12 Years, Finally: on Diana Krall Wallflower World Tour - London, 01/10/2015

The first time I heard Diana Krall's voice dates back to my university time, 2003. I was listening to an English learning program called Music English on China Radio International at midnight in my dormitory. At that time, English learning resources were limited and expensive, so I cherished any free opportunity to learn English, especially a quality one. Interestingly, my strong motivation to learn English led me to this unique voice. I still remember that she was singing"Just the Way You Are". At that time I couldn't find an appropriate word to describe this highly recognizable voice. All I knew was that I would never forget it.

I was so attracted to it that the next morning as soon as I got up, I started to research her. I started looking for her CDs everywhere in Beijing. Unfortunately, in most CD stores I asked, people had never heard of her name, as Jazz was a minority genre in China at that time, probably still now. Then I started asking around among my international friends about finding her records. One day in 2004 one of my British friends found one for me when he was on a business trip in Beijing. I was thrilled about that. But again unfortunately we didn't find time to meet up before he went back to London, and he wasn't able to post it to me in Beijing as he couldn't speak Chinese, so he took it back to London. Later he posted it from London to Beijing. This is how I got my first CD of hers - The Girl in The Other Room, a well-traveled one, from Beijing to London, then back to Beijing.

In 2013, I was in Brussels for two months for professional training. As a Jazz fanatic, I certainly wouldn't miss the Gent Jazz Festival, which was one hour drive away in Gent. My partner and I went there on Sunday July 14th,  surprisingly to find that Diana Krall was the Central guest, however disappointingly to find that she was there the previous day, the 13th. What a near miss!

Diana Krall Concert Tickets

In 2014, I moved to London. My partner found out Diana Krall's world tour London stop of 2015. It was September, one year away from the tour date 01/10/2015, however all the good tickets were sold out already. That's how popular she was. We could only get circle tickets, which would be quite far from the stage.

In 2015, my partner and I almost had to sell the tickets we got due to our travel plans of Singapore and Bali, but I insisted on keeping them. We had to plan our trips to Asia around the Wallflower world tour tickets. We had to come back to London one day before her concert.

Royal Albert Hall

Yesterday, even still suffering from jet lag, we arrived at the venue, Royal Albert Hall, 45 minutes ahead of time. We couldn't afford to miss any minute of her concert.

At 19:30, 01/10/2015, the concert started. A guy who didn't know where he was from, according to his self-introduction speech, lol, started singing. I thought it was only one song to warm up the event, sadly, he had a booklet in his hand, flipping through to introduce the songs he was going to sing. I was confused and asked my partner: "Are you sure we are in the right place? Maybe they have changed the program". We just got back to London and didn't have time to check all the emails. Perhaps the organizer changed the program arrangement, I thought. As the guy on stage kept singing one song after another, I kept getting more and more worried and anxious. It seemed that even with tickets at the venue, I still couldn't listen to her live.

At 20:00, this guy finished singing, followed with a band switch. Some Audience started to walk out to take a break while more audience started to join in. We were getting more and more anxious and and impatient. We paid for tickets to listen to Diana Krall, but almost one hour was gone and we hadn't even seen her.

Around 20:30, people started screaming and applauding. There she was, with her never-changing mid-length blonde hair, neutral outfit - black suit jacket, white shirt, pants and tall boots, and her cool attitude. " You guys smell so good, look so good too, lol, thanks for being here", with this simple introduction, she started playing the piano skillfully, and singing with her low almost-male unique voice. I was so excited, swinging my body on my seat to her tunes, padding and clapping, especially when she was singing her signature piece: temptation, to the point that my partner said to me:" To me, tonight, you are the real show, lol".

Around 21:15, the band left the stage for her to do solos. she asked: "what do you guys want to hear? Some Fats Waller, or Nat King Cole? You can ask me" She smiled in a cute way. Then there were various shouts and request. Someone near the stage shouted "Your feet's too big". Then she said" OK" and started playing this song. After 3 seconds, she stopped to say" thank you for reminding me of this song it's been a long time that I haven't played this song Alright i will start again". Then she started again. That's her style, offhand, and speaking without "period". If anyone else did it this way, it would have be taken as unprofessional, somehow with her, it was actually kind of cute. She's got that charisma.


At around 22:00, the concert reached its end, leaving all the audience requesting"encore". She came back and played two more songs. Of course it's never enough to listen to her live.

As a talented vocal-pianist, she is in a way similar to Louis Armstrong, who also has a super recognizable voice and plays an instrument- trumpet. Both voices are not taken as "good" voices according to traditional standard, however, they are unique and well-liked by the audience. The difference is that Louis Armstrong is first a trumpeter and then a vocalist, while Diana Krall has always been known as a vocal-pianist. As one of the most successful contemporary jazz vocal, she is the first one to walk out of the shadows of the two most influential female jazz vocalists: Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. She's got her own "Krall" twist.

All in all, it's a wonderful evening. After 12 years' searching and expecting, finally, here at the magnificent Royal Albert Hall in London, I listened to her live concert. However, I have to say the organization could have been much better, but for her smoky and sensuous voice, it's all worth it. There, finally, I have found the words.

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Useful Vocabulary Summary:

fanatic
sold out
insisted on
applauding
offhand
charisma
encore
trumpet
trumpeter 
vocalist
sensuous