It was Valentine’s night and love was in the air. So was the tangible sense of excitement as a packed crowd in the Brighton Centre awaited 2008 X Factor winner Alexandra Burke.

And then – boom. Poised at the summit of the onstage staircase was the unmistakably toned silhouette of Ms Burke. Holding her pose for a breathless moment, she plunged headfirst into propulsive opener Broken Heels.

Burke essentially has two settings: bombastic balladeer warbling out songs about overcoming adversity, and saucy pop minx asserting her independence.

As the former she captivated the audience. Songs such as The Silence and Overcome demonstrated that, for all the Simon Cowell-led cultivation, the girl sure can sing. Despite these songs benefitting from grand musical arrangements, a simple version of Perfect, played with the sole backing of an acoustic guitar, showed she doesn’t always need to hide behind props or gimmicks.

But it was when she upped the tempo that the crowd ignited, rising from their seats to shake their hips.

Accompanied by male dancers whose abs you could bounce pennies on, Burke slickly moved through the wailing rock of Dangerous, the baffling Start Without You and a medley of Destiny’s Child hits (briefly pacifying her dream of being Beyonce Knowles when really she should be moving away from such comparisons as much as she can), all the while flicking her booty and wagging a sassy finger out towards the crowd.

She ended on a rousing Hallelujah, reminding the audience “where it all started from”, before coming back onstage for an encore of Bad Boys. The crowd were back on their feet again, waving their hands in the air as Burke had them exactly where she wanted them.