Brazilian singer-songwriter Leo Middea has established himself with a small but loyal fanbase over his ten year career. Still only 30, Middea has self-released five albums that have been popular enough to allow him to tour all over the world. Currently in the UK, here Middea made his Newcastle debut to an extremely enthusiastic and supportive group.
With boyish good looks including a charming smile and a twinkling eye, Middea immediately wins the hearts of the crowd. With just the use of his beautiful singing voice and a classical nylon string acoustic guitar which he handles expertly, he treats the audience to an hour of his own songs, which include dashes of bossa nova, folk and samba. This biggest influence seems to be Middea’s fellow Brazilian Jorge Ben Jor, who Middea even directly homages with a quick excerpt of his instantly recognisable 1963 hit Mas, Que Nada.
All but one of the songs performed is in Middea’s native tongue of Portuguese (the other was his first and to date only attempt at writing lyrics in English), although even someone who has no knowledge of the language can appreciate his vocal and musical talents, as well as the lilting tunes that he has come up with.
Although a lot of the crowd at Newcastle were Portuguese-speaking fans who sang along with many of the numbers, Middea’s songs often feature a simple and very catchy chorus which even the uninitiated can quickly grasp and join in with – even if they have no idea what the lyrics mean. This was the case in Newcastle where for several of the songs he first explained the chorus in advance and openly encouraged audience participation. This was very effective particularly in such an intimate venue as Alphabetti.
Middea is an obvious talent and deserves to move up to bigger things. In the meantime he seems more than happy to continue his sold-out world tour, but if there are any tickets left, he is definitely an artist worth spending an hour of your time with.
Reviewed on 23rd May 2025
UK Tour continues until 31st May 2025
