Katie Markham first came to everyone’s attention when in 2013 she entered the X Factor, she only just missed out on the Judge’s houses stage, making it to the last seven finalists. Katie had long been an admirer of Adele and in 2015 she was asked to take part in the Graham Norton Adele Live at the BBC. Along with several others, she found herself in an Adele tribute line-up, all the girls thought they were auditioning for a TV programme, and Katie was one of the first to recognise that the real Adele, who had disguised herself as ‘Jenny’, was also there when she heard her sing.
Appearing on the BBC special, and handpicked by Adele herself, Katie Markham performs Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’ song book for an eager audience of Adele fans and I was lucky enough to see her at Tunbridge Wells Assembly Hall Theatre.
Katie Markham told Adele’s story by performing songs from her 3 record breaking albums, 19, 21, and 25. The ‘story telling’ was just enough to inform the audience about some Adele interesting facts such as a song never released in the UK “Never see me again” and how Bruno Mars co-wrote “All I ask”.Markham manages to capture Adele’s vocal and physical nuances and she is clearly a gifted singer in her own right. For the performance she is accompanied by a talented four-piece live band and two backing singers, she more than delivers the goods. From Hometown Glory through: Chasing Pavements; Make You Feel My Love; Set Fire To The Rain; Someone Like You; Rumour Has It, Rolling In The Deep, Skyfall to Hello, every hit and some lesser known album tracks were performed. There was an astonishingly good version of Cheryl Cole’s Promise This, originally performed by Adele for Radio One’s Live Lounge. Markham’s talented backing vocalists also get their chance in the spotlight with a knock-out version of Natural Woman.
The stage had a film backdrop and I would say that this undeniably added to the effect of Markham’s performance. Lighting was excellent and in conjunction with the filmography it provided much emotional content.
‘Tribute act’ does not seem nearly enough of an accolade for Katie – for she is clearly a very talented lady in her own rights. Her performance was incredibly captivating as it was so much more than ‘an impression’ of Adele. Katie Markham has an undeniable talent and her huge range of powerful vocals ensured the audience were seeing the closest thing to actual Adele herself.
Head online to see the dates for upcoming shows, you won’t be disappointed.
