Electric Picnic: Neneh Cherry - True to her soul

Neneh Cherry: don’t you get fresh with her. Photograph:  Rafa Rivas/AFP/Getty Images
Neneh Cherry: don’t you get fresh with her. Photograph: Rafa Rivas/AFP/Getty Images

There's a magic moment at the end of this wonderful show. It's the last song, it's Buffalo Stance and it's been reworked, refurbished and reupholstered for Neneh Cherry's 2014 version of wonky pop. She pauses mid-line, strikes a defiant pose with her hand on her hip and yells cheekily at the audience: "I'm f***ing 50".

She may have hit that milestone, but Neneh Cherry is the great survivor because she's never compromised. After Buffalo Stance and Seven Seconds, she could have gone down certain roads but instead, she stayed true to her heart and soul.

These days, she’s working with the Rocketnumbernine’s Ben and Tom Page and they’ve added some striking energy, experimental guile and wicked bass to her lyrics.

Concentrating mainly on tracks from this year's Blank Project album, Cherry and the Page brothers play a set which is playful and full of purpose. Her nibs is in charge all the way through, the queenpin who is still aiming at the stars. The real special one.

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