westlife concert experience + happy st. patrick's day

I have loved a lot of bands over the years. Westlife is one of them. As a boyband fan who always looked forward to Brit List (in my adolescence, YTV had a music countdown show called the Hit List, and the Brit List episodes were focused on music videos from popular artists in the UK)...Bryan, Shane, Mark, Kian, and Nicky were an important part of my life. I had posters from imported Top of the Pops magazines that I bought at Chapters. I had every album. I listened to every song over and over again. Though years have passed, their music, old and new, has continued to be a meaningful part of my life. I've spoken here on the creation of beauty is art. in the past about being bullied and feeling like an outsider in my younger years. Back then, music was my safe place...my escape. I suppose it still is. Which is why it was so exciting that Westlife recently embarked on a small North American tour for the first time. It was promoted as a St Patrick's Day Special. Ready to find out how it was? Keep reading...

The concert happened shortly after returning home from my Walt Disney World vacation (more on that soon) but all did not go according to plan. Unfortunately, my mom was unable to attend the concert as planned due to an injury, so someone stepped in last minute. All that said, the concert itself was excellent. Sadly, there were only three of the remaining four members of Westlife present, because Mark was ill. That was a disappointment, but it was wonderful to see Shane, Kian, and Nicky. 

The show opened strong with Starlight, one of my more recent Westlife song obsessions. From there, it was a mixture of singles from the band, including Fool Again, If I Let You Go, and My Love for the first mini set. The second mini set was entirely composed of Abba covers. Honestly....that was my least favourite part of the concert. I love Abba music a lot, but I was there to hear Westlife sing Westlife songs, not Abba songs. It seemed strange to devote so much time to the discography of another band. Especially since Westlife has twelve albums of their own and has never performed in Canada before! Ah well. At least there was the third mini set, which included a mash up of some of their biggest hits as well as full versions of World of Our Own and Flying Without Wings. The encore was Hello My Love and You Raise Me Up. Though I would have made some changes to the set list, if given the chance, the concert was excellent. The band had a ton of energy and sounded fantastic. 

Since the concert was promoted as a St. Patrick's Day Special, it only made sense to embrace my Irish heritage that night. I wore a green Ireland sweater and tried to create an appropriate makeup look for the occasion. I went with olive green, gold, and shimmery brown. I didn't want anything too dramatic that would pull attention from that bold green sweater. As for how I will be celebrating actual St. Patrick's Day? It will be a much more low key celebration than in previous years. (I actually came down with something shortly after the concert and have been fighting a vicious cold ever since.) So, there might be some TV shows and movies in my immediate future. Nothing really beyond that! Westlife was my St. Patrick's Day celebration this year.

Have you been to any concerts lately? How will you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?