The Town: NeYo sings hit “So Sick”
NeYo appeared at the end of the first half of the 2000s, tuning in to The Town’s audience via the then FM radio stations that played so many of the American singer’s hits in the decade before last.
The swinging pop singer performed with a booming sound on the One Stage, the festival’s second largest stage in São Paulo. In both directions: The sound pressure caused many people to scratch their ears; and the nostalgic hits got almost the entire audience dancing. In some places the noise reached 95 decibels, comparable to that of a chainsaw.
“For those who don’t know me, I’m NeYo, it’s a great pleasure to meet you. For those who know me, it is also a great joy,” says the 43yearold singer at the beginning of the show this Thursday (7).
1 of 1 NeYo performs on The One stage at The Town 2023 Photo: Rafael Leal /g1 NeYo performs on The One stage at The Town 2023 Photo: Rafael Leal /g1
Interactions with fans and steps are very well rehearsed. Everything is very branded, like a pop star who was once called “Michael Jackson’s heir,” the cursed label that also attached to Chris Brown and Justin Timberlake.
Shaffer Chimere Smith, the singer’s real name, knows what he’s doing. He sprinkles hits throughout the set: “Because of you” and “Ms. Independent” at the beginning; “Sexy love” and “So sick” in the middle; “Give me everything” and “Time of your life” at the end.
In general, he spends little time on nonsense. There is only one “competition” in which women from the audience (preselected so as not to shorten the performance) dance with him during “Push Back”.
NeYo invites fans to dance on stage at The Town
Full of grooves and hits, he even delivers a section with songs he composed for other artists. It’s the craziest moment of the show. Instead of arranging and singing the songs live with his band, he just shouts “Do you know this song?”
Instead of performing, he just wants to take advantage of the opportunity to cowrite Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” and Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable.”
It wasn’t his first time in Brazil. In 2014, NeYo danced to the sound of timbalada while singing at the Salvador Summer Festival and wrapped himself in a Gremio flag at the Planeta Atlântida Festival.
This time he dispensed with this kind of parroting a bit and indulged in radiofriendly romantic soul nostalgia. The audience went along. If NeYo is not on the main stage at The Town 2025, I will change my name to Neyozinho Lorentz.