Last weekend I travelled to London to see some acts perform at the BST Hyde Park 2024 event. Every year, during the summer, BST (British Summertime) Hyde Park is an event that attracts thousands of spectators to see some of the biggest musical acts and this year was no exception. With the likes of Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue and Andrea Bocelli headlining this year you can understand the calibre of the type of acts that perform at these events.
This year I went to see Shania Twain perform. A big favourite of mine from the 90s, her music is a soundtrack to the time of my life when I was in my youth and embracing all kinds of music. Shania managed to blend the best of country music and pop and has the type of songs that you can’t help but “yee-hah” whenever they come on, I don’t know about you but I always imagine myself surrounded by horses and cowboys whenever I hear some of her biggest hits. Shania is so much of a music legend that she performed in the “legend” slot at Glastonbury this year. That fact already says a lot about why Shania is such an integral part of the music industry and has inspired new artists such as Taylor Swift, Kacey Musgraves and Maren Morris. Shania is the one!
So, last Sunday I travelled up to Hyde Park in London with my mate to get myself in the crowd ready to see one of my musical heroes. Every headliner at the event has several support acts that ready up the crowd for the main event, usually being similar in vein to the type of music that the headliner produces. This year we had some folk, rock and americana type support acts in the form of Natalie Imbruglia, Elle King, The Corrs and British singer Anne-Marie, who addressed the fact that her music may not be to the audience’s taste, but she definitely got them all dancing and singing along none-the-less. This is one of the first live shows for The Corrs in a few years as they have not toured, especially not in the UK or Ireland, for a few years now. It was my first time seeing them and they were almost as good as Shania herself, delivering some great performances which you would be forgiven for thinking mirrored that of what a headline act would perform. They were great and so, so talented!
We also got upgraded for our time in Hyde Park. We initially had Golden Circle tickets which would have got us near to the front of the stage anyway, but on the day we got upgraded to Diamond VIP which got us access to premium bars and food outlets, as well as, I must stress this, some fantastically posh toilets. They were so posh looking in fact, something unheard of for a festival, that I almost took a picture of them, but then I realised that would be pretty gross. You will just have to trust me when I say they were fancy and worth the upgrade in itself. We got to mingle with VIP guests including Spencer Matthews. The only downside to this was the fact that for 10 minutes straight, there was a huge thunderstorm, bringing with it a huge downpour of rain. At one point we did wonder if the show would be cancelled, but as quickly as the storm came, it went and the blue skies returned for the rest of the evening. Another bizarre care of British weather.
So on to Shania, what a lady! She really rocked this country performing some of her biggest hits in her career. Following her for many years, I noticed how much energy she now has. I remember how only a few years ago she seemed to lack energy and didn’t seem to be enjoying performing as much as back in her heyday. One notable performance would be her performance on Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1) back in 2017, which was awkward to watch. Seeing her live last week felt like a completely different person, she was bouncing around that stage and getting the crowd in the palm of her hands, such a contrast! It was great to see after knowing all of what she had been through, including having a long bout of Lyme disease which brought on dysphonia (damage to the voice) and having to change the way she sings.
Some of Shania’s big hits including “That Don’t Impress Me Much!”, “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”, “I’m Gonna Getcha Good”, “You’re Still The One” and “Any Man Of Mine” were all encompassed into her set and she packed no punches, it was a “yee-hah” after “yee-hah” and we felt like we were at a hoedown rather than a live show with all of the glitz and glamour. It’s hard to believe that Shania is also natively Canadian, yet you’d think she’s from the heart of Texas. It was a fantastic show and I was so thankful to be there and be up close to the stage to take it all in. Shania did have a cold and asked for forgiveness from the crowd when having to blow her nose, she did so with grace and it hardly interrupted the show. We were all having the time of our lives. We also had some musical training in the form of vocal harmonising, with Shania partitioning the crowd into sections to sing at different notes, that was a good laugh.
It all just sums up how much of a great performer Shania is, at the age of 58 she’s got the energy of someone half her age and all in all it was a fantastic day out. Here is a bit of a montage of some of the performances from the day, all captured on my iPhone. Thank you for the memories, Shania.
Studio DJC 