Concert date: 9/11/99 Birmingham, UK

Review of the show:
From the moment Whitney came on stage it was clear that the voice was in excellent form tonight. Opening with Get It Back and then moving into Heartbreak Hotel, Whitney appeared happy and very relaxed, more so than in any concert I have seen her since 19 88. Much of the early set was from the MLIYL album. I thought her performance of HH was one of the highlights of the evening - never has she sounded more convincingly hurt and gone were the sugary renditions of Where Do Broken Hearts Go.

Despite this the crowd really failed to warm up until she caressed the notes of Saving All My Love in a much more mature version of this song than I have ever heard - a fantastic arrangement. It was notable that this song was performed in a key lower than that of the original recording, but this gave Whitney the opportunity to perform lower and richer notes than I have ever heard before.

The crowd really came to life during Step By Step and much of the audience at this point got to its feet. Fantastic versions of IWDWS, HWIK and IEW followed, seperated by a soulful rendition of Change the World by Gary. I was very pleased to hear the updated version of IWDWS, which avoided revisiting an arrangement which now sounds very dated.

In IBIYAM Whitney missed her only note of the night, and not a high one at that. However, she also gave us some of these gorgeous, newly-found, rich, deep notes.

The gospel section of the set was, unsurprisingly, a high point with Whitney's voice in amazing form. There is no doubt th at she really is stirred to praise the Lord and no-one in the audience could have been failed to be moved by this. It was followed by a delicious performance of the sublime MLIYL, which brought the audience to its feet and had them singing along with her all the way.

The finale, a superb version of IWALY, again brought the audence to its feet for a huge standing ovation. She hit everything and milked the crowd for all she was worth before the final modulation - and they responded. The encore, a Diva's Live arrangement of INRBIO, again brought everyone to its feet.

Whitney has moved on from the girl who gave us DWAHIA, TGLOA, WDBHG and is now a mature voice who can convincingly sing of both love and heartbreak. Tonight she was on excellent form and convinced me that we should stop whinging about the loss of '80s Whitney (including that voice) and celebrate the emergence of a new Whitney, with an equally spectacular, if different voice. I don't think I have ever heard her sound so good live as she did tonight and I don't think I have ever seen her look so relaxed on stage.

The support act, Amanda Marshall, played a very good set of 'light rock' numbers, playing, as her finale, a track entitled 'Birmingham'. Was this track called 'Sheffield' on Thursday?.........or maybe 'Rotherham' scans better?