“I wanna thank Virginia. I let y’all down before. I won’t do it again,” Chris Brown said at the conclusion of his performance at the Virginia Commonwealth University’s Siegel Center in Richmond, VA Saturday night (May 15).

And let down he did not.

Brown’s performance was apart of ‘VA Stand Up!: A Call To Action,’ an event the 21-year-old Virginia native put together to benefit the victims of the tragic earthquake in Haiti, the American Red Cross Greater Richmond Chapter, and the Central Virginia Food Bank.

It was a heartfelt show of benevolence for Brown who wasted no time signing on some of his industry friends to perform with him, including Ryan Leslie, Tank, Bow Wow,Mario, Keri Hilson, T-Pain, and fellow VA R&B croonerTrey Songz. Diddy and Monica also showed their support with pre-taped videos that played on the projection screens lauding Brown for his efforts to uplift his community.

But make no mistake about it, the name of the VA Stand Up game was charity, but the sold-out, mostly female crowd came for a show. And that’s exactly what they got.

From the minute Breezy, decked out in all black from head to toe, leapt from a tall platform, that housed his DJ and had “Chris Brown” spelled out in LED lights, onto the stage and took his position in the middle of four male dancers for “Wall To Wall,” the energy never died down.

As he effortlessly sang, danced, and charmed his way through hits from his three releases, his 2005’s self-titled debut album, 2007’s Exclusive, and 2009’s Graffiti, Brown proved why he’ll go down as arguably one of this generation’s most electrifying male performers. An entertainer all around, Brown elicited the same deafening screams as his R&B crooning peers fully dressed as they did ripping off articles of clothing.

But that’s not to say Brown isn’t aware of his sex appeal. After running through uptempo songs like “Gimme That,” “Run It,” and “I Can Transform Ya” — and changing into denim jeans, a black t-shirt, and a denim jacket — Brown slowed things down with a couple of steamy songs from his Valentine’s Day mixtape In My Zone. He pulled one lucky girl from the audience (making sure she was of age), sat her in a lounge chair, and treated her to a up close and personal serenade of “Sex” and a shirtless grind-fest during “Take You Down.”

Sharing the spotlight was certainly no problem for Breezy. He slid comfortably into rap star mode for “Holla At Me” with Young Money rapper Tyga joining him for the fun. The two used the time to promote their forthcoming mixtape, Fan of a Fan, dropping May 17 at midnight. He later invited T-Pain, who performed a surprisingly enjoyable set of his own earlier that night, on stage for their smash “Kiss Kiss.”

The party came to a close with Brown’s quasi-redemption song “Crawl” and his bombastic pop hit “Forever.” As Brown thanked the crowd for their support, their one last rush of high-pitched screams could be read as VA thanking him for never forgetting where he comes from and making them proud.

VA Stand Up!: A Call To Action Concert Review & Pics courtesy of  Neon Limelight

Tags: benefit concert, chris brown, keri hilson, mario, stand up for va, t-pain, trey songz, virginia