Taped to White Oak Music Hall’s box office window was a sheet of paper that read “Christian Kuria. Sold Out,” and once the show started, it was easy to see why. The California-based R&B singer stopped in Houston for one of the many sold-out dates on his first US tour. Fans couldn’t be more excited to welcome him to the city, lining up for hours outside the venue and packing up tightly in front of the stage once doors opened.

It was as if the young musician was born to be on stage. He rushed towards the microphone after his band finished setting up to perform one of his more recent singles, “Ride,” with all the confidence of someone who had been performing for years. A bright grin spread across his face, and once the song ended, he began telling the audience that it was his first time in the city, thanking them for selling out the show.

The audience was full of dedicated fans that seemed to know every lyric to every song. While they were loudest during his older songs like “So” or “Losing You,” when Christian announced that he would be singing his latest single, fans quickly started yelling “Slow Fade” before he could properly introduce it.

That being said, fans’ singing couldn’t hide Christian’s impressive vocals. While most of his songs allowed him to showcase his calm, smooth vocals, he was also able to show fans his range in his newer tracks like “Slow Fade” and other unreleased tracks that required him to use falsetto.

Christian surprised fans by announcing that the reason he went on tour without releasing a new album is because he wanted to perform some of his new album for fans live before officially releasing it. This made for a unique experience as fans got to hear two of his songs, “Undecided” and “Paradigm,” for the first time. Christian said his upcoming album will be a change of sound for him, and fans in the audience seemed to enjoy his new musical direction.

The highlight of the night were his powerful guitar solos. While his guitar was with him throughout the entire show, during most songs, it was easy to focus on his singing instead of his playing. This was untrue of the guitar solos that brought his songs “Paradigm” and “Deep Green” to a close. He gave both sides of the stage love as he played his guitar within arms reach of fans, who stood back in awe, for what felt like minutes. While both songs were great, you couldn’t blame fans if the only thing they remembered about them was how they ended.

Houston fans loved Christian, and Christian loved Houston fans. There were multiple instances where Christian would look at the crowd with a smile on his face, seemingly amazed that so many people came to see him. He thanked fans repeatedly while making hand hearts at them and fist bumping a few fans. Before he left the stage, he took fans' phones from their hands and filmed the crowd or took selfies with them. The minute he went back into his green room, fans started screaming “one more song” to get him to come back on stage.

Before Christian could hook his guitar up to the amplifier, fans all started requesting the same song, “Complicated,” one of the first songs he’d ever released. Christian joked that it was a good thing the encore song was different in every city since fans already had a song in mind. He sang two songs, “Complicated” and “Too Good,” before finally saying goodnight. Fans were able to go home content after singing their hearts out to their favorite songs with their favorite artist.

Have you seen Christian Kuria on tour? What was your highlight of the concert? Let us know by leaving a comment below or by reaching out on Instagram or X (Twitter)!

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Edited by Martina Yee

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