On Friday, 28th April 2017, Shawn Mendes brought his Illuminate World Tour for a concert at Manchester Arena and I was lucky enough to manage to get tickets to the show. I got these on his pre-sale for pre-ordering his album last September, therefore ended up getting good tickets – Block 102, Row K.
I was so excited to see Shawn Mendes live because I have liked his music for a really long time, I remember being a fan of the song Stitches well before it got famous in the UK! I went with two of my friends see him and this concert was their first so that made it really special as well.
Doors opened at 6 but we went into the arena closer to 7 and headed to our seats after checking out the merch stand. I was very disappointed Shawn wasn’t selling programmes as part of his tour merch because I like to collect them from every concert I have been to. Instead, I just picked up a wristband to have some kind of memorabilia from the event.
He only had one support act, James TW, who played for half an hour between 7:30 and 8 pm. I had never heard any of his music before but was actually really impressed, I particularly liked ‘When You Love Someone’.
After waiting a bit longer Shawn Mendes took to the stage at half 8 and was on until just after 10, so just over an hour and a half. He began with his wonderful new single ‘There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back’, one of his most upbeat songs to date and I really enjoyed it live. He continued with ‘A Little Too Much’ which made me cry a little because it is such a touching song with really relatable lyrics – I’m sure you know what I mean if you’ve ever listened to it.
The set up of the arena was so stunning throughout. There was a huge planet-like sphere above the b-stage which turned a really pretty blue when he was underneath it and towards the end of the night during Never Be Alone it turned to look like the moon. Alongside the phone lights resembling stars, the arena looked beautiful.
My favourite parts of the night were, of course, him performing my favourite songs off his albums, including Lights On, Patience and Mercy. However, I have to say that my highlight of the whole concert was the song Bad Reputation. The guitar solos and the passion in the song were indescribable live and by far my favourite part.
I also loved when he picked up on how we’re a British crowd, at the end of Never Be Alone he said he can “hear the British accent” which I thought was so cute (Shawn is Canadian however, his mum is British and so mentioned this in the concert).
