Words and photos by Tania Graham-Brown
Jalen Ngonda has returned to Australia for a bunch of headline dates, following sell-out demand in early 2025. Best known for his instantly recognisable track “If You Don’t Want My Love”, Jalen has risen to the forefront of the R&B scene, describing his own sound as “modern soul with a touch of the Beach Boys and the Beatles”.
Support act for the tour, Melbourne based soul singer Wilsn continues to impress with her vintage-inspired vocals and heartfelt versions of songs, mainly from her new album Bloom.
On the final night of his Australian run, Jalen Ngonda turned the Enmore Theatre into something closer to a 1960s soul club than a modern Sydney venue. Backed by a tight band and bathed in warm analogue feeling light, he delivered a set that felt timeless. He had the crowd laughing one moment and fully locked in and absorbed the next.
Ngonda’s voice, that impossibly smooth falsetto is the centrepiece. It glides between silk and heartbreak with the kind of ease that makes you forget how rare a voice like that is. Tracks like “Come Around and Love Me” and “Don’t You Remember” landed exactly as they do on record, only warmer, looser, and carried by a crowd that seemed enraptured.
What stood out most was the restraint. He doesn’t oversing, doesn’t chase the big moment. Instead he lets the melody do the work, slipping into that soaring falsetto and then dropping back into something softer and more conversational and the crowd followed him the whole way
It felt like Sydney got a reminder that soul music, when it’s done this well, never really ages. It just keeps finding new voices. And Jalen Ngonda might be one of the best we’ve heard in a long time.
