I’m a very unlikely popstar,” Emeli Sande exclaimed when she collected the second of two gongs at this year’s Brit Awards.

Modest she may be, but at the first of two sell-out nights at the Manchester Apollo she proved she’s every inch the perfect pop star in front of an adoring crowd.

After a stellar year in this country, with standout performances at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics as well as that Brits triumph, she’s now set to storm the States too.

And it’s certainly a Hollywood-ready Emeli we see on stage – noticeably slimmer and there’s the fire-engine red pout to match a skintight black lycra dress and a leather jacket.

It was only four months since she was last here in the city, finishing her first UK tour at the Bridgewater Hall in support of her debut album Our Version of Events.

Back here at the Apollo, there’s now the sense of celebration of that album – which became the best-selling of 2012. The vocals soar from the opening strains of that breakthrough solo hit Heaven, to fan favourites from the album like Breaking The Law, My Kind of Love and Daddy.

She’s so smiley is Emeli.  Even when introducing a new song, an apparent angst-ridden anthem about the riots, The Half of It, she’s beaming from ear to ear.

You can’t blame her.  She’s an artist confident in her ability to smash every single note in each of her vocally dextrous hits. It makes for an epic experience amid the acoustics of the Apollo.

The fan singalongs are almost deafening for the likes of Read All About It and when she heads onto the piano to perform spine-tingling versions of Clown.

 The encore ends with the upbeat Next To Me and a thunderous clapalong from a rapt audience.

An unlikely pop star? Emeli, if only more were like you.

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