It was an evening filled with nostalgic 1990s and 2000s hits as Irish singer Ronan Keating took to the stage at Resorts World Genting on 15th February.
No stranger to Malaysia, with his last concert in the country held quite recently in 2023 at the same Arena of Stars venue, Ronan sauntered onstage with comfortable familiarity as he sang his opening song, “Lovin’ Each Day”.
Serving looks and vocals, as kids these days would say, Ronan was all smiles as the crowd of fans cheered their enthusiastic welcome. “You’re looking well. Good to see you again,” he greeted his fans, promising to take them on a trip down memory lane that evening.
Picking up his guitar, which he would occasionally play throughout the show, he proceeded with his second song, “Breathe”. He then took the moment to spend a bit more time talking to the crowd, something that he peppered his concert with throughout the night. His playful side kept the crowd entertained, as he threw in jokes here and there to get everyone laughing.
“I’m looking out at the faces, most of you are too young to remember this, but back in the ‘90s I was in a boyband,” he said. “Yeah, it’s true. I was in a band called Boyzone.” “Maybe your parents told you about us,” he continued with an amused smile when the crowd’s cheers turned louder.
The boyband, which debuted in 1993 with then 16-year-old Ronan as the co-lead singer, wrapped up in 2019 with a worldwide farewell tour. There was a documentary on the quintet released recently, and Ronan promised that it would get an Asian release soon.
“Now when I stand on stage, I guess I carry the flag for Boyzone. So, I’d throw some songs in the mix tonight for you guys,” he said. “It’s more for your parents, but here we go,” he jokingly added, before proceeding to perform some of the boyband’s biggest hits: “Isn’t It A Wonder”, “Baby Can I Hold You”, “Words”, and “You Needed Me”.
From being the youngest member of Boyzone to breaking out as a solo singer at age 23, Ronan started on the latter journey 25 years ago with the release of his eponymous first album.
One of the standout songs from the “Ronan” album was his song with Canadian singer-songwriter Bryan Adams, “The Way You Make Me Feel”. “You might have heard of him,” he cheekily said before performing the song. He then followed this up with “If Tomorrow Never Comes”.
Introducing the next song, “In This Life”, he talked about how much he used to love it, but he later found the emotional song very hard to sing after performing it at the funeral of Stephen Gately, his fellow Boyzone co-lead singer who passed away in 2009.
Following a good friend’s suggestion to make a new version of the song last year, Ronan said, “Since then it has been a joy to sing and it brings back great memories”, and it was this new version that he then proceeded to perform at the concert.
Next came another deeply meaningful song for the singer, one that he has loved since he was 7 or 8 years of age. He even sang the song during his Boyzone audition in 1993.
When he was a solo artist himself a decade later, he wanted to record the song again, with the original singer Yusuf Islam a.k.a. Cat Stevens. There was a little snag in his plan – the renowned British singer-songwriter has been in retirement since 1977, the year Ronan himself was born!
Determined to make his dream come true, he managed to convince Cat Stevens to come to his studio to maybe record backing vocals, which eventually turned into them recording the whole song together.
“Before I know it, I’m doing a duet with Cat Stevens,” he shared. “We ended up singing ‘Father & Son’ together, which is, like I said, the most important song in my career.” “Be careful what you wish for, it comes true,” Ronan cautioned in jest before performing the said song.
Before playing a couple more Boyzone hits, he took the time to thank the band from Indonesia who has been touring with him for the past two years. The band’s singer, Rachel, provided not only backing vocal but also sang duets with Ronan in certain songs, including the next one, “No Matter What”.
Switching up to more upbeat tracks, Ronan performed “One More Song”, followed by “Last Thing On My Mind”, which he originally sang with American singer-songwriter LeAnn Rimes. “She’s stuck at the bottom of the mountain and she can’t get up here,” he joked, his “explanation” as to why Rachel would be covering LeAnn’s parts instead.
Next came more Boyzone tracks: “I Love The Way You Love Me” and “Love Me For A Reason”. His next song he introduced as a “brand-new song” that he just came up with in his hotel room and thought would be great to perform in Genting. Laughter and cheers erupted when he started to play it and the crowd immediately recognised arguably his biggest hit, “When You Say Nothing At All”.
He feigned surprise when the crowd began singing along. In truth, this was the song that propelled him to solo stardom. It predated his solo debut even, since it was released in 1999 as the soundtrack to the popular romcom “Notting Hill”. Boyzone songs “When The Going Gets Tough” and “Picture Of You” came next, before Ronan wrapped up the main part of his concert with a cover of “Brown Eyed Girl”.
Of course, he wouldn’t leave his fans without performing an encore. Ronan soon returned to the stage, crooning “Everyday I Love You” as he did so. “Honestly, we haven’t sung that song together ever,” he said afterwards. “We’ve been on tour here all week in Asia, and we decided to do it tonight.”
He credited one of the band members for giving the idea to do so. “Nice work,” he praised, before jokingly adding, “Could’ve been a terrible idea.” “But it wasn’t,” he continued with a laugh. “Well done, everybody!”
Ronan’s final performance for the night was “Life Is A Rollercoaster”. The upbeat Boyzone track was a fitting song to end the evening, as it got everyone standing up and dancing away, singing to their hearts’ content and reminding each other that “Life is a rollercoaster, just gotta ride it”!
Flo contributed to this review.
