Jalen Ngonda Returns to Cologne With a Bigger Audience
Jalen Ngonda returned to Cologne after roughly two and a half years. His last appearance in the city was at Luxor in 2024; this time, he played to more than 1,000 people at Carlswerk Victoria—roughly three times the audience he had previously drawn.
The evening opened with Brooke Combe, accompanied by an electric guitar player. She brought a powerful vocal range to the stage and received a warm welcome from the Cologne crowd, setting the tone for the night ahead.
Ngonda took the stage at 9 PM, backed by a four-piece band and two female backing vocalists. In addition to lead vocals, he handled guitar duties throughout the show, occasionally switching to a vintage Korg keyboard for a few songs.
The sound mix was crisp, with every vocal cutting through cleanly. In the live setting, Ngonda’s music also took on a somewhat beefier sound than on his studio recordings, while retaining the soulful character that defines his work.
Visually, the band fully embraced the style of the music. Ngonda appeared in a sharp, 1960s-cut suit, playing Fender guitars, while the rest of the band matched the retro aesthetic. Despite the colourful LED stage lighting, the overall impression was that the audience had been transported back to the 1960s.
Ngonda took a different route to finding his audience. In 2014, at the age of 20, he moved to the United Kingdom to attend the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) and pursue music. He has been based in the UK ever since, finding his first success in the north of England, an area with a rich musical history and deep connections to the Northern Soul scene.
Influenced by the greats of soul, Ngonda has carved out his own path rather than chasing current musical trends. His music feels deliberately removed from the contemporary mainstream, drawing instead on the sound, songwriting and aesthetics of another era while remaining distinctly his own.
His second studio album was released just a few months ago, and the Cologne set included several songs from the new record, including “Hannah, What’s The Matter?”, “Anyone In Love,” “Hang It on the Shelf,” and “Burning Temptation.” These were balanced with crowd favourites such as “Just Like You Used To,” “Come Around and Love Me,” “That’s All I Wanted from You,” and, of course, “If You Don’t Want My Love.”
With more than 1,000 people filling Carlswerk Victoria on a Monday evening, Ngonda’s return to Cologne showed just how much his audience has grown in the city since his last visit. From the intimate Luxor show to a substantially larger Carlswerk Victoria crowd, his Cologne following appears to be growing at a healthy pace.
