Summertime Ball

95.8 Capital FM's Summertime Ball
Mini-festival concert by 95.8 Capital FM
	File:Summertime Ball - 95.8 Capital FM.jpg Summertime Ball 2009 Official Logo
Venue	Emirates Stadium (2009) Wembley Stadium (2010-)
95.8 Capital FM concert chronology
	; 7 June 2009 at the Emirates Stadium; ; 6 June 2010 at Wembley Stadium; ; June/July 2011;

The Summertime Ball is a concert held every year, in the Summer, by 95.8 Capital FM. The first ball was at Emirates Stadium while the second was at Wembley Stadium . Headline acts have included Rihanna, Usher, Kelly Clarkson, Akon and Leona Lewis. A portion of ticket sales profit is donated to Help a London Child, 95.8 Capital FM's charity.

The event is hosted by 95.8 Capital FM presenters Johnny Vaughan, Lisa Snowdon, Richard Clarke (radio personality) and Kat Shoob

2009

Artists (in order of performance):^[1]

The first three acts to be announced were Kelly Clarkson, Leona Lewis and Akon. These three acts were promoted as the headline acts. The critical response to the mini-festival was generally positive. Critics tend to agree that the originial American Idol, Kelly Clarkson stole the show with an outstanding acoustic version of her "Because of You", where the crowd's singing was said to be heard for miles. The mini-festival was also touted as Leona Lewis' home-coming gig, due to the fact that she had spent the majority of the year in the USA promoting her album. The critical response to her Bleeding Love was mainly positive. Moreover, the ball in 2009 was blessed to have musical legend, Lionel Richie perform infront of the 55,000 strong crowd. In addition to securing music royalty with Lionel Richie, London's number one radio station managed to reform boy band Blue for a one off gig. Katy Perry opened the show, performing in front of her largest ever audience, and was also rated highly as one of the most interesting artists that day. Many had expected Lady Gaga to be a headliner, but although she never appeared at the Summertime Ball she later appeared at the Jingle Bell Ball on Saturday 5th December 2009. ^[2]

2010

Artists^[3]:

Capital's 'Introducing Segment: ^[4]

Special guests included:

A second ball was held on the 6 June 2010 at Wembley Stadium. Tickets went on sale at 19 April 2010 and had sold out by 24 April 2010. The first five acts to be announced in 2010, and promoted as the headliners were Usher, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Cheryl Cole and JLS. The critical response to the 2010 mini-festival was generally mixed. The Guardian ^[5] acknowledged the fact that many of the artists who played did not reach the vocal bench mark of the previous festival's headliner, Kelly Clarkson, or the star quality of music legend, Lionel Richie. This fact is evident in the comparitive album sales of the ball in 2009 and the ball in 2010, as the cumulative album sales of the artists the year before surpassed 200 million, whereas in 2010, the combined world-wide album sales were inferior to 100 million. Highlights of the day vocally were Florence and the Machine's guest performance to Dizzee Rascal, Alexandra Burke and Scouting For Girls. However, much of the critical response of tabloids such as, The Evening Standard, was focused on the dress sense of the female singers such as, Pixie Lott, Ke$ha, Cheryl Cole and Esmee Denters. This in itself lends to the general consensus that Wembley Stadium, which saw a 70,000 strong crowd, was too big an arena for the vocal ability and star quality of the acts.

References

External Links

[1] ttp://www.capitalfm.com/music-showbiz/summertime-ball/2009/

[2] ttp://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/09/capital-fm-summertime-ball

[3] ttp://www.capitalfm.com/music-showbiz/summertime-ball/artists/

[4] ttp://www.capitalfm.com/artists/wanted/

[5] ttp://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jun/07/the-summertime-ball-review

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]