Darey showed industry at Love Like A Movie 3

Much hyped, much attended, and now gone, Darey’s third concert in his ‘Love Like A Movie’ series turned up some interesting highlights, but they were mixed with downers.

The show had Ciara being its promotional face, with everything hype being channeled through her face, and her presence. This was justified from a promoter’s point. You don’t get to spend so much on a Grammy-winning act, without getting all of the potential promotional value, besides actually showing up on stage.

Scheduled to start by 7pm on paper, the infamous African time reared its ugly head, and the show was kicked off at 8:35pm.

Everything about the show was steeped in a theme that combined intergalactic elements with futuristic aspirations. The stage had a background screen that was set mostly at stars, and choreographers with light sabers were the norm. For the movie theme, a narrator was thrown in to mark time, while an extra stage positioned right at the centre of the ‘extra-special’ guests stood tall.

Performances on the night, were to assume a seamless flow, with the end of one performance rolling into the start of another.

A good point in all of these was to mix every performance with a side attraction. Some had choreographers, ballet dancers, others had rope dancers, and the high point, a pole dancer was employed for her skill and flexibility.

There’s happiness to be seen from his choice of repetitive names. Gifted singers were chosen over big names, with Sammy of X3M music, Tolu, and Ruby Gyang given more vocal duties. These acts covered over 10 songs between them, including Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking out loud’, Sam Smith’s ‘Stay with me’, and Michael Jackson’s emotional ‘Heal the world’.

Certain performances were the height of it. Comedian Kenny Blaqq gave a unique performance, blending music and comedy into one of the best acts to hit the stage.

Another highlight of the night was the performance of Vector and Sammy, as the two musicians did a cover of Wiz Khalifa's award-winning hit song 'See you again'. Only this time, it was used to pay tribute to the memories of late Nigerian entertainers including Sam Loco, Art Alade, Amaka Igwe, J.T Tom West, Justice Esiri, Junior and Pretty, Fatai Rolling Dollar, Dagrin, Goldie, Orlando Owoh, Fela Kuti, Kefee, Sunny Okosun, Zara Gretti, Pete Eneh, and many others.

Michael Jackson came back alive, with a performance from popular dance group, D.N.M.T. At some point they scaled it to two Michael Jacksons.

Performers who failed to pull their weight include Yemi Alade, who was lackluster as she belted off ‘Kissing’. Sound Sultan came off as labored, and Adekunle Gold stuck to his script. Olamide gave the impression of a man who forgot his lyrics on stage.

Old classics were on for the night. Blacky, Weird MC, Styl Plus (or what’s left of them), and Jazzman Olofin came through.

Ciara, the co-headlining act of the night was in her element. She hit the stage with two dancers, all clad in white crop top and distress jeans. Together they performed her hit songs including ‘I bet’, Like a boy’, 'Dance like we're making love' and ‘Body party’. She also got the crowd extra thrilled when called on Kaffy to teach her some Nigerian dances. She proceeded to dance Shoki, Etighi, and bobo.

The main attraction was music, and Darey supplied that immensely as he performed songs off his 2015 album “Naked”. His performances, like all others was steeped in art and backed by dancing as he performed notable singles ‘Inside of You’, ‘Asiko Laiye’, Delilah (Taxi  Driver), ‘You’re beautiful, and many others. He also covered John Legend’s ‘All of you’, and Bob Marley’s classics ‘One love’, and ‘Is this love’. He threw in the grand piano for ‘Lie to you’, and wrapped up in spectacular fashion, with a crown adorning his head, a gold cape, and a scepter while performing ‘Champion’.

LLAM 3 as a concert promised so much, and gave a lot. The work thrown in was evident, with glitter, glamour and spectacle all in sync. Individual errors aside, and with more work thrown in by individual performers, we would have had a classic show.