It’s a wet Sunday night in the Second City, but the inclement weather has done nothing to dampen the spirits of a packed-out Academy 2; an audience keen to experience a Eurovision-flavoured evening in the presence of two artists who have loomed large in Euroland (is that a thing?) in recent times.
Montaigne takes to the stage first and is visibly surprised / impressed by the already very full room, immediately expressing this with an unprintable comment about audiences in their native Australia being, shall we say, less keen to experience the delights of support artists. It’s immediately apparent that Montaigne possesses an incredible, swooping voice, sitting somewhere between Kate Bush and Lola Young, and keeps the crowd in the metaphorical palm of their hand for her 30-minute set.
They have an interesting claim to fame in being the only artist to represent their nation in Eurovision without setting foot in the host country due to nervousness on the organisers’ part about travelling from Australia to Rotterdam in those dark old Covid days of 2021, (Montaigne was originally slated to appear in the cancelled 2020 show too, so was doubly unlucky). Both Eurovision songs have an airing tonight, though (‘Don’t Break Me’ and ‘Technicolour’) and are received rapturously by an audience that then joins in a roof-raising mass singalong to 2016 single ‘Because I Love You’, a track which would easily sound at home in the upper reaches of the charts in 2025. Montaigne is an engaging, likeably hyperactive presence and really does have an incredible voice.
Tonight, Daði Freyr, like his support act, appears solo without his large band, presumably due, at least partly, to the expense of overseas artists (he is from Iceland) touring the UK in these, ahem, post you-know-what times. However, also like his support act, Freyr is an absolute master of keeping his audience engaged. His set up of two synth-box-type things (to use a technical term!) and some seriously brilliant visuals on the surrounding screens, including ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’-style Daði Freyr backing vocal choirs and other highly inventive scenarios to make up for the lack of live backing.
It’s clear that Freyr doesn’t take himself too seriously, both with his copious between-song talking to the audience and those graphics – as a plethora of Daði-headed planets appear for ‘Why?’. He picks up a bass guitar for another song, and will play a tiny keyboard too; there’s certainly a lot of variation for a one-man show. There’s an unexpected cover of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ and Montaigne appears back on-stage to provide vocals for ‘make me feel so…’, a song originally released under the name of Montaigne featuring Daði Freyr.
An aeroplane-style announcement welcomes Freyr onto the stage, heralding a flight to ‘Planet Daði’. “Thank you for choosing to travel with Daði Freyr Airlines”, says his disembodied voice as he is seen walking out onto the stage and begins with 2020 single and clear crowd favourite ‘Where We Wanna Be’, employing some killer dance moves with his 6’10” frame. Freyr is a multi-instrumentalist and picks up a guitar for second song ‘I Don’t Wanna Talk’, but not before he has claimed that some of the buttons on the previously mentioned synth-boxes are there for show only! And just like magic, those screens strike up with a whole band of Daði Freyrs, one playing each instrument, (think a 2025 version of the video to ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ or to give a slightly more recent example, ‘Hey Ya!’).
Freyr was in the same boat as Montaigne with regard to the cancelled 2020 Eurovision, but his eventual 2021 entry ’10 Years’ gets a huge reaction, as does the would-be 2020 entry ‘Think About Things’ a few songs later as it closes the main set; but before another unexpected cover, this time a synthpop take on the Bon Jovi poodle-rock standard ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’! A fitting encore of ‘Thank You’ leads to a final, heartwarming cover of none other than Atomic Kitten’s ‘Whole Again’ – that one perhaps not so unexpected as Freyr released it as a single couple of years ago. An hour and a half has gone by in a flash – it’s some testament to both artists that they have created such a life-affirming evening with each playing solo. The smile count is high as the crowd file out back into the dark and damp real World.
Photos: Brandon Page
