By: Destiny Arredondo
Kehlani made a stop at the Bayou Music Center here in Houston, TX as a part of her Blue Water Road Trip tour and it was nothing short of phenomenal.
With a sold out show and a huge crowd awaiting, the night started off with a young artist by the name of Destin Conrad, an R&B and soul singer-songwriter. The crowd immediately welcomed his energy and continued to shout his name throughout his set.
As his set was finishing off people started to chant Rico Nasty’s name, the second opener of the show. The crowd began to tighten as fans wanted to be as close as possible to the stage. The stage lights became bright with a fluorescent white as the rap and hip hop artist Rico Nasty pranced onto the stage. The crowd immediately went wild and started to jump as her song Blow Me from her latest album Las Ruinas started to blast through the speakers. As an audience member, you could tell that the enthusiasm was very quickly rising due to the energy that Rico brought to stage. She went on to perform multiple songs from all of her albums and even brought a girl on stage to dance and finish off her set.
The energy started to mellow out as Rico exited the stage, it didn’t take long for fans to gain their energy back as they were preparing for Kehlani to come out. A DJ by the name of “Noodz” came on stage to give the audience something to listen to while they waited. She proceeded to play a very diverse track list from rap, to reggaeton to R&B and more. After about 15 minutes, the DJ said her goodbyes and left the stage.
The audience was now desperate to see the headliner of the night. The stagehands quickly started arranging the stage for Kehlani’s performance. Her stage setup was decorated with beautiful drapes hanging from the very top of the stage and a simple but elegant microphone stand in the very middle. A couple minutes later, a video starts playing on the stage screen showing a very heartwarming video of Kehlani and her daughter talking about how she is about to go on tour. Not long after, the intro to Little Story, a song from her newest record, starts playing and the fans rapidly get their phones out and start recording while continuously chanting out for Kehlani. The show officially starts once her backup dancers pop out both sides of the stage and start dancing in a way to introduce Kehlani. She finally comes out and the energy in the venue immediately goes up. She then continues to finish off her song Little Story and proceeds to perform songs from albums like It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, While We Wait and most importantly blue water road. In the middle of the show she brings an influencer couple, that go by the name “DAM Family” on youtube, onto the stage where the couple makes a life long pact to the song honey by Kehlani. She goes on to explain how important it is to always hold the ones you love close and to never let go.
As the show was coming to an end, Kehlani’s closer song CRZY from her 2017 SweetSexySavage album radiated throughout the venue. For the last song she brought out multiple fans from the audience, dancers, and friends she had previously invited, onto the stage to dance one last time. The crowd went, just as the hit says, CRZY as Kehlani said her goodbyes. I can say without a doubt that Kehlani’s Houston show was one for the books and nothing short of captivating.
