New York-based singer Mary Fahl opened the evening concert with Raging Child, an original composition from her 2000 solo release, Selections from Lenses of Contact. For a brief moment, it was like having Annie Lennox in the room. Fahl's deep, powerful and slightly hoarse contralto voice sounded almost exactly like that of the British pop vocalist, although musically and stylistically, Fahl leans more towards American folk singer Joan Baez. Then again, as her record label points out, it's hard to put her in a box. As shown in the performance, the 15-year music business veteran is able to shift effortlessly from folk to musical to cabaret to classical opera. 'They're all just songs,' she says.

Her song list for the concert revolved around the theme of Women of the Revolution, including tunes sung by Edith Piaf, Josephine Baker and Marlene Dietrich. Just as she's comfortable switching from one musical style and range to another, Fahl flitted from one language to another - French, German and even Hebrew.

Accompanied by pianist Warren Wills, Fahl belted out numbers such as Piaf's Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien and Naomi Shemer's Jerusalem of Gold in the first half of the programme. Songs from the second half, with three penned by Fahl herself, were more soulful and emotional, the beautiful The Other Side of Time was particularly heartfelt.

By the time a couple of war songs were over, the main theme of the concert was out the window. The show ended with Una furtiva lagrima from the Italian opera L'elisir d'amore originally written for a tenor, which she breezed through in folk song style.

Fahl sings from the heart. But her performance was slightly affected by the rather poor acoustics of the Fringe Studio, which made her voice echo as if she were singing in a large cave.