Music review: Christine and the Queens

HÃ©loÃ¯se Letissier of Christina and the Queens. Picture: contributed

Christine and the Queens is a relatively new love affair for music fans throughout the UK but it transpires that the woman behind the stage name, the personable performer HÃ©loÃ¯sse Letissier, has been on the road for two-and-a-half years. By this final night of her lengthy tour, she and her group were a well-oiled machine but, to her credit, there was no sign of fatigue nor taking her audience for granted.

O2 Academy, Glasgow ***

Letissier’s USP is the relatively unusual way she presents her music, employing shadowplay, sculptural lighting but mainly choreography. It was no surprise to learn she is a theatre graduate, as she and her mini contemporary dance troupe engaged in a sort of trendy semaphore. These were not your regulation pop star backing dancers but balletic movers putting a classical spin on street dance.

Letissier, who apparently learned “contouring and confidence” from drag queens, was no slouch herself, blending fluidly with the group though more than capable of holding the stage on her own. But it was telling that the biggest cheers of the night were always for the ensemble choreography.

If only her music was as engaging. Three black-clad worker drones pumped out pedestrian electro pop with only the occasional glimmer of soul across 90 minutes, including an all-too-brief rendition of the Inner City house classic Good Life and a stripped-backed encore cover of Terence Trent D’Arby’s Sign Your Name which easily outclassed her own songs. Clearly, Christine’s style is her substance.

Fiona Shepherd