Kelis raises the roof at Sage Gateshead ahead of Glastonbury appearance

She brought Saturday night levels of energy to her performance, one of just two UK gig appearances (featuring, of course, a milkshake stand in the foyer) ahead of a summer featuring prestigious festival shows including a headline set on Glastonbury’s West Holts stage.

With a career spanning decades and six million album sales, going right back to debut Kaleidoscope in 1999, she has a vast back catalogue to entertain the crowds – and that she did with a colourful spectacle of musicality.

Dressed head to toe in silver sequins, she had a commanding presence and oozed cool on stage as she worked her way through a non-stop hour and a half set backed by a six-piece band including a DJ.

Caught Out There, the hit which launched her sound to the world, sounded as good today as it did back then, a clapback at a cheating boyfriend full of sass and crunch and the explosive chorus “I hate you so much right now.”

The chef’s set was peppered with plenty of other odes to empowerment such as Bossy, Trick Me and Got Your Money.

Some sharp mixes too from Kelis’s DJ who was great at getting everyone on their feet.

Kelis’s music is a real fusion of genres —she’s collaborated with R&B and hip-hop acts including Busta Rhymes and Clipse, electronic and dance producers such as Calvin Harris, Timo Maas, and Richard X, pop and rock acts Enrique Iglesias and No Doubt and indie and alternative musicians including Björk and Dave Sitek.

And her voice is an equal chameleon, as at home with the raw hip hop shouts of Caught Out There as it is with the more mellow, velvety tones of The Key, the lament of Get Along With You and the upbeat dance of Millionaire and Acapella.

Dance track Bounce, on which she collaborated with Calvin Harris, did what it said on the tin and had the whole Sage bouncing.

The most-anticipated track was possibly Milkshake and she didn’t disappoint: Kelis does indeed know what the guys go crazy for.