Craig David and band perform for his 7 Days Commitment Tour at the Chicago Theatre on May 13, 2024. It’s been more than 20 years since Craig David last performed in Chicago and the pop music landscape has changed. Some would say for the worst.
David, who hails from the U.K., first broke out on the scene in the late ’90s with a signature brand of pop that focused on R&B as well as the then-emerging garage sound of British dance floors. Surprisingly, it worked, connecting to a generation that gobbled up new music. Here in the U.S., David is perhaps best known for his singles “Fill Me In” and “7 Days,” the latter of which reached No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2000.
And the audience responded with enthusiasm in turn, jumping up and down, breaking out their cell phones to record and singing along to all of the older hits as well as some of the newer ones . During “Rise & Fall,” a 2003 collaboration with Sting, one audience member shouted “I love you, Craig. I never stopped loving you.”
“I was super gassed to come here because I know how much of a music city it is. How important it is here,” David said at one point, reflecting on the 23 years that had passed since his last show here.