MNEK in Birmingham

MNEK plays XOYO Birmingham on Sunday 8 November, with the show starting at 19:00. If you've heard the name but aren't sure where to place him, it's because he's spent as much time behind the scenes as he has in front of the microphone. He's a songwriter and producer as well as a singer, and that combination is why his name keeps cropping up on the credits of some of the biggest pop and R&B records of the last decade.

He's worked with Beyoncé, Stormzy, Zara Larsson, Clean Bandit, Dua Lipa and Little Mix, and that list tells you exactly where he sits: right in the middle of pop, R&B and dance. He describes his own approach as deconstructing, fusing and rebuilding those three sounds, and you can hear the different threads running through his work. The R&B side comes from his childhood in Catford, South London, where he grew up on his father's 90s R&B compilation CDs and his mother's divas — Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson. The pop sensibility is something he's refined as a producer for the likes of Kylie and Madonna.

As a solo artist, his biggest moment came with 'Never Forget You', the duet with Zara Larsson that he wrote and produced himself. It spent six weeks in the UK top 10, reached the top five of the US Top 40, went platinum and sold over three million copies worldwide. His more recent work, like 'Paradise', pairs that same pop instinct with a more personal point of view. He's also a fan of the album as a whole rather than just a collection of singles; he cites Janet Jackson's The Velvet Rope as a model of impeccable album sequencing.

So, when he takes the stage at XOYO Birmingham, you're getting the songwriter and producer as much as the singer. It's a good night if you're into pop and R&B that's as much about the craft as the performance. The show starts at 19:00 on 8 November.