Becky Hill stops off in Newcastle to whip a sold-out O2 Academy crowd into a frenzy

“There’s no encore tonight, I’m saving that for the arena tour,” Becky Hill smirks at a sold-out O2 Academy Newcastle crowd.

It’s a bold claim from the 27-year-old, who was playing to crowds of just a few hundred people before the pandemic.

Now the pop star stands tall over 2,000 up-for-it Geordies at the O2 Academy and, although claims of imminent arena status may sound audacious, you have to believe it’s true.

Becky Hill first arrived on the scene as a contestant on The Voice in 2012 and then went on to lend her vocals to some of the country’s biggest hits as a featured artist.

Despite the chart-topping success of those dancefloor fillers, Hill often saw her name overshadowed by lead artists, her vocals instantly recognisable but the name not so much.

The persistent star kept trusting her ear for a hit and, by 2019, things were starting to change - both that year and in 2020 Hill was named the second most-streamed British artist on Spotify.

That success eventually spawned the long-awaited debut album, Only Honest on the Weekend, for which the singer is on the road.

On Tuesday night in Newcastle, it’s all about that album as Hill refuses to dwell on the hits of yesteryear, blitzing through Wilkinson’s ‘Afterglow’, Matoma’s ‘False Alarm’ and Oliver Heldens’ ‘Gecko’.

She teases fans that, even if they want it, they aren’t getting MK’s ‘Piece of Me’, “this isn’t Reading or Leeds, this is Becky Hill’s show,” she laughs.

Indeed, the best moments from Newcastle’s headline show come from the singer’s solo material.

Deep cut album tracks ‘Through The Night’ and ‘I Got You’ are dropped early on and, when she performs the acoustic ‘Perfect People’, the singer proves she is no one-trick pony.

Nonetheless, Hill is at her most potent when she ups the ante and layers trademark powerhouse vocals over bubbling club hits.

Latest single ‘My Heart Goes’ is the most triumphant moment of the night as the Newcastle crowd belts back the ‘La Di Di’ refrain.

A final flurry of ‘Last Time’, ‘Better Off Without You’ and ‘Remember’ whips the O2 Academy into a frenzy before the pop star walks off stage.

Fans hang around for a moment in hope for an encore but, as Hill promised, they’ll have to wait for the arena show for that.

And if Tuesday night is anything to go by, that won’t be too far away.