Monday 16th May held way to the latest instalment of the bi-weekly music showcase known as ILUVLIVE. The event specialises in showcasing all the hottest new talent that is coming out of the music scene and this week was no exception.

The first act to take the stage is always the last open mic winner, and this week it was a young lady known as Kookie. She kept her nerves and provided a very cool, calm and collected first performance for the evening. Kookie was then followed by Kadija Kamara whose stage presence was obvious from the minute she walked out. She kept the audience thoroughly entertained with her vocal ability and tambourine playing skills whilst also engaging the crowd into singing along with her (multitasking at it's finest).

G.R.E.Ed.S and The Remedies then took the stage for some spoken word. It brought a nice change to the evening and the crowd were obviously excited by his appearance. Kat B joined him on stage for the last track and provided humorous sound effects leaving the crowd in stitches at his animal noises. After that performance I believe we were all indeed convinced 2011 is most definitely the 'Year Of The Poet'

Next came Left Step band who provided maximal energy exciting the crowd and providing great lyrical content. Ash performed next, bringing West London representatives to the East. He had a lot of crowd support following his deep lyrical content.

Marger then brought that raw grime flow to the stage, making sure everyone knew that 'grime is alive'. His performance was very energetic as he bounced from one side of the stage to the other. On his second track he was joined by singer Molly whose vocals accompanied his flow perfectly.

The final act consisted of 3 young men commonly known as Encore. Signed to Island records these good looking boys provided harmonic melodies that had the crowd mesmerised. They provided acoustic renditions for their first two songs and brought in the band for their final track which was their upcoming single 'Tit for Tat' remixed with a 'reggae twist'. These guys are definitely one to watch!

As always, the night was finished off with an open mic competition. The winner this week was Chalk who provided the crowd with jokes and giggles with his 30second performance of 'The White Boy Dance'.

Overall, another successful night from the ILUVLIVE team and we look forward to next one on May 30th.

Words: Nyla 

Photography: Adeyinka Adepitan