Miranda Pell reviews Jason Derulo at the Manchester Co-op Live Arena on Saturday 7 February
05:38, 08 Feb 2026Updated 05:39, 08 Feb 2026
Jason Derulo performed at the Co-op Live on Saturday 7 February(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)
Jason Derulo set the Co-op Live on fire on Saturday night as he brought The Last Dance 2026 Tour to Manchester for one night only.
The US singer, from Miami, Florida, rose to fame back in late 2009 after the release of his debut hit Watcha Say, before going on to create a number of iconic noughties songs including Riding Solo, In My Head and It Girl – all of which feature the ear-worm tag he’s known best for (you’re singing ‘Jaaaasonnn Deruuulooo’ right now aren’t you?).
Derulo performed in Manchester as part of his Last Dance 2026 Tour(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)
Derulo’s back-up dancers took centre stage for large parts of the night(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)
Finally at around 8:50pm, a 60-second countdown started playing on a mammoth screen above the stage, sending the 23,500 capacity audience into an absolute frenzy.
Derulo finally appeared on stage, donning an all-black leather outfit adorned with chunky, sparkly jewellery. Immediately, despite the fully seated arrangements, every fan in the arena took to their feet. With his dramatic dancers in tow, Derulo launched into a seductive and upbeat Sexy For Me, followed straight up with Wiggle, changing it up slightly for the Reggaeton-style hit Acapulco, before getting the audience screaming along to Watcha Say.
During almost every moment of the lengthy two-hour show, the stage was filled by dozens of dancers donning extravagant costumes, dancing on each other and up on Derulo, which consisted of breakdancing, gymnastic-level flexibility and plenty of twerking.
On top of that, dramatic pyrotechnics were used to blow fire and sparks from the stage. And while the theatrics didn’t exactly take away from Derulo at centre stage, it did slightly steal the focus of your attention.
Derulo performed all of his well-known hits including It Girl, Talk Dirty To Me, and Trumpets(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)
During his Co-op Live gig, Derulo performed all the hits you would expect to hear including his viral TikTok sensation Savage Love, the dark and eerie Cheyenne which resembled a Michael Jackson video, noughties hits It Girl and Other Side, as well as some of his newer tracks including You DJ I’ll Drive and Who Hurt You.
The R&B legend finished off the night with his 2015 hit Want To Want Me, with every fan in the nearly-full arena singing and boogying away.
Throughout the two-hour show, the stage design was dramatically changed multiple times. Various different scenes were laid out with titles including Derulo Jungle and Derulo Volcano, the latter of which featured lava-like backdrops and red confetti. At one point, a huge Medusa head sat on the stage, in keeping with the tone of Derulo’s 2025 hit Snake.
While I was expecting an energetic night – less about Derulo’s voice itself (which was heavily autotuned but powerful at times) and more about sharing the songs people know and love – I was impressed by the dramatic set changes and the choreo from the team of talented dancers, including Derulo himself.
Derulo donned several different coats during his Manchester performance(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)
In this day and age it’s easy to watch almost an entire concert via TikTok without having to attend, so ahead of Derulo’s Co-op Live gig I intentionally avoided watching videos from his Last Dance Tour. Because of this, I didn’t know what to expect, and I was very pleasantly surprised by the production of The Last Dance.
Jason Derulo is set to perform in Dublin on Monday 9 February at the 3Arena before he completes his tour in Europe.