Brandy at Enmore Theatre review: Bringing 90s R&B back to the masses

90s hitmaker Brandy, famous for songs like The Boy Is Mine and Have You Ever, was almost upstaged by a fan during last night’s Sydney show.

Brandy’s Sydney show delivered hit after hit in quick succession.

More than 20 years after her first hit, R&B singer Brandy is in the midst of her long overdue first Australian tour.

And casual fans — those whose last encounter with Brandy was back in 2002, with her last top 20 hit on these shores, What About Us — need not worry this was some sort of excursion in faded 90s nostalgia, as evidenced by her stellar showing at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre last night.

It was a tight affair, with Brandy bringing an even tighter stage setup for the occasion: One drummer, a keyboardist, and two handsome backing singers-cum-dancers.

She dispensed with many of her biggest 90s hits early in rapid-fire medley style — very Janet Jackson — delivering What About Us, Sitting Up In My Room, Full Moon and others in quick succession.

.@4everBrandy singing Full Moon at the Enmore during last night's Sydney gig. Still a total banger 14 years on pic.twitter.com/DocVG7Leqe

— Nick Bond (@bondnickbond) June 20, 2016

Alongside the expected 90s hits, the evening leaned heavily on her best album to date, 2004’s Timbaland-helmed Afrodisiac (seriously, one of the finest R&B albums of the noughties).

Throughout, the 37-year-old was in tirelessly energetic form, nailing her dance routines and even joining in on a few of the guest raps in her biggest hits.

There were welcome surprises — her cover of Coldplay’s Magic, better than the original, was mashed-up with a lovely rendition of Michael Jackson’s classic Human Nature. And a three-song excursion into Whitney Houston’s back catalogue was a fitting tribute to an artist who Brandy said “meant more to me than any other artist.”

The singer will play Melbourne tonight after last night’s solid Sydney set.

There were a few odd choices though, too. By far her biggest hit — 1998’s world-conquering duet with Monica, The Boy Is Mine — felt thrown away, delivered mid-set as a showcase for an audience member to show off her own vocal chops. The woman had a fantastic voice (“Let’s get her off stage before she steals the whole damn concert!” Brandy quipped), but it was hard not to feel a little disappointed Brandy hadn’t taken centre stage during her most iconic song. That song, or a couple of her other huge hits, would’ve been better saved for an encore that instead leaned heavily on Brandy’s more recent, lesser-heard material.

Still, this was a stellar set, performed to a faithful crowd of 90s R&B fans revelling in the sort of tour we don’t get enough of on these shores. Let’s hope it doesn’t take her another 20 years to make it back.

Brandy plays Melbourne’s Hamer Hall tonight, June 21. Tickets through Ticketmaster.

Originally published as Brandy at Enmore Theatre review: Bringing 90s R&B back to the masses