The lot of an Erykah Badu fan isn't always a happy one. In the long queue outside Brixton Academy, two women are indignantly discussing the neo-soul singer's relatively low profile in this country: "I told a friend I was going to see Erykah Badu, and he said, 'Who's that? World music?'" If the ignorance of the wider British public weren't enough, the audience's woes are compounded tonight by Badu herself, who turns up 80 minutes late, by which point they look grumpy enough to grab the top hat from her currently blond head and play Frisbee with it.
But when she glides to the microphone and sings her first notes, the mood magically changes to euphoria. Badu's voice is worth the wait, and she knows it: she unfurls it teasingly, drifting through 20 Feet Tall and Out My Mind, Just in Time – the first two tracks of her current album, New Amerykah Pt 2 – as if she has all the time in the world. Her vocal cords warmed up, she goes to town, elegantly jazzing up On & On, sending an electric charge through Appletree with precision scatting, and, stressing Didn't Cha Know's woolly I'm-only-human message by improvising a refrain – "Believe what's in your heart, believe in yourself" – that shows off her power-diva notes. She wisely rations those multi-octave leaps, so when they do come, you think, "How amazing", rather than "Celine Dion".
The downside is that Badu can't simply sing a song, and her (wonderful) band can't just play one. Every tune is extended, chewed over and freestyled until you're limp in your seat, praying that she'll get a move on. On Appletree, she doesn't just play a drum pad – she goes on a freeform expedition with it.
But that is her prerogative, and after almost two hours the audience are still enthusiastic, mustering a standing ovation as she exits.
