Your backstage pass to the DFW music scene and beyond.
DALLAS -- Jordin Sparks belongs onstage. That fact was proved time and again during the American Idol winner's Tuesday night concert at House of Blues.
It's not just that Sparks has pipes, although she sure does and can belt a song like her next heartbeat depends on it. Most importantly, what the perky 20-year-old has in spades is charisma and that innate ability to sell a song. Flanked by a seven-piece band, including three background vocalists, Sparks delivered about 80 minutes of tunes from her national CDs, 2007's Jordin Sparks and 2009's Battlefield.
The musical mood of the evening was high-energy pop, R&B and dance. She kicked the concert off potently with the terrific radio single Battlefield and the slamming club number S.O.S. (Let the Music Play). As a performer, Sparks was sassy, working the platform, strutting, gyrating and smiling. She was equal parts ingenue and grown-up.
Sparks commanded the microphone, at every turn giving her recorded material a refreshing jolt. While her discs have great moments, both suffer from overproduction and mediocre album filler. Yet by the sheer force of her artistic personality, she made us believe that Watch You Go, No Parade, Freeze and It Takes More weren't merely throwaways.
When Sparks jumped into Breathe, a song from Broadway's In the Heights, her interpretive powers were in full force. She convincingly acted the song, a signature number from the character Nina Rosario, which Sparks will play from Aug. 19 through Nov. 14.
That was Sparks' most impressive performance during Tuesday's show. Yes, she was delightful during the bubbly One Step at a Time and the R&B-pop hits Tattoo and No Air. But give her a song with real substance and watch her effortlessly own the lyrics. She belongs onstage.
