Live Review MØ, XOYO, London 25th November 2015

Having a cult following is nothing to be snarked at, but it’s always not always a notch on the bedpost of success. Still, XOYO is swimming, almost drowning, with people tonight. There’s a pair to the right desperately squabbling over who’s going to stand in front of who, equally, there’s a group equidistant bopping behind a stone pillar and that’s fine by them. MØ doesn’t only appeal to a certain circle of hardcore believers.

She arrives to a frantic crowd as piercing white lights introduce her into the handclap heavy rhythms of ‘Pilgrim’. Taking this all in are an audience that have all since thrown their composure to the wind.

Demonstrating her ability to contest impressive vocals with unbridled energy the Danish artist, quickly ditching her slick silver bomber, refuses to stop dancing. Curling, punching and gliding her hands through every beat as though orchestrating the entire thing through her fingertips, there’s a distinctive sense that she’s thoroughly enjoying this. Enthusiasm like that is hard to fake.

‘Kamikaze’ bursts down in sticky electro-pop bubbles while ‘Waste of time’, arguably her most powerful work to date, emerges snarling and biting. Major Lazer collaboration finale ‘Lean On’ incites full-blown frenzy: an atmosphere spoiled only by a crowd seemingly obsessed with filming the whole bloody thing.

The singer only released debut LP ‘No Mythologies To Follow’ a year ago, but the dab-hand confidence that leads her both into and over the heads of the masses makes that all too easy to forget. Cool, commanding and teeming with charisma, Ørsted is an absolute powerhouse tonight. It was always a question of whether her live show could match her studio offerings and actually, it trumps them. This is something to be seen as well as heard.