Katie Melua, Symphony Hall, Birmingham

The little lady in black, Katie Melua, showed she is a performer of enormous talent and contrast to a nearly-packed symphony hall, switching seamlessly between rock chick, torch singer and playful songstress.

Appearing first as a disembodied voice with her hit Closest Thing To Crazy the crystal clear tone of the Georgian singer sliced across the hall until it finally split the curtain to reveal the star looking both sexy and the innocent, girl next door.

Katie opened up her vulnerable and torch singer side extolling the pain of love through tracks such as If You Were A Sailboat, the dark and slightly sinister I’d Love To Kill You – a track from her latest album The House, The One I Love Is Gone and Call Off The Search.

This contrasted with her rock/blues chick side coming through on a cover of Canned Heat’s Going Up The Country and to further demonstrate her versatility she did a soulful rendition of Lilac Wine made famous by Elkie Brooks.

She kept her biggest hit, Nine Millions Bicycles, for one of her encore songs after an appreciative audience refused to budge.