I didn't plan on watching The Corrs concert in Manila. While the thought of it excited me, I wasn't sure I wanted to spend that much for a live concert. I was torn and undecided. I love The Corrs with all my heart and I've been listening to them and singing their songs since high school. I even have a tattoo of one of their songs (a friendship tat with my HS besties). So what's the fuss? Just book it already! Right?
The Corrs is a staple in my Spotify playlist and seeing them play live would be a delight, but at the same time, not seeing them live would be just fine. But then, with the influx of concerts in the country after the pandemic, I told myself that one of my criteria for attending is "I should know and can sing at least 95% of their songs" and The Corrs fit that criteria so why not go? That's the kind of disposition I had.
Despite all that, I was still the first to initiate the conversation with my friends and they turned out to be super game about it. Joke's on me - haha! I thought they would decline. It was, I believe, in September last year that we talked about it and the concert would be a Valentine concert. Even as we were excited for it, we were still undecided. I was the lead organizer (like always, lol!) which meant my task was to book the seats.
We were planning on getting VIP seats but didn't expect it would sell out too fast. Dang those tickets weren't cheap but they sold out immediately. The Titas of Manila really are something else - I bow down to y'all.
The quest to book seats became a personal challenge. I had to do my research about the best available seats we could get. I hadn't been to Araneta Coliseum so I wasn't sure what to expect. After several back and forth, we (and that means I) decided on Upper Box A. VIP seats were not the only ones sold out, the better seats next to VIP were gone too. So Upper Box was the next best thing. It wasn't as near the stage as we'd like but it still turned out to be a great experience for us. There were better seats for sure but we gotta deal with the cards we're given at the time.
Okay, I didn't want to romanticize the quest of booking seats that much. But I felt instant relief after I booked 3 seats for us. Booked, paid, and confirmed - we spent about PHP 9,000+ each and we had additional expenses such as airplane tickets and hotel accommodation since we had to fly from Cebu and stay overnight in Manila.
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Fast forward to the concert - IT WAS ALL WORTH IT. The Corrs was splendid and amazing. Nostalgia was the word that described it for me. It was my Spotify playlist and fave karaoke songs personified. Being there that night brought back so many wonderful memories of my younger years (hey, but I'm only 36, lol).
The concert was an homage to their studio album, Talk on Corners, released in 1997 so they sang the songs in that album and included a lot of fan favorites not in the album like All the Love in the World, Radio, and of course, Breathless.
Their first song was Only When I Sleep, and immediately, I got goosebumps. They didn't have a front act or opener. They sang at exactly 8 PM, continued on to the next song before saying their first message to the concert crowd. May I just say, it was one of the best crowds I've ever been in. The energy was high, electric, and contagious.
I felt a sense of joy singing their songs along with my besties and everyone at Araneta. I will not pretend to know ALL their songs. There are definitely some that don't make it to my everyday playlist, but I had a new-found appreciation of the unfamiliar-to-me songs and their instrumental ones. What a talented quartet. Their parents must be super proud.
Not to dilute or diminish the efforts of the rest of the band members Jim, Sharon, and Caroline because they were equally marvelous in playing their instruments nonstop - but I was in awe of how Andrea's voice survived the night knowing that she still had to play the next night. It was song after song after song, no rest at all! Obviously she's a pro I know but wow that was exhausting. But you can see she was just feeling and enjoying every moment of it. What a great time to be alive.
I would lose my voice and breath in karaoke by singing an entire album, but she - Andrea - was/is a vampire! Well, I'm not Andrea so there's that. Haha.
Probably the best part of the night was when we were left hanging at Runaway. This song is a fan favorite but we weren't expecting it to be the last. After that song, when Andrea said "good night Manila" - people were screaming and clapping for more. And we were like "omgshshshsh THAT WAS IT?!" even though they already sang like 12 songs or so. After what seemed like forever or at least that's how it felt, they went back onstage to sing the country's national anthem - next to Lupang Hinirang, that is.
BREATHLESS was the perfect encore. To my friends and I who expected At Your Side in the setlist, there's a bit of "ahhhhhh whyyyy." Yup you guessed it right. It's the song tattooed on our left arm. Despite that, we were still happy and satisfied. At least to me, it was the perfect ending. I felt like hugging each band member, only if I could.
Post-concert at our hotel room that night, we played their songs again on Spotify. I guess we didn't get over it that quickly. As for me, I had a new favorite song from them - Queen of Hollywood - look it up.
Truly a "Corr" memory for me. I would book another The Corrs concert in a heartbeat.
