Can you fault Jessie Ware for wanting to keep a good party going? After three solid albums staking her claim in the singer-songwriter/Top 40 space (including co-writes with Ed Sheeran), Ware pivoted to the dancefloor for 2020’s What’s Your Pleasure? By recalling the days of Boney M, Donna Summer, and Studio 54, she took the musical world by storm, landing rave reviews and placements on a slew of Top 10 album lists that year. Ware is no stranger to DC, having performed at 9:30 Club three times already, but between What’s Your Pleasure? and 2023’s That! Feels Good!, the mood at her show this time around was decidedly different: ebullient, cathartic, and a whole lot of glitter to go around.

It’s no surprise that the show sold out in just a few hours back when it was first announced – people have been waiting with bated breath to dance together to these two albums’ worth of disco-inspired songs, along with older favorites that set the tone well for the night’s proceedings.

In between her recent, dancier tracks laid songs of pre-pandemic Jessie Ware, her singer-songwriter-era tracks like “Say You Love Me” and “Kind of…Sometimes…Maybe.” Her voice absolutely shines and served as a reminder that there’s a reason she was invited to do a Tiny Desk Concert eight years ago. As Ware sang with only her keyboard player in tow on stage, the crowd sang the chorus back at her. Near the end of “Say You Love Me,” one fan yelled a joke to her during her last few lines, causing her to crack up, unable to deliver the lines with the emotional gravitas she wanted to. But it’s okay because, beneath the well-choreographed facade of this tour, she is a wise-cracking, deeply honest, and unashamed performer and mother of three, and moments like these made her feel instantly more relatable to her fans. Though she spoke of missing her three children while on tour, she said she felt immensely fortunate to have this job: traveling around the world, entertaining sold-out crowd after sold-out crowd, culminating in one single thought on everyone’s minds as they left the venue that night: that felt good.

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