Abel Tesfaye, aka the Weeknd, is receiving the kind of cheers you rarely hear for what is technically a support act. The fast-rising 22-year-old Toronto wunderkind is Michael Jackson drenched in echo, an R&B producer experimental enough to incorporate a Siouxsie and the Banshees tune and a Smiths lyric into a tantalising fog of sound. His songs may drift out of focus and into uncomfortable descriptions of naughty things with drunken, vulnerable females, but a sea of sparkling audience phones suggests his next appearance here will be as a headline.
Canadian rapper Drake is playing to 40,000 people over two nights in Manchester alone, even if it's not immediately obvious why. His flow isn't as dazzling as Jay Z's, he's not as good a lyricist as Eminem or as experimental as Kanye, but by ticking multiple boxes well enough, he's ended up a superstar. His lyrics equally vary wildly from vulnerable confessionals of childhood traumas to multiple eulogies to a "pussy" who possibly isn't his cat. Many songs concern the acquisition of huge amounts of money – only to be expected from a man who has stated an ambition to own the world's biggest home swimming pool.
However, when the crowd are filmed singing "I want to be successful" it feels as if he's tapped into a wave of aspiration, throwing a glittering party at which anyone can share the spotlight, if only for a millisecond. Drake is a phenomenal showman, with lasers, fireworks and a giant second stage that descends so he can meet his people, though that takes up a disproportionate amount of time that might better served by more genuinely huge tunes. However, Started From the Bottom is powerful and personal, and suggests that the 27-year-old is as baffled by the scale of his phenomenon as anyone else.
