Emiliana Torrini live review

I've been a fan of Emiliana Torrini ever since seeing her perform Sunny Road on a YouTube clip some years, but I'd never had the pleasure of seeing her live. I was delighted to hear she was going to make the journey to Australia, and felt a great sense of satisfaction when she eventually appeared on stage at the Metro Theatre in Sydney.

Playing songs from all her records, including the most recent Me And Armini, Torrini proved as charming, cute and engaging as I'd anticipated. Her singing and between-song repartie provided a packed house with serenity and comedy in equal measure, and overall, the night seemed really personal.

Torrini told stories of how songs came to be - Jungle Drum arguably the best of these - and also gave us an insight into the everyday life of her band members, including one about English football fans and her guitarist, whose resemblence to Jesus Christ prompted them to compose and sing a song for him on a train journey in the UK.

But at the end of the night, it was Torrini's voice that stuck in the memory. So fluid, clean and evocative, she gave so much in her performance. Nothing Brings Me Down was a major highlight, matched by Lifesaver, which appeared early in the set but immedately got the audience's attention with it's haunting feel.

All up, Torrini proved an accomplished frontwoman, so relaxed you felt she was singing just to you and that is a skill so few performers master.