As Red Room shows go, or any gig anywhere for that matter, things don’t get much more intimate than a music superstar performing for a group of just 20 people.
That is what happened in Nova’s third ARIA Week Red Room performance in Sydney when Keith Urban played at Nova Sydney for literally a handful of fans on Monday.
Urban is of course in Australia to host the ARIA Awards to be screened on Nine on Wednesday night.
The intimate gig came after a busy month with Urban playing 14 shows across the USA in October from the west coast to the east coast. He then started November in New Orleans with his last show three weeks ago in Dallas.
After he completes his ARIA duties this week, Urban’s next gig is his New Year’s Eve show in Nashville before he embarks on his Australian tour starting in Newcastle on January 23.
For his Nova Red Room show, which Urban acknowledged was his first for the famed music brand, he was accompanied by a small crew looking after his two acoustic guitars and the PA system.
He might have performed four only songs but the small group of fans were more than thrilled with getting up close for the performance and a photo afterwards.
Urban started with Wasted Time from his Ripcord album. Next was Coming Home with his fans (and Keith) doing their best to sing the parts of the song Julia Michaels does such a good job on. The track is featured on his most recent album Graffiti U. (Michaels will be touring with Urban around Australia next year.)
He finished off his set with Blue Ain’t Your Colour, another tune from Ripcord, and a cover of Happier, a fan request and a tune originally from Marshmello.
Among the handful of people lucky enough to enjoy the performance were ARIA chief Dan Rosen, Nova Entertainment’s chief marketing and digital officer Tony Thomas and drive host Tim Blackwell (watching the short set before his 4pm radio appointment) and EMI Australia boss John O’Donnell.
Smallzy again hosted the Red Room show, conducting a short Q&A with Urban beforehand, quizzing about how nervous he might be before the Awards show hosting. Urban said he would be attending a rehearsal for the show today.
See also:
Nova Red Room ARIA Week Show #1: Vera Blue at The Lansdowne
• The exclusive show attracted a mix of listeners and Nova staff, all eager to see Vera Blue in action.
Nova Red Room ARIA Week show #2: Amy Shark at The Lansdowne
• She managed to play two Red Rooms in 2018, both of them at The Lansdowne.