What a difference a year makes. This time last year, Leon Jackson was, in his own words, “just an ordinary lad who worked in a clothes shop, folding jeans and serving the public”, even as he dreamed of pursuing a singing career. On Friday evening, three months after being crowned the X Factor 2007 winner, Mr. Jackson headlined the final concert of the Live Tour at Wembley Arena and he was anything but ordinary. Mr. Jackson’s valedictory performance of the tour also marked his triumphant return to the venue where he was invited to duet with his idol, the Canadian crooner Michael Bublé, in December last year.
With his mellifluous voice, boyish good looks, engaging smile and charming persona, Mr. Jackson seems destined to become the next contemporary pop heartthrob. It may only have been less than a year since he turned up for the X Factor auditions in Glasgow, but Mr. Jackson has metamorphosed into a confident, stylish performer who has slipped into his best suit, straightened his tie, slapped on the aftershave and shined his shoes for his big date with pop stardom.
Mr. Jackson opened his set with a hip-swivelling, finger-snapping rendition of “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” that sent his female fans swooning with delight. Indeed, he seemed intent on capturing the hearts of the audience with this snazzy, uptempo number, only to break them later in the evening with a suite of love songs that demonstrated his ability to communicate a complex yet potent mixture of emotional honesty, vulnerability and tenderness.
Mr. Jackson’s delivery of the bittersweet road song “Home” was suffused with romantic yearning and showcased his mastery of supple, long-lined phrasing. Unlike the protagonist of the gentle, lilting ballad, who longs to be reunited with his soul mate, Mr. Jackson seems to have found some respite from his hectic touring schedule and his proclamation that “it will all be alright, I’m in Wembley tonight” was met with a roar of approval from the audience.
The concert’s outstanding number was Mr. Jackson’s beautifully unadorned version of “The Long and Winding Road”. In The Beatles’ melancholy paean to unattainable love, Mr. Jackson conjured up a poignant image of a young man in the throes of romantic turmoil as he implores the object of his affections to come clean, directly and painfully. Mr. Jackson sang it in an anguished baritone that throbbed with emotion, turning the last note of the song into a drawn-out cry of loneliness, and his eyes glistened with tears. It was the show’s most moving and vulnerable performance.
Mr. Jackson’s descent into despair continued with his heartbreaking rendition of “You Don’t Know Me”, the Ray Charles classic that is widely regarded by many of his fans as the ne plus ultra of his performances throughout the X Factor live shows. Perched on a stool with only Raquelle from “Hope” on the piano for company, his voice took on the viscosity of liquefied amber and he infused the lyrics with a personal, intimate point of view that conveyed a steady current of eroticism. A singer incapable of dishonesty, Mr. Jackson used the husky, persuasive edge in his voice to reveal a bruised romanticism that remained untarnished by bitterness or cynicism as he slowly built the torchy ballad from a gently nostalgic lament to a fiery cry of loss.
Mr. Jackson closed his program on an upbeat note with an inspiring rendition of “When You Believe”, his X Factor Winner’s Single that spent three weeks at the top of the UK pop charts. Borne aloft by a raised platform in the middle of the stage, Mr. Jackson sent his powerful vocals soaring high into the rafters with just a touch of gospel fervour. He crested the emotional peak of Stephen Schwartz’s impassioned anthem of unyielding faith by breaking into an achingly pure falsetto near the end of the song that brought the house down.
As Mr. Jackson clutched his right fist to his heart and blew kisses to the adoring crowd before making his exit, it was evident that The Leon King had not only come of age but also claimed his rightful place in the pantheon of X Factor winners. Long may he reign!
Friday, March 28, 2008
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