a magnificent close to what’s been a beautiful piece of theatre. Life-affirming, meaningful, but with moments of bathos that stop it being too earnest, the crowd leave, utterly fulfilled and ready to take on the world.
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