On Tuesday evening, Kendrick Lamar made a surprise appearance at Alicia Keys’ “Set the World on Fire” show in LA at The Staples Center. Lamar joined Keys for “Poetic Justice” and “Swimming Pools (Drank).”
Blackberry presented Keys’ concert, which began with the woman of night popping out on stage wearing a black long sleeved top with front mesh insert, black slacks, and a black fedora looking like a true rock star. Grammy winner Miguel did not disappoint as her opening act. The intro to the night was her popular hit, “Empire State of Mind”. Although Jay-Z wasn’t in the house, this smash got the crowd riled up to enjoy her show.
This was followed by “Karma”, “You Don’t Know My Name”,”Tears Always Win”,”Listen To Your Heart”, and “Like You’ll Never See Me Again”. Next up was “A Woman’s Worth” and this introduced the James Bond theme. Dancers dressed like the spy in black suits and white shirts carrying flashlights doing synchronized choreography with the lights flashing into the audience. This led into her next tune, “Diary” and her cover of the ballad “Let Me Love You Down” back to finishing “Diary”.
Next up on the set list was “Un-Thinkable (I’m Ready), “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart”, “101”, and her smash, “Fallin'” This is one of the songs the singer is best known for and of course this got the crowd cheering. Alicia has a soothing sound and can belt a ballad like no other. She changed things up by covering Janet Jackson’s “Anytime, Anywhere” to lead into surprise guest performance by Kendrick Lamar. The American hip-hop recording artist performed two songs to a pleasantly surprised crowd before exiting the stage allowing Alicia to continue her show with her cover of Bob Marley’s “Murder She Wrote”. Next up was “When It’s All Over”, “Limitedless”, and “Fire We Make” . She dedicated her next song, “Unbreakable” to a girl close to her heart who was recently diagnosed with an illness, but never gave up on her fight an is now healthy again. This led into “Not Even A King” and “If I Ain’t Got You”.
She introduced “No One” by asking the audience to help her celebrate life and love by holding up their cell phones in the air to create an illusion of a star-filled sky. A single drum set was brought out on center stage where the artist took to the instrument to perform “New Day”. She got back on her baby grand piano to continue her set with “Brand New Me”. Dancers approached the stage in street clothes with the projectors displaying the streets and sights of New York in which she began singing an encore of “Empire State of Mind”. She switched up the lyrics a couple times from “New York” to “LA” to accommodate the Staples Center crowd. She switched into her only wardrobe change of the night, a grape sparkly form fitting gown with low back that showed off the singer’s sexy back. This is the moment we we are waiting for. She performed her current popular single “Girl On Fire” to a cheering crowd and finale to a well performed show in Downtown LA’s most popular concert hall.
–Sanaz Sarshad
Below are the rest of Alicia’s tour dates:
