ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: TIME OUT SYDNEY, JANUARY 2020
IMAGE: Daniel Boud

At the final performance in Sydney Opera House's concert hall before it closes for years’ worth of renovations, one woman’s vision proved a fitting way to herald new beginnings for the iconic venue.

Solange Knowles is a different woman to the one audiences first saw on Sydney's most famous stage in 2018.

Transition and transformation of the spiritual and the emotional senses have played integral parts in the American artist’s life in the nearly two years that have passed between visits, the result of which Sydney audiences witnessed during this most recent residency at the Sydney Opera House.

I was lucky enough to have seen Solange’s debut at this venue back in 2018. Touring her highly theatrical production of A Seat at the Table, the energy conjured and harnessed throughout that performance was tangible. On Friday night, having managed to fluke front row tickets, I found myself within the immediate influence of one of contemporary music’s most intriguing artists. And while the vibrancy of her familiar energy remained, this latest show somehow felt like I was discovering Solange’s powers for the first time, all over again.

Solange Knowles, the artist that stood before us now, was a woman who was fearlessly in charge of an artistry in flux. Because of it, she is creating some of her best and most impactful work to date.

Not unlike A Seat at the Table, Witness! - the name of this new production - is more a performance art piece than straight-to-the-tee concert. Everything, from her dancers' costuming, to her band’s choreography and the newly composed suite ‘Bridges’, pointed towards Solange’s creative process shattering, then rebuilding with precision.

The music taken from A Seat At The Table and the more recent When I Get Home record offered the audience a chance to experience her material through a different lens. Heritage and strength in culture has always remained a constant within Solange’s repertoire. Nods to her Texan upbringing could be found in the details: the cowboy hats and boots worn by her dancers; the lassoing of her microphone. Her hip hop roots in the Dirty South also peeked through – well-placed twerks and slow grinds matched up perfectly with the more club-ready portions of her material.

Tinkering with arrangements gave the show a more intimate vibe. ‘Way To The Show’ became sexier with the lo-fi R&B beats given more prominence. ‘F.U.B.U’ and ‘Don’t Touch My Hair’ reminded the audience that her story was also shared with many women of colour in attendance. ‘Stay Flo’ and ‘Binz’ felt like indulgent daydreams, realised with a strong brass and bass line as their backbone.

All the strength that was demonstrated in her 2018 shows was both present and rejuvenated. Yet, in Solange’s vocals, a touching vulnerability and a genuine sense of adoration for the nuances of her craft shone through. While the uncertainty of what our collective future holds was a prominent sentiment Solange shared with the audience during the show, her delivery of the production never felt unsure. The carefree grin that broke out across her face numerous times throughout the 90-minute performance was infectious. Each time she connected with the audience in the in-the-round setting further enhanced the intimate vibe of the show – no easy task in a room as large as the Opera House's concert hall.

Witness! - a production so rooted in personal strength, femininity and black excellence - staged at a venue so synonymous with the white middle and upper classes, is just the type of show the Sydney Opera House needs to further bring it into a new decade. A catalyst for provocative thought and conversation, Solange is not just a champion for individualism in contemporary R&B. She is a leader.

Though she had been writing and performing since childhood, 2018 was a year when Solange seemed to step into a new spotlight of her own. But seeing her in 2020 was a whole new experience; her vision as a creative has entered a new era, one marked by confidence in identity and control over one’s own narrative. Just as it should be.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE AU REVIEW, OCTOBER 2016

Solange Knowles‘ A Seat At The Table may very well be the album that brings the artist to breakthrough-levels of success but for those who have been following her music for the last few years, this 21-track epic is the result of a creative talent that has been thriving and developing outside the mainstream for quite some time.

The album is an unapologetic yet gorgeous illustration of what it means to be black and the challenges that come with being of colour, especially a woman of colour, today. A Seat At The Table also serves as a tool to remind people, especially newcomers, that Solange is much more than ‘the younger Knowles sister’ and occupies her own creative space. The album is a strong and defining moment for the artist who undoubtedly stands as a figure of admiration and strength for many young women and girls of colour and while she may not be twirling baseball bats into the windows of cars, Solange’s messages on A Seat At The Table ring out just as loud.

She urges the listener to thrive and be comfortable in our own uniqueness, despite whatever imperfections we’re born with on album opener “Rise” – the music is soft, a sentiment that is evident throughout much of A Seat At The Table, but Solange’s smoky, almost wispy thread of an R&B vocal streams through and hypnotises. Her calm and warm vocals wrap you up – she’s not aggressive, but she’s defiant. It’s a type of R&B that we’ve seen Blood Orange execute nigh on flawlessly this year and quite frankly, I’m stoked that it’s happened again with this album.

“Cranes In The Sky” and “Don’t Touch My Hair”, the two album tracks that recently had their music videos released are two of the most powerful on A Seat At The Table. Featuring Sampha, “Don’t Touch My Hair” channels the frustration any woman of colour is likely to have felt at least once – issues of privacy and ownership have been rife within black culture for centuries and as both Solange and Sampha chant, “What you say to me?” gently, their response is pretty damn loud. “Don’t touch what’s there / When it’s the feelings I wear”, she warns – this an anthem for anyone who has felt like their culture has been relegated to public property or a novelty to be appropriated.

The interludes inserted through the album serve as good turning points and excellent perspective insights; from her parents Matthew Knowles and Tina Lawson going in on integration of schools in Alabama and reverse racism, to the iconic Master Pdetailing his own childhood and the formation of the No Limits label, the emphasis on the importance of self-ownership, empowerment and the ability to rise in the face of adversity is stressed in a flawless way.

Kelly Rowland, Kelela, Lil Wayne, The Dream, BJ The Chicago Kid, Nia Andrewsand Q-Tip feature on A Seat At The Table, highlighting the diverse range of influence Solange has operating in her circle, all weaving together excellently in this tapestry she’s created. There are moments on the album that hark back to her previous work, with songs like “Don’t Wish Me Well” easily being a tune that could have featured on 2012’s True.

What Solange has done with A Seat At The Table is two things that I can tell at this point: she’s created a record that, in an age of surprise releases and visual albums, stands strong in its subtlety and narrative. She’s also produced a collection of music that younger listeners who feel any less than their peers because of their skin colour can take as an album of empowerment, encouragement and celebration.

As she wrote in a blog post detailing her and her family’s experience at a Kraftwerkconcert this year, “We belong. We belong. We belong. We built this.”