On February 2nd and 4th, Aubrey Drake Graham, known as Drake, made his way to Amalie Arena in Tampa, for the first time in 8 years.
Zack Bia warmed the crowd up with iconic hits as ‘I Just Wanna Rock’ and ‘Party in the U.S.A.’ After the DJ’s moment, playing best-selling artists as Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, the crowd was bored as the songs were not twisted by Bia nor unique. The concert was set to start at 8pm, but Drake arrived on stage around 9:30pm.
With a breath-taking entrance from the Lightning locker room, Drake started his concert with ‘Trophies’ (quite apt for the location of where the concert started), followed by ‘Virginia Beach’ and ‘Marvins Rooms.’
What specifically stood out to me in this concert was his interaction with the crowd- after a couple of songs, he talked and gave “motivational speeches,” and while this was entertaining and beneficial for some, to me, they got boring. After some time, during his 10-minute speech, I stood up and went to get merch. The merchandise was both of Drake, J. Cole, and their shared tour. I was excited to get a For All the Dogs album hoodie, but sadly, they didn’t have any.
While this really unified him with the crowd and created this positive and family-like energy in the arena, I wished he put the same amount of energy while singing his songs.
J Cole, later made an appearance, singing his singles as ‘Power Trip’ and ‘No Role Modelz.’ His performance truly stood out to me, as it felt genuine, and he did interact with the crowd too, sharing his story, and sang most of his songs, rather than using autotune.
The concert sets were also memorable- with visual effects such as fire, smoke, props like Spiderman & a flying brassiere and ending with a confetti dump.
What I’ve never seen personally, is an artist performing in the air, and Drake did make it happen. He sang ‘Work’ and ‘One Dance’ in a flying cage.
Drake left the crowd full of emotions and concluded his last performance in Tampa with his iconic motto:
“Live without pretending, love without depending, listen without defending, speak without offending.”