Tinie Tempah - Capital FM Arena

This time last year I saw Tinie Tempah performing at Loughborough students union to only a couple of hundred people, and now he has sold out Nottingham arena. In one year that is a massive difference so I went along to see what had changed in a year!

As I arrived the standing area was already filling up with hundreds of people. You could tell the crowd, many of which were sporting Tinie's iconic glasses, were ready for a good night. DJ Charlesy took to the stage first playing hit after hit to get the crowd dancing and ready for Labrinth and Tinie Tempah.

Labrinth ran onto the stage as the crowd screamed with excitement. He looked overjoyed to be playing to such a large audience. He began playing songs from his up coming album 'the gallery' which went down a storm with the crowd. Half way through he starts to play the key board and guitar showing off his talents which makes the crowd go even more crazy. The last two songs that he plays were what the crowd had been waiting for. His hit 'Let The Sun Shine' was a great sing along with everybody in the arena. Finally he ends with his latest hit 'Earthquake', which has everyone wondering if Tinie is going to make an early appearance on stage to perform his part in the song. The crowd are jumping up and down with Labrinth as it gets to Tinie Tempah's part, but then the song just ends and Labrinth finishes his slot.

As everything is getting taken off stage and everything being put on ready for Tine Tempah you can feel the excitement that is going around the arena after Labrinth's amazing performance. DJ Charlsey returns to the stage again to play more songs to get the crowd going. During Duck Sauces song 'Barbara Streisand' DJ Charlsey replaces the words Barbara Streisand with 'Tinie Tempah' which makes everyone think it isn't long until he takes to the stage.

As the lights go down and the band begin to play everyone is screaming at the top of their lungs waiting for Tinie Tempah to take to the stage. He dramatically jumps out of the stage floor with gold fireworks behind him which was an amazing opening to the show. He breaks straight into 'Intro' which is the first song on the album 'Discovery', with the crowd screaming at him and waving their hands in the air. As this song finishes Tinie Tempah goes straight into the next song. After this he takes a pause to admire the crowd. The beat to 'Frisky' then starts. The crowd throw their hands in the air and start dancing away to one of Tinie's biggest hits to date.

He then takes a minute to talk to the crowd about how two years ago he signed his record deal. He also says that he is never going to stop making music until hes gone and then asks the crowd to be Wiz Khalifa during the next song 'Till I'm gone' which has the crowd chanting the chorus back to Tinie Tempah. The band continue playing as Tinie runs off to get changed. He appears back on stage after a couple of minutes to the open of 'Wonderman' which features Ellie Goulding. Everybody starts to hold there hands up in the shape of a 'W' to symbolize Wonderman. Ellie Goulding's part in the song is played as the crowd sing along to it.

Tinie Tempah begins to tell the audience about the book he has out and where the inspiration for it came from as it is more like a scrap book of photos. He then tells us that during the next song 'snap' they were going to do something amazing so get your cameras out. And as promised on the big screen at the back of the stage, photos of people in the crowd were put up as they were being taken by the video cameras around the room. Tinie then interacts with the crowd again telling us about how he believes in god and how things are 'Written in the stars' which of course leads him to break into 'Written in the stars', another one of his biggest hits.

As 'Written in the stars' ends Tinie runs off stage which every assumes he is going to get changed again. As the band continue to play a spot light appears in the middle of the crowd on a small stage and Tinie Tempah appears on it. While here he performs such hits from 'Discovery' as 'Invincible' and 'Lets Go' acoustically which gives the crowd a break from jumping around and brings a relaxed atmosphere to the arena. DJ Charlsey was also stood in the crowd with the audience singing during this. As Tinie Tempah starts 'Obsession' he runs off the stage and ends up back on the main stage to complete the song.

A strange noise is played into the arena and Tinie looks around to then see that Swedish House Mafia are on the screen behind him. They apologise for not being there and of course then Tinie Tempah breaks into 'Miami 2 Ibiza'. However during the song he changes it to 'Notts to Ibiza' which makes the crowd go crazy. He then thanks the band and says goodbye and runs off stage.

Chants of 'Tinie' filled the arena with people screaming and stamping there feet until he appeared again at the back of the stage. Tinie then says that if anyway falls over during the next song then you have to pick them up again as he starts to sing 'Mosh pit'. At least 5 mosh pits start around the standing crowd with everybody going absolutely crazy.

As Tinie Tempah stands at the front of the stage, Labrinth jumps out from the floor and Tinie starts to sing his part of 'Earthquake' to finish it off from Labrinth's performance earlier in the show. The crowds reaction to seeing them both perform together were amazing as everyone was screaming and singing along. Then of course to finish they both broke into pass out which has to be Tinie's most popular song. This had to be the best song of the night as everyone was dancing and singing along.

All in all Tinie Tempah put on an amazing show which everyone enjoyed. To go from playing in student unions to arenas in a year is amazing and just shows that Tinie Tempah will keep going and going!

- Review by Grace