Kehlani’s ‘Blue Water Road’ tour takes Raleigh on a self-love journey
R&B giant Kehlani cast a spell over Red Hat Amphitheater Saturday night in a somewhat experimental set pitched mainly to long-time fans.
Resplendent in a series of colorful shredded dresses, the multiplatinum singer — who uses the pronouns “she” and “they” but prefers “they” — was beseeching on “little story,” then disdainful on “shooter interlude”.
By the time Kehlani swaggered through sultry power ballad “every given Sunday,” the audience was transfixed, caught in the ebb and flow of emotions plotted out by the all-female creative team.
Stop number two on a long tour of North America and Europe, the two-hour show was meticulously choreographed and verged on high-concept, anchored by footage set on Kehlani’s tour bus. Throughout, Kehlani’s voice was rich, honeyed and complex, softening into a coo on “melt” just as easily as it sharpened into chagrin on “Open (Passionate)”.
On many tracks, Kehlani was set against footage of the artist’s own tour bus and flanked by four backup dancers in cargo suits. The dancers had plenty of solo spots to show off their own deep talent, leaning on each other in the wings between tracks.
The Grammy-nominated singer eased the crowd into an early section of the show with the “Blue Water Road” album. The middle section of steamy throwback hits, lit in warm tones with lots of bird imagery, was pitched as a dream sequence ending with a bird hitting the tour bus window.
“I’m still working on my sexy,” Kehlani told the audience as they sang through sensual acrobatics, undulating on the stage floor during “water”, draped upside-down over a set of stairs for “Hate The Club.”
The back third of the show was washed in acoustic bliss and cool tones evocative of the tour’s titular blue water. Here played some more whimsical tracks, from a mischievous romp through “Good Thing” to the show’s pop-rock closer, “CRZY.”
A New Take
The show’s real story, though, was one of self-reflection.
Kehlani’s last tour was five years ago, though some fans may have just seen the artist’s set at J. Cole’s Dreamville Festival. The return to touring felt different than expected, Kehlani said, having grown and changed through COVID-19 and becoming a mother.
Throughout the show, the 27-year-old continued to thank fans for growing with the singer over the last eight years.
“It’s an honor to be in this space with you guys, it’s an honor to be here post-motherhood,” Kehlani said.
While some artists bring their audiences back in time with them when performing early songs, Kehlani’s show felt firmly anchored in the present. In a show curated for such deep emotion, sections from “SweetSexySavage” (2017) and “It Was Good Until It Wasn’t” (2020) were styled a little differently than the original recordings, as if the sheet music was read through a kaleidoscope.
Angrier tracks like “In My Feelings “ and “Nights Like This” came across without a bite — now airier, more rueful. Even beseeching bedroom jams like “Change Your Life” and “Distraction,” which Kehlani challenged fans to identify near the end of the show, became playful beneath the smolder.
The show gave listeners a birds’-eye view into how Kehlani’s relationship with romance has changed.
Kehlani came out as a lesbian in 2021, and the relationships depicted across the album aren’t just more tender and tentative than the stormy, steamy flings on their sophomore album — they’re also more openly queer.
But Kehlani has quietly woven queer imagery into tracks for years. That was emphasized during Saturday’s concert with a silky rendition of “In My Feelings” — a song about an unrequited slow-burn — followed by a gender-flipped take on fierce breakup ballad “Nunya.”
Plus, “Blue Water Road” was produced as Kehlani fell in love, and the singer worked hard to bring the audience into the fold.
“I’ve grown up a lot,” Kehlani said. “I learned a lot about love, I fell in love. But I just wanna say, if you have something special, don’t play with it.”
Kehlani encouraged the audience to put themselves out there, to talk to the people around them, and was delighted to watch two fans in the front row flirt.
Later, Kehlani came off stage to serenade a young queer couple face-to-face for the first half of “melt,” a bright, cozy love song about the vulnerable intimacy of growing close to a new flame.
“I would like to dedicate this to every single form of lover out there,” Kehlani said.
Rico Nasty
Decked out in a screen-printed miniskirt and a glittery skull necklace, opener Rico Nasty was an immediate crowd favorite.
Nasty’s style of music is notoriously difficult to describe. She raps at the top of her lungs in a high-pitched, throaty shriek, and the end of her sentences soar before dropping back down into a growl.
The 25-year-old, born Maria-Cecilia Simone Kelly in Washington, calls her own style “sugar trap,” according to DJ Booth, and the unique sound translates well live.
Though she leaned heavily on a background track while dancing through titles like “Intrusive” and “Watch Your Man”, Nasty went all the way in on crowd favorites like “Tia Tamera” and “Black Punk.”
Her bold lineup of aggressive, devil-may-care rap anthems was undercut with delight as Nasty chatted with the audience between songs, smiling big behind a raised hand. She sang a verse of “Vaderz” a cappella with the crowd and even paused between “Blow Me” and “Rage” to serenade a fan with a slightly off-kilter rendition of “Happy Birthday”.
“I’m enjoying this vibe,” Nasty told Raleigh after a wild, raspy joyride through “Gotsta Get Paid”, jumping all over a stage lit in acid green. “You guys are really, really, really, really fun.”
Nasty may have been the tour’s opener, and on one of its first stops to boot, but the whole thing felt less like an introduction and more like a victory lap.
Destin Conrad
Before Rico came on stage, rising R&B singer Destin Conrad got the crowd buzzing with an abbreviated set. The 22-year-old Florida native is a longtime friend of Kehlani, and throughout the set, Kehlani jokingly referred to him as their firstborn child.
On “DAY PARTY”, released just two days before the show, Conrad seemed lost in thought, his dance loose and flowy. Under a golden hour sky and a blazing sun as fans packed close together in the Red Hat Amphitheater, listening did feel a whole lot like being at a summer party.
His buttery, soaring vocals also lent themselves well to “Life is Changing” and “Unpredictable, with crisp lyrics and slowed-down beats you could drift away on. While Rico Nasty’s set was a hype machine for the crowd, Conrad’s was more relaxing and reflective.
Later in the evening, Kehlani pulled him on stage for a smoky, well-received duet on their joint track “Open (Passionate),” saying “This is who I listen to every day. He’s my favorite artist.”
Kehlani’s Setlist
“Little Story”
“shooter interlude”
“any given sunday”
“more than i should”
“tangerine”
“Open (Passionate)” [with Destin Conrad]
“Love Language”
“Piece of Mind”
“Can I”
“Water”
“Hate The Club”
“wish i never”
“up at night”
“Serial Lover”
“get me started”
“Everybody Business”
“1st Position”
“You Should Be Here”
“The Way”
“Distraction”
“In My Feelings”
“Undercover”
“Nunya”
“Grieving”
“Change Your Life”
“Toxic”
“Nights Like This”
“melt”
“everything”
“Altar”
“CRZY”
Rico Nasty’s setlist
“Messy”
“Easy”
“Smack A B----”
“Watch Your Man”
“Intrusive”
“Gotsta Get Paid”
“Vaderz”
“Black Punk”
“One on 5”
“Falling Off”
“Tia Tamera”
“Blow Me”
“Rage”
“Phuckin Lady”
