Riding with Olly Alexander on Night Call Tour at the Montreux Jazz Festival

After his UK Tour for his first solo album, Night Call, Olly Alexander dropped around Switzerland on the occasion of the mythical Montreux Jazz Festival. A swim in Lake Geneva later, he is on stage for an iconic performance, he and his incredible team of dancers all dressed up in mesh and leather, styled by Nick Royal, Alicia Rodriguez Aparicio & Salomé Rose.

“It’s crazy to be there in Montreux after all the extraordinary artists that performed here. But I’m probably the only one in a mesh bodysuit!"

The “It’s a Sin” star’s performance was up to the amazingly sexy standards of his post-lockdown and first solo album, Night Call. In reaction to his role in the AIDS crisis drama, the album is unapologetically sensual, provocative, and ecstatic. An ode to love and desire and a perfect pack of songs to dance to till the end of the night.

With kinky motorcycle helmets and metallic black dance bars, Years and Years tour dancers, Artemis Stamouli, Max Cookward, Jamie Graham, Kibrea Carmichael, and Sarah li Baugstø, offered an incredibly hot show made of cadenced and lascivious moves.

The show was made complete by the breathtaking vocals of Joell Fender, Holly Petrie & Tehillah Daniel, offering a shivers-packed performance that brought us close to tears. Mikey Goldsworthy, one of Years and Years' original members, was there too on the keyboard, synthesizer, and bass guitar, with Paris Jeffree at the drums.

One of the first openly gay pop stars, Olly Alexander has always been shaking things up. He dared to come up with the gayest tour this year in a finally changing climate where more and more queer stars are rising to the top without making any compromises about who they are. Seeing artists being this uncompromisingly gay on such a historical stage was for sure a legendary moment.

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Pictures © FFJM 2022 Marc Ducrest