It is no wonder that Keith Urban won Entertainer of the Year at the CMA Awards last year, in fact it was a long time coming. We C2C Festival goers have been wanting Keith to play at the festival since it started and it got to the point that we thought it would never happen but Keith certainly made up for lost time.

Keith is an exceptional showman, his charm, wit, crowd interaction alone are infectious and warming let alone his stage presence, vocal talent and insane guitar skills. The lead up to Keith’s stage arrival was exciting and the atmosphere was electric throughout his set.

Starting the set with Never Comin’ Down, he then went straight into the more familiar Days Go By and from that moment, most people were dancing non-stop, particularly us.

Keith Urban is one of those artists that you don’t even need to know his music to have a good time. The man is phenomenal when it comes to a live setting. The sheer happiness that was beaming throughout the arena was catching, in fact it has been a long time since I myself have felt that alive during a live show.

The evening included three collaborations with female artists who weren’t present but were in a video backdrop. Julia Michaels on video for Coming Home: Kassi Ashton on video for Drop Top which was probably the loudest song of the night and least country but incredibly fun and the last collaboration was Carrie Underwood on video for The Fighter. I think a lot of us were hoping Keith would bring out Cam to sing Carrie’s part as he brought out Kerri Watt for his show on Wednesday at Kentish Forum.

Somewhere in My Car and Long Hot Summer were notably fan favourites as people were going crazy. Rumour has it Ed Sheeran was in attendance as Keith performed the track Parallel Line which Sheeran penned.

A special moment came with an acoustic version of Stupid Boy which echoed in the arena and included a wicked guitar solo which Keith is well known for.

A particularly fun moment was during the Sam Hunt penned Cop Car which is such a good song and very fitting to an arena setting. Blue Ain’t Your Colour had everyone swaying.

Keith moved over to the B stage at the back during The Fighter and high- fiving fans along the way.

Some moments are now a blur but purely because it was that much of a good time, it was insane and when you’re having THAT much fun, nothing else matters in that moment.

Closing the set with Wasted Time there wasn’t a single person in the audience that felt like his set was wasted time, it was time very well spent. As confetti filled the O2 the roaring crowd were Never Comin’ Down after that show. What a night! Don’t leave it 12 years till you come back please Keith.

Set list

Never Comin’ Down

Days Go By

Coming Home

Somewhere in My Car

Long Hot Summer

Parallel Line

Put You in a Song

Stupid Boy

Somebody Like You

Blue Ain’t Your Color

Cop Car

The Fighter

Kiss a Girl / Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me / You Look Good in My Shirt

Gone Tomorrow (Here Today)

Wasted Time