Craig David, Anne-Marie & WSTRN Kill It At Our Brand New For 2016 Showcase
Something special happened last night (26th January). Let us fill you in...
It's a damp evening in Camden Town and a crowd is stretching a far as the eye can see from the doors of the Electric Ballroom, all eager to get in to the first of two MTV Brand New For 2016 showcases where tonight, Anne-Marie, WSTRN and garage legend Craig David will all perform.
And what a night it was! First up Anne-Marie, who's grandad even came to see her in the packed-out audience, sounded soulful and sassy as she performed tracks including'Stole' and 'Gemini' from herfirst EP to the latest 'Boy' and current single 'Do It Right'.
Giggling away between songs, the Essex girl looked right at home on stage, no doubt helped from her extensivetouring with her Rudimental pals.
Next to take the stage were West London RnB outfitWSTRN who took the vibes to another level with their sexy anthem 'Got Love' and had the crowd chanting along to their Top 5 smash 'In2'.
As the trio left the stage though, anticipation was high for the audience to witness Craig David's TS5...
Speaking before the gig Anne-Marie said of sharing the stage with the 'Fill Me In' legend,"Craig David was absolutely massive in Essex so he's a big one for me to see. I'm really happy that he's coming back on the scene 'cause his music is very similar to what's been bubbling up at the moment so good for him, I'm excited!"
WSTRN's Akelle added: "We're so excited to see the whole show tonight and especially Craig David. He's a legend to us and we've grown up on Craig's music and we've seen what he's done coming from the UK and he's a friend of ours!"
Legend doesn't describe it. We've never seen a reaction quite like it at a Brand New gig. As soon as Craig took to the decks, the monster 'Rewind' sent the crowd into a frenzy.
Then BAMstraight into 'Fill Me In'! How can this get any better? Please welcome to the stage Big Narstie for a live performance of their latest single 'When The Bassline Drops'!
"Garage 2016 is going off, bruv," Craig beamed as he continued to drop classic old skooltunes from TLC's'No Scrubs'to Ne-Yo's 'So Sick' to newer faves likeJustin Bieber's 'Sorry' and Chris Brown's 'Loyal'. There was even a genius live mash up of 'Walking Away' with Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg's 'The Next Episode'.
To top the night off we were treated to a 'Fill Me In' reprise over 'Where Are U Now' before an "emotional" Craig gave us what we wanted...that infamous Live Lounge cover of Bieber's 'Love Yourself'.
QUA-LI-TY.Garage is well and truly back.
Massive thanks go to Emporio Armani Diamonds, to all the performers, theElectric Ballroom for having us, Club MTV's R3WIRE for sendingus mental in between sets and the crowd for being up for it from the get go and being generally lovely people even though the queue was massive.
Tonight we're doing it all over again with Bloc Party, RAT BOY and Nimmo!
There's still time to vote for you MTV Brand New For 2016 winner. To vote, check out our nominees and tweet #MTVBrandNew followed by the name of your chosen artist. Alternatively comment the same on this Facebook post or upload an Instagram pic with it in the comment.
'Brand New For 2016 is presented by Emporio Armani Diamonds.'
By Michael Pell