Ne-Yo and Akon review – a fun road trip together is like going to a haunted house in 2010 | Ne-Yo

For pop-R&B leaning towards millennials, a combination of Ne-Yo and Akon on this co-headlining tour has a serious nose problem, which starts immediately with smoke billowing around Ne-Yo’s black fedora and Michael Jackson-inspired moves. But there’s an undeniable magic beyond that, as the two artists pull off a career that spawned eight UK No 1 singles and 410 weeks in the Top 40 between them between the late 00s and early 10s.

Just three hours later, the two exchange glances, and see each other in harmony with each other. Beginning with a snippet of Jackson’s The Way You Make Me Feel before segueing into his 2008 single Miss Independent, Ne-Yo is calm and mellow in his vocals and his lyricism, a stark contrast to Akon’s charisma and the party-starting energy that comes with hits like Smack That – the first time.

The heat of Ne-Yo’s She Knows and Sexy Love is fueled by leather-clad dancers and the addition of massive aerial strings. Meanwhile, Akon brings a funky carnival vibe, hitting conga drums before the sweet and sunny Don’t Matter and the heavy Lonely.

“We’ve got a lot of hits,” says Akon as he wrestles with songs he’s often forgotten. Ne-Yo gives us Mario’s Let Me Love You, Rihanna’s Take a Bow and Beyoncé’s Irreplaceable, all of which he co-wrote, singing Ladyapple songs solo. Gaga’s Just Dance, which – just a little bit on the pop pub interview, this – she wrote with him back in 2008.

As he continues through Ne-Yo’s So Sick and his Pitbull collaboration Give Me Everyone, to David Guetta’s Akon-featuring Sexy Bitch, which takes honest R&B to sambuca-friendly EDM, the show doesn’t seem like a cheesy payback or a cynical cash-in. Instead, it’s a mixed bag of fun that showcases the duo’s impact on pop culture for a while.