During his set, Obongjayar asked the audience to reflect on their beauty and what they brought to a room when they entered. Walking on stage at Gorilla Manchester on November 24th, Obongjayar brought authenticity, laughter, love, and joy into the room. 

Kicking off the night was Sam Akpro, bringing energy and nuance to the stage - a perfect performance to introduce Obongjayar. Akpro beautifully transitioned between the heavier and more airy songs, showcasing real versatility. By the end of the set, the audience was already hooked on Akpro and warmed up for the whirlwind of Obongjayar.

The audience was in the palm of Obongjayar’s hand from the moment he bounded onto the stage until he left, exhausted, with a keffiyeh in hand. Obongjayar began the set by getting the audience to chant back lyrics to ‘It’s Time’ before any other instrument was played. Instantly, a tone was set: this was not a concert you could simply sit back and watch. This was a concert you were going to be a part of.

At the end of ‘It’s time’, Obongjayar again pulled back to the a capella repetition between him and the audience. However, this didn’t last long before he brought the whole band back in for them to crash out on stage and for everyone in the audience to be swept up in the surprise and join in on the fun. As a performer, Obongjayar is free. It is evident that each concert is different, from the way he conducts his band with discrete hand signals to singing a track someone shouted from the audience on a whim, with no music to accompany. The audience was as much a part of the concert as Obongjayar himself, and it is down to his charisma and energy that this boundary-breaking happened.

His relationship with the audience was strengthened by the way he talked candidly and off the cuff between songs. There were a few times in the set where laughter, not a guitar, was the loudest thing in the room. Taking a jab at himself and how much he was chatting, he joked that he could just “Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk”. The concert was made all the more entertaining in these moments and worked to break down barriers and welcome the audience into a space where they could simply have a bit of fun.

For Obongjayar, music is a craft and one that he has clearly perfected. From his sustained high notes to increasingly fast yet clear whistling on ‘Prayer’, Obongjayar has as much control over his voice as he does his band. It is clear that what he does is thought out and practised, but this doesn’t mean he shies away from experimentation; quite the opposite. It is evident his mastery has come from not being afraid to experiment and just try something for the sheer enjoyment of it.

Obongjayar rounded off the night with ‘Jellyfish’, a song he dedicated to the Palestinian people, leading the crowd in chants of “Free Palestine” before the guitar broke through. In this last song, everything that had made the concert so memorable until then was present in abundance in this final moment: jumping into the crowd, being gifted a keffiyeh, wearing it on stage, running around and showing his humanity. 

Obongjayar took the stage and made it his own. His presence was undeniable, both through the energy he brought to the stage and his in-the-moment connection with the audience. Obongjayar should be proud of the music he delivered and the person that he was in that room.

Ella Wilson-Coates

Images: @gabbo_film 

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