Jessie Reyez, Nija & Leila Day.
Shot & Written by: Eva Lynch
November 26th, 2022
Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre
Jessie Reyez had two openers for the night. First up was fellow Toronto R&B singer/songwriter Leila Dey, who had the crowd hooked with her soulful voice, dynamic flow and a sound reminiscent of Summer Walker, which got the crowd grooving. Dey was immediately followed by American singer/songwriter, Nija, who has been increasingly on the rise following the release of her debut album, Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You earlier this year and began her career writing songs with musicians such as Ariana Grande, Beyoncé and Cardi B. Now defining her own sound, she’s looking to challenge genres and create her own style. Her strong stage presence and vocals, with smooth runs and high energy, shows she’s on the fast path to only further success.
Twenty minutes later, Jessie Reyez took the stage. As soon as she emerged from the fog, singing the lead up to “MOOD” the crowd was ecstatic. Immediately, Reyez brought to life the vulnerability which permeates her music, which was balanced by her high energy as she danced around the stage, and got the whole crowd moving.
Her delivery was flawless, the array of songs showcasing her talent and range, as she fluctuated between elegant high falsettos and aggressive lows which compliment the stories told through her songs. Reyez’s latest album Yessie is a diary of sorts, presented as a collection of songs touching on heartbreaks and hardships -- she described to the crowd that this album was born in the pandemic when she began to channel her energy into self-analysis, self-improvement
and self-love as a means of healing. She sang every lyric with purpose and you could feel the emotions she had poured into their creation, at one point even shedding a tear on stage because she was so overcome by emotion, saying the crowd got her in her feelings.
There is an anger and passion to her lyrics, and while their performance is the embodiment of her healing and recent self-reflection, Reyez is anything but delicate. Her vocal power really shone through in the stripped back performance of her songs “Sola” and “Figures” which she performed acoustically, and her voice positively filled the room. She drew from every era of her music, performing a wide sweep of her discography, and every tune had the crowd belting out the lyrics. In her song ‘Phone Calls,’ Reyez has a line which goes, ‘Oh Yessie, We loved you from your Brampton days,’ and the crowd in Montreal resonated that feeling, showing equal enthusiasm for every song played regardless of its age. Throughout the show, Reyez performed several mashed-up tunes, for instance starting out the night with a high energy blend of “MOOD” and “Shutter Island,” or fluidly traveling between “COFFIN” and “WHEN LOVE
CAME TO KILL US” mid set, and it was a cool way in some cases of tying in her older hits and
and demonstrating some of the transcendent themes in her music and growth as an artist.
Reyez had the audience join in as a sing along for several of her songs, and engaged them to help sing a special verse of “F*** Being Friends” at a fan’s request, even though it wasn’t on the set list. She was an incredibly present performer and engaged the crowd in kind conversations and meditative exercises, telling stories between almost every song.
Above all, she took the opportunity on stage to share her immense gratitude for where she is today because of her music and the support of her fans, and gave the show all she had as a thank you to the audience.