Diversity tells us how Covid amplified the importance of this tour, and how lucky they feel to have such brilliant fans as they talk to our Birmingham reviewer Priya Gupta.
Ashley and Jordan Banjo and Perri Kylie tell us on their diversity connected tour the sheer coincidence of their tour is more relevant than ever due to the past couple of years. They also discuss how supportive and dedicated their fan base is.
This is a jampacked tour for diversity, with 80 shows in the pipeline. They shared that it feels amazing to be back in jam-packed theatres, being able to do what they love and that getting the crowd’s reaction is something that they have missed. The response has been bigger and better on this tour, and this could be because many of the shows have been sold out. For them it felt surreal to be back onstage and weird, going from doing nothing to having a crazy, hectic schedule again, but being out there with their friends and family makes it all the better. Because that’s what diversity is, it is a family-led environment and that is something that is made very apparent when they’re all dancing on stage.
Since they travel all over the UK on this tour, I had to ask them if they could name a particular place that they loved coming back to. Unsurprisingly, they said Birmingham because as the shows get bigger the crowd’s response follows this pattern too. They are back in Birmingham in June; they feel welcomed here and feel like it’s such a vibrant city of culture and they’re received very warmly. Of course, they also love performing in London because nothing beats their home crowd where they are based. But overall, they’ve said that the response is always incredible wherever they go because they know that people just really want to see them, and that’s why they’re in the room.
Interestingly, I learned that the show was called Connected long before the pandemic had even begun and then after the lockdown, everything that happened in those last two years, became even more relevant to be so connected. They also said they weren’t afraid to look at both the positives and negatives of social media on the internet. Because whilst they could just share the happy Instagrammable moments they felt a responsibility to use their platform due to the number of kids and people who come and see the show to be relatively honest and paint a much more complete picture.
Diversity has a wide variety in their fanbase, ranging from all generations, sexes, and races. I asked them if they ever felt conscious of trying to be responsible and portray themselves in a particular way. They said they try not to get overly bogged down with their image and what people think of them because that can be unhealthy at times. However, they do want everybody to see them as their genuine, authentic selves. They just want to do the best they can in all aspects.
I asked them what they’d like fans to take away from this tour, they want you to invest in people, especially after such a hard two years. Because connecting to someone through technology holds so much more power than we ever thought it could. And we’re lucky to live in a world where these devices such as our smartphones and tablets exist because it allows us to connect with anybody all over the globe. This tour has so much relevance and so much power. And who knows where technology will advance and how it will develop and where we will go with it.
To find out more about Diversity’s tour dates, head on over to https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/diversity-tickets/artist/93963
Interviewer: Priya Gupta