Shawn Mendes – Spark Arena November 25, 2017

Last night in Auckland, Canadian pop star Shawn Mendes brought down the house at a packed Spark Arena, packed to the gunnels with many adoring and appreciative fans with his boyish charm and musical ability that didn’t fail to bring a smile to everyone’s face.

Shawn Mendes is one of many modern pop stars who crossed over from internet sensation to the mainstream stage through Youtube and social media, performing both covers and originals. After releasing his second album Illuminate which followed  the widely popular career launch Handwritten while sweeping the MTV music awards, Shawn Mendes was finally touching down in New Zealand.

After visiting Australia on his previous tour and neglecting poor old New Zealand, he finally did the decent thing and came here  to thank his fans who bought his album in huge numbers and sending his album double platinum, so I guess this was the show we deserved.

Personally, I was only aware of Shawn Mendes breakout hit Life of the Party before the show but my friend informed me that Shawn is indeed “a massive deal” and not just some one hit wonder teen heart throb. She was spot on with that piece of analysis!

Shawn Mendes was playing to seemingly sold out Spark Arena, open seats were hard to spot. The predominantly young female audience (some members accompanied by their mothers) were ready and off their seats before he took to the stage.

The arena was set up with two stages, of course one main and also one in the middle of the crowd with a giant light orb above, allowing those at the back to get an up close glimpse of their teenage crush.

Opening act was the American singer Julia Michaels. Fans who were patiently waiting for Shawn offered round of applause for each song and were happy to hear her heartfelt tunes but personally, I thought she offered nothing new to the party with classic and rather bland pop music which was unmemorable in the extreme and would probably be forgotten before we leave the arena and head out in the balmy Auckland evening.

Shawn took to the stage at 8:30 exactly with his four piece backing band who all proved talented on their instruments and keeping the sound tight. Accompanying him was a backdrop of beautiful blue visuals in which were fitting for the tour and the show, enough to distract from the performance itself.

The vibes of the arena were positive and happy, I couldn’t stop the stupid grin on my face, it was just so great, he’s a very charming and engaging person and the feel good factor was off the Richter scale!

Looking around I could see girls faces red with tears, holding the hands close to their hearts. Screaming the lyrics back to Mendes and even waving Canadian flags in his honour. He had them all in the palm of his hands and whatever he did was received with rapturous applause and feelings of undying love!

As well as having an impressive voice, Shawn was showing off his instrument playing abilities throughout set and his fancy set of guitars and constantly jamming out with his band who would keep playing and moving things along during his absence of the stage.

A key highlight was when he finally took to the second stage set up. The orb above was projected with astonishing visuals. Here he played the one track I was anticipating throughout the night. He performed it perfectly and stripped back, even better than the recording.

Shawn also had great showmanship, engaging with his fans, getting up close, grabbing their hands, encouraging sing a- longs with every song and overall just displaying his flawless stage presence.

Shawn ended the performance on a short rendition of Use Somebody, originally by Kings of Leon leading into his big hit Treat You Better. Shawn Mendes is one musician whose music I never in a million years thought would have appealed to me but god dammit, he knows how to put on a perfect and really quite outstanding performance and surely from here he will only get bigger!

Jonathan Strock

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