When Jordin Sparks told fans that she was singing her final song of the evening and then broke into a strong version of “No Air,” they believed her. As the song wrapped up, they started heading for the exits and there was very little clapping for the already-planned encore with Jesse McCartney for a fun version of Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” – so little interest, in fact, that the band had to start the song early to fill the silence at Nokia Theatre Times Square so that the place wouldn’t completely empty out.
It’s not that Sparks was that bad, because she wasn’t. The 18-year-old was in fine voice and her winning, excitable personality was broadly on display. She just isn’t a headliner yet and she really had to stretch to fill her hour-long set – throwing in loads of covers, an unsuccessful Q&A period, a lengthy band introduction, a bit of unfocused storytelling, and lots of giggling and waving and “I love you, too”s. When she opened with her current single “One Step at a Time,” it became clear that she had to open with that because she doesn’t really have another uptempo song of that quality in her catalog.
This isn’t really her fault either, more a product of her circumstances as a young artist. But after a while, it became painful watching her strain to make her 30 minutes of strong material last for an hour. She may have been better served letting this tour go and heading back into the studio to work on more material.
Sparks shows plenty of star quality, but she isn’t quite a superstar just yet.
SETLIST: One Step at a Time / Just For the Record / Fallin’ / Freeze / Now You Tell Me / Tattoo / Superstition / Let Him Fly / Give Me One Reason / Virginia Is for Lovers / No Air / The Way You Make Me Feel
PHOTO: Jive Records