Philadelphia was treated to an “Evening With Michael Buble” at The Wells Fargo Center on August 30th. The grammy winning modern day crooner is having one hell of a year. He released his 11th studio album in March and has embarked on the biggest tour of his 20 year career. He topped it off with the recent announcement of the birth of his fourth child (Cielo Yoli Rose) with wife Luisana on 8/19.
Buble started the night off strong by playing two of his most popular songs, Feeling Good and I Haven’t Met You Yet. He was backed by an incredible 36 piece orchestra, dancers and backup singers. The set included many classics like The Bee Gees To Love Somebody, Sway by Dean Martin, The Drifters Save the Last Dance for Me, Marvin Gaye’s How Sweet It Is(To Be Loved by You)and Nat King Cole’s L-O-V-E
Buble, dripping with charisma and looking sharp in a tailored suit, spent a lot of time performing on a long extended catwalk that went out into the crowd. He exchanged high fives with many ecstatic fans and went into the crowd multiple times throughout the night. Were there woman swooning? Probably! He was extremely funny during his set at times but he also talked about covid and how hard it was during the last few years. He talked about the extreme loneliness and hopelessness people experienced. Backed by just a piano, that talk segued into a beautiful heartfelt version of Charlie Chaplin’s Smile. Another standout was the gospel inspired version of Sam Cooke’s Bring it On Home to Me.
Arrmed with a guitar, Buble was joined by some of his orchestra members and performed a mesmerizing three song tribute to Elvis in the middle of the venue. There was a huge blinding confetti drop afterwards. He then went right into Barry White’s You’re the First, the Last, My Everything.
The night ended with Cry Me A River and Always on My Mind. He played for almost 2 hours to an extremely appreciate vocal crowd. It was uplifting performance and one of the best feel good shows of 2022!
Words and Photos by Cathy Poulton
Michael Buble
