Enrique Iglesias at the 3Arena, Dublin, 23rd November 2014

Enrique Iglesias is not just a performer – he’s a brand. The crowd are introduced to the rum he endorses and his newest cologne, before they get a glimpse of the famous face behind the respective bottles. Grating, to say the least, and it is a trend that is continuing throughout the live circuit, especially during gigs of this stature.

Still, there is hope yet, in the form of Demi Lovato. The crowd are in convulsions at the sight of the former Disney princess, clad in leather and studs, with a significant pep in her step. Despite her tender years, she is a powerhouse vocalist. Nightingale and Give Your Heart A Break, see her deliver on all fronts. She does her version of Frozen’s Let It Go justice, but is near impossible to take seriously considering its saturation in every aspect of society.

On the more pop-centric tracks, Lovato shelves the majority of the vocal responsibility on her distracting backing vocalists. It is disappointing, because she shows she doesn’t need the help, yet continues on to rely on it almost entirely for Really Don’t Care and Firestarter.

She too displays a certain commercial drive when she refers to her competition, run in conjunction with music identification app Shazam, in which she dedicates My Love Is Like A Star to the winner, whose name she mispronounces and who she can’t identify in the audience … Very sincere.

Forty minutes after Lovato retreats backstage, Enrique decides to make an appearance. Set up with intensely colourful backdrops and a band that extends to both ends of the stage, he begins with his most recent release I’m A Freak, though it is a struggle to hear him. He dances half-heartedly.

It’s hard not to get sucked in to the production of the Sex and Love Tour. The kaleidoscopic visuals are nothing short of mesmerising. The very idea of seeing Enrique Iglesias play live is also hard not to buy into. This is the man responsible for some of the biggest floor fillers of the last ten years.

But, although songs like Finally Found You and I Like How It Feels sound great when you’re sweating on someone at the bar of a club at two in the morning, it doesn’t mean they will work in a live setting. The backdrops, backing vocals and big beats, mean he can stand there and do nothing at all.

He actually decides to sing properly and consistently for electro ballad Heartbeat, though eyes are draw to his incessant fiddling with his earpiece. Bailamos gives the impression that he’s finally hit his stride, as he spends the performance taking selfies with fans and high-fiving ’til kingdom come.

Ascending to the upper tier of the 3Arena for an acoustic performance of Insomniac and a cover of Stand By Me; he takes this opportunity to seduce the crowd, specifically 49 year old Paul, who he turns to for life advice, before pouring rum in his mouth, (his own brand, naturally).

Ironically, he delivers a rather heartfelt performance of cheesy pop juggernaut Hero. If the crowd aren’t already infatuated with the sweating muscular Spaniard, they are now.

Back to the spectacle on stage, he applauds himself for actually making it through a song, before attempting to do a few more. But Escape, Tired Of Being Sorry and Tonight (I’m Fucking You) are a few more half-arsed efforts of some singing, some dancing, some jumping around the stage, and repeat.

Confetti canons and massive balloons emblazoned with the tour name flood the arena as the show closes with bilingual track Bailando. Enrique Iglesias played the role of the hype man for the show – and nothing else. The response from the crowd was nothing less than rousing as a result. But charging 60 odd quid to a show that you don’t end up singing at for 60% of the show? Something’s amiss there.