By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Thursday 22 February, tour runs until 26 July 2024

SETLIST: Venus; I Would Like; Escape; Look What You’ve Done; Girls Like; Words; Never Forget You; Ruin My Life; The Healing; Symphony; Wow; None Of These Guys; Ammunition; You Love Who You Love; Ain’t My Fault; End Of Time; On My Love; Lush Life; Can’t Tame Her

We haven’t seen Larsson live since 2017 but we’re immediately struck by how strong her live vocals are even when she’s negotiating her staging’s stairways or sashaying with her 4 dancers.

• Read on for reasons including how this is a crowdpleasing set showcasing Larsson’s many hits

She’s at an interesting point in her career with 4th album Venus released this month – February’s album of the month for us – yet the hits aren’t quite so big as they were back in the ’10s when she broke out of Sweden to enjoy worldwide success.

This 70-minute set is a reminder of how many featured artist credits she’s enjoyed for a start with her performance with Tinie Tempah on the urban Girls Like morphing into Alesso’s fine electro dance music hit Words early on in the set.

Here she’s playing with a live band and looking utterly at home wheeling out the hits alongside much of her new and extremely strong latest set which includes the David Guetta collaboration and current UK hit On Your Love.

We’ve seen Swedish singer/songwriter Larsson live at Heaven in 2015 and headlining at Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith in 2017 and last year single Can’t Tame Her was a song of the month for us.

We haven’t heard the MNEK co-penned Never Forget You in a while and it’s a reminder to us of what we think she does best – it’s a really catchy, Rihanna-ish, upbeat and credible song rounded off by an impressive swooping and soaring vocal. And, especially in the gap between Rihanna albums, there’s room for Larsson to continue having hits.

But now may be a point in a career when Larsson might feel that she wants to experiment and co-write material that’s perhaps a little darker and away from the dancefloor.

The track most like that on the new album is our favourite, The Healing, but it’s not 1 Larsson has a co-writing credit for.

This is the 2nd of 2 nights at Camden Roundhouse and the venue appears almost full with a predominantly young female and male gay audience which is greeting the performance rapturously.

It closes with album opener Can’t Tame Her which is onpoint with the route Larsson is taking currently to very much give her audience what it wants.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Zara Larsson
• Have you seen a Zara Larsson show before and are what did you think of this 1? Tickets
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