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![\"JOHN](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4337310_web1_260623_akon_04.JPG\")
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JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
Akon performs during the Nights Like This Tour in Winnipeg, Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The pair of American R&B heavyweights thankfully left the twang at home for Tuesday night\u2019s sold-out concert at Canada Life Centre. Instead, the co-headliners delivered a setlist packed with 2000s club hits celebrating the height of bottle popping and booty shaking.<\/p>\n
Concert Review<\/p>\n
Ne-Yo and Akon<\/p>\n
Canada Life Centre
\nTuesday, June 23
\nAttendance: approximately 13,500
\n4.5 stars out of five<\/p>\n
Judging by the deafening reception, it\u2019s exactly the kind of nostalgia the overwhelmingly millennial crowd came to enjoy \u2014 even if it was a late and long weeknight party.<\/p>\n
Ne-Yo and Akon\u2019s global Nights Like This Tour is a co-headlining production, with each artist given equal alternating stage time.<\/p>\n
Ne-Yo kicked things off in grand fashion, setting the tone for a loud, fast-paced night.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Ne-Yo performs during the Nights Like This Tour in Winnipeg, Tuesday.<\/p>\n The 46-year-old Grammy-winning artist rose from the floor following a Fast and Furious-esque montage. His first act paid tribute to Michael Jackson, opening with a brief cover of The Way You Make Me Feel while wearing a black, glittering King of Pop-esque military jacket.<\/p>\n Ne-Yo and his signature falsetto were flanked by gospel singers, a brass section and a quartet of scantily-clad dancers during energetic renditions of Miss Independent and Champagne Life.<\/p>\n Akon made his appearance following a seamless transition, descending from behind a large two-sided screen dressed head-to-toe in white. Joined by a pair of breakdancers, the 53-year-old singer opened with the title track off his new album, Beautiful Day, before quickly moving on to mega hits Smack That and Locked Up.<\/p>\n Pyrotechnics were blazing within the first 15 minutes and the onstage action didn\u2019t quit for nearly three-hours, save for a brief mid-concert intermission \u2014 an arena show first for this reviewer.<\/p>\n The co-stars proceeded to volley the spotlight back and forth through a flurry of era-defining hits and impressive showmanship from the main and supporting acts: suspended pole dancing, soulful choral singing, a live backing band, a dozen outfit changes, more pyro, Akon playing the guitar and the congas, Ne-Yo flying through the air while grinding with an aerial artist.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Akon performs during the Nights Like This Tour in Winnipeg, Tuesday.<\/p>\n The crowd of 13,500 people erupted when the duo finally took the stage together for a series of covers. Ne-Yo and Akon led the audience through a singalong of David Guetta\u2019s Titanium, Rhianna\u2019s Take a Bow and other Top 40 favourites, further underlining the late-aughts era in which the night was firmly set.<\/p>\n Things got slow-jammier in the second half but the energy never flagged.<\/p>\n Akon brought a group of fans up for a post-intermission dance party before launching into Sorry, Blame it on Me and Lonely. During the latter he was carried into the crowd like a sultan, seated on a white platform held aloft by a group of beefy bodyguards.<\/p>\n Backed by a string ensemble, Ne-Yo returned with So Sick and Mad while his aerialist once again spun from the rafters while sparks rained down. Things did, in fact, get a little bit country when he donned a cowboy hat and gripped a red Solo Cup during Up Out & Gone, a single off his new album.<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\tDish<\/p>\n Every Second Friday<\/p>\n The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney.<\/p>\n \t\t\tSign up for Dish<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t Despite a belated 9 p.m. start \u2014 on a school night no less, the audience spent the whole concert on its feet, dancing, screaming and passionately singing along to originals and well-placed covers.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Ne-Yo performs during the Nights Like This Tour in Winnipeg, Tuesday.<\/p>\n Ne-Yo and Akon reunited at centre stage for a closing performance of Guetta\u2019s Play Hard punctuated by a spray of streamers and a blast of confetti.<\/p>\n Tuesday night\u2019s show was a top-tier example of what can happen when two artists of equal acclaim share the same bill: sky-high production value, non-stop energy and a bottomless pit of bangers.<\/p>\n Nights like these are worth the price of admission.<\/p>\n eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Akon performs during the Nights Like This Tour in Winnipeg, Tuesday.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Ne-Yo performs during the Nights Like This Tour in Winnipeg, Tuesday.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Akon performs during the Nights Like This Tour in Winnipeg, Tuesday.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Ne-Yo performs during the Nights Like This Tour in Winnipeg, Tuesday.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Akon performs during the Nights Like This Tour in Winnipeg, Tuesday.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Ne-Yo performs during the Nights Like This Tour in Winnipeg, Tuesday.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Eva Wasney Eva Wasney has been a reporter with the Free Press Arts & Life department since 2019. Read more about Eva<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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