It was with great humor and a speech written in Portuguese, that he read from a printed sheet that Gavin James took the stage for his first night at Musicbox in Lisbon. After two shows in Porto, one of them sold out, the Irish singer appeared alone before a fairly crowded room with 3 guitars and a piano, for an intimate concert with ‘many sad songs’.
Gavin seemed to adore Portugal, emphasizing that his last time in the country had been at the Nos Alive festival in 2019 and that he loved coming back. After the first three songs, he asked those attending who were Irish, hearing enthusiastic shouts from the middle of the room. When he received an affirmative answer about whether they lived in Lisbon, he replied, “Obviously, this is f- amazing” and wanted to take a giant egg custard tart (Pastel de Nata, a Portuguese sweet tart) home in his suitcase.
Before singing the third song of the night, ‘Coming Home’, there was still time to ask the audience for help in singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Keith, or “Skinny” as he calls his production manager, only to reveal later that it wasn’t actually his birthday and that he does this every night – “You must be almost 376 years old by now!” he joked.
He moved on to the piano, under a red light, where he asked the room for music requests to play. Upon hearing ‘Raining Men’ from somewhere in the audience, he played a melancholic and sad version of this track, as he knows well how to do, before moving on to his song ‘22’. The audience swayed to the sound of Gavin James, with many couples singing together, entangled in the melodies.
The audience only fell silent in the next song, where Gavin unveiled that he was going to play a completely new song, ‘Heavy’, which will only be released in March. He added that he would probably forget the lyrics but that it didn’t matter since no one had heard it yet. After the applause, which echoed in the room, the singer jumped off the stage, taking advantage of the more intimate vibe of the concert, and positioned himself in the middle of Musicbox, singing an acoustic and a cappella version of ‘Tired’ with the audience circling the artist.
Returning to the stage, Gavin sang two more songs, accompanied by one of his guitars. ‘Nervous’, from his 2015 album Bitter Pill, and another unreleased song titled ‘Storm Warning’, which was received with applause and cheers from the Portuguese crowd. Returning to the piano, he began his speech by saying that he had released two songs on Valentine’s Day and that both were sad. A loud “Make us Cry!” was heard from an audience member, and the Irishman sighed “This is sad as f-” before singing ‘Lovesick’.
He didn’t leave the stage without a gloomy cover of ABBA’s ‘The Winner Takes It All’, with the help of printed sheets placed on the floor with the lyrics, so he wouldn’t forget. “Hold onto them if he can’t see,” his manager said to the front row, which laughed in response. The room vibrated with the voices of the audience and the singer in unison.
Before the encore, there was time for an upbeat song that made the whole room jump and sing ‘Hearts on Fire’, with a very happy Gavin on stage, jumping together and with a huge smile on his face, before saying “I’ll be back in 4 minutes” and everyone in the room applauding for the encore. Gavin peeked several times through the backstage door, in a “peekaboo” style during the applause before returning to the stage to sing ‘I Do’ and a cover of Britney Spears’ ‘Everytime’. The spirits and voices of the audience were heard even louder in ‘Always’, the Irish singer’s hit, who even repeated the chorus to hear the whole room sing, perhaps even louder than him, saying “This is the loudest crowd I ever had.” The party continued with ‘Only Ticket Home’ where the entire Musicbox joined in to sing the lalala’s and jump again with the singer.
Throughout the concert, and despite the more melancholic and sad songs, Gavin was full of charisma and humor, throwing lots of jokes and interacting with the audience, who joined in the game with him. “Cantem comigo!” (“Sing with me”) was said several times in Portuguese with an accent, and “It’s Monday!” almost became an inside joke within those walls – who goes to a concert on a Monday? A full room in the middle of Lisbon, clearly.
His melodic voice closed the show with a guitar cover of ‘City of Stars’ from the movie “La La Land,” and Gavin said goodbye with a “Obrigado” (“Thank you”) in Portuguese and a smile on his face in front of the audience clapping for the incredible show they had just seen.
Written by: Carol Galvão
Photographed by: Carol Galvão
Edited by: Max Sørensen
