Canadian rapper Drake’s highly anticipated world tour has finally begun. After selling out most of his UK dates within minutes, he added numerous extra dates between January and February. Despite many of those dates being rescheduled for the second time, Drake was sure not to disappoint UK fans. In a statement, Drake said he wants to “bring a complete new show to Europe and not a copy of his shows in the US”.
The world tour has commenced and Drake has been surprising fans with a surprise guest each time. The Boy Meets World Tour in London has had guest performances from Dave, Krept and Konan and Giggs on several occasions. This was on top of opening acts dvsn and Young Thug, so fans are certainly getting their money’s worth considering how pricey Drake released tickets for: standing tickets started from £100 (excl. booking fee).
However, there were long, tedious gaps between opening acts, where we might have expected a DJ or music to keep fans hyped before the artist graced the stage. A nice touch to the production set was the round lights that became a huge feature of the artist’s performance. On first glance they almost look like balloons.
The production also includes a lot of smoke machines, fire, the infamous Toronto CN Tower that the rapper includes on his album artwork and a huge inflated moon that took up most of the second stage. Drake encouraged his fans to mosh around the stage and hold up their flash on their phones and lighters to resemble stars.
“He promised if he got a loud enough response from the crowd he’ll “take a vacation and come back to the UK with a few friends””
Drake did put on a good show overall, but the duration he was out for could have been extended. The show finished just after 11pm and he was only on stage for about an hour and a half. This was meant that he was not able to perform all of his hits completely and show acts actually felt a bit rushed, in order to get through other performances.
Drake spoke a lot throughout his performance, sharing tour memories of he and his crew not being able to afford to eat out and having $200 split between the five of them before “blowing up”. This was probably in attempt to seem relatable to fans. He also came in and out of an attempted London accent.
The artist performed a variety of tracks of his many albums, from the very start to his upcoming album ‘More Life’, which will most likely be followed by another world tour. The album ‘More Life’ will be premiered OVO Sound Radio Episode 29 on 4th March. Drake teased about ‘OVO Fest’ on Valentine’s Day during his London show, but at his performance the next day he promised if he got a loud enough response from the crowd he’ll “take a vacation and come back to the UK with a few friends”.
So far, ‘OVO Fest’ sounds like it will be a combination of Canadian, American and UK artists. This may be why Drake has been collaborating and attending a lot of London based events whilst his tour commences. It will be interesting to see how much the OVO Fest tickets go on sale for this summer…
Amani Dauda
Images courtesy of Amani Dauda
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