Live Review: Thando

Whoever is curating NGV's Friday Night series needs a shout out all their own, as once again the pairing of music and art is perfectly complementary. It isn't easy to couple the dissonance of MOMA's classic modernism with any music at all, but somehow the gallery has found the perfect partner in Zimbabwean born R&B singer Thando.

Taking to the stage humbly in elegant black from head to toe, Thando Sikwila takes her initially reserved presence and throws it to the wind with her phenomenal vocals. Backed by only drums, bass and jazz piano, the sound emanating from the stage is a little different from Sikwila's more electro-heavy recorded material. However, the force of the music is no less powerful, and the singer's voice perhaps highlighted even further by this stripped-down style. At just 25, Sikwila is not just a prodigy of the jazz and soul styles, she is the embodiment of the genres' most prolific spirits. She has the intimidating force of Nina Simone balanced flawlessly with the soft vulnerability of Sarah Vaughn, all the while belting passionately and channelling the energy of Annie Lennox and Jill Scott.

While the marriage of art and music has boundless potential, in practice, some unfortunate problems appear. Much of the gallery-inclined crowd are crammed into the performance space with disdainful abandon, chatting amongst one another and treating the melodious spectacle before them as background music. The overcrowded and sociable audience seems somewhat indifferent to Sikwila for the most part, but that doesn't stop the vocalist from putting on an emotional and downright beautiful performance. The young performer has the presence of a seasoned pro and knows a few tricks to get the crowd listening.

With a fairly small back catalogue, Sikwila takes on the mammoth task of some pretty high calibre covers throughout the set. She's obviously up to the challenge though, as she proves by going even further with the assignment. After already slaying Whitney Houston's I'm Every Woman, Sikwila doubles down and transitions effortlessly into Beyonce's Me, Myself And I, barely giving her audience a chance to cotton on to the switch. Suddenly, everyone is listening, and Sikwila manages to top her own apparent peak. The singer croons into Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know, though the accompanying piano seems oddly unfamiliar. It's a beautiful and life-giving reimagining of the track before the piano line reveals itself to be the Destiny's Child classic Say My Name. Never mind the conversations drifting throughout the audience before this moment, now all that anyone can focus on is the undeniable force in front of them that is Thando.