Music
Review
Kelela brings New Avatar Live to her “second home”
The multidisciplinary artist gives fans a sonic baptism of rock, R&B, techno and house for the London stop of her "New Avatar Live" tour
Only an artist as cutting-edge as Kelela could blend Afrofuturism, rock, R&B and club culture, and turn it into a spiritual live music experience. And at the London stop of her New Avatar Live tour on 4 November 2026, she did all of that and more. I have seen Kelela perform in London four different times – 2018 at the Roundhouse, 2023 at Outernet, 2023 again at Field Day, and last night at O2 Academy Brixton. Each time somehow even more transcendent and intentional than the last. Every version of her always as authentic as ever.
“With each project, I want to reveal something new about myself,” she tells the audience after performing a moving live rendition of her song ‘Crystallise’. It’s clear that sentiment extends to her tour performances, revealing new facets of her musical ear and artistry with every performance. With New Avatar Live, we get Kelela the rockstar, clad in leather, one with the wind and smoke machines. She plays with the dimensions of her vocals, offering powerful and raw emotion on ballad ‘idea 1’ and a rock reimagining of Hallucinogen‘s ‘Rewind’, and piercing whistle notes on ‘Against Me’.
She mentions Prince as an influence and tribute before she and her band perform ‘A Message’ and Cut 4 Me‘s ‘Send Me Out’. And while you can certainly hear elements of Prince in her delivery, her performance is akin to the gritty sex appeal of early Lenny Kravitz and the undeniable glamour of Diana Ross. She brings out A.K. Paul for ‘outta time’ – a welcome surprise – both artists performing with laser focus. A.K. Paul’s masterful guitar skills pair greatly with the simple stage design, allowing his skills to shine without any unnecessary pomp.
And while the audience was singing along to every lyric, new and old, no moment was louder than during OG fan-favourite ‘All The Way Down.’ “I’m serving my constituency,” she says of every performance, referring to how she writes and performs for her “OG Kelelians”. And while she welcomes her newer fans who have found her through New Avatar, she encourages them to go back and look through her “older catalogue”, to understand her artistry in its entirety. Kelela is intentional; this moment and every moment she shares with us is on her terms and the terms of the community she’s built. She takes a moment to point out how with each new facet of her sound – R&B, techno, rock, house – her community has continued to rock with her. Naysayers tried to discourage her sharp turns and changes, but “this proves them all wrong.”
A personal highlight was her rendition of Hallucinogen‘s ‘The High’ set against Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’. The lights go low and she reveals a hidden light beneath her leather jacket. Her ability to shape-shift her older catalogue to meet her current self is proof that anything she creates is timeless, and fitting of any moment.
Before closing with ‘linknb’ (and an encore of RAVEN‘s ‘Contact’ mashed up with Aaliyah’s ‘One In A Million), Kelela refers to London as her “second home” and thanks us all for making it to the show. With an audience full of fans dressed in matching leather outfits, wearing makeup recreations of her album cover, experiencing catharsis through her music – Kelela, the pleasure is all ours.
Photo by Julian Hamilton/Getty Images
