CRITICAL / Despite her title Cry Pretty, Carrie Underwood's show spread more smiles than tears at Canadian Tire Center on Monday night. In perfect shape, the versatile diva of Oklahoma has used great means to provide impeccable performance and an impressive concert, visually and by ear.
Carrie Underwood does not hide it: she has the spirit of competition. The kind of healthy competition, which allowed him to win American Idol in 2005 and to carve a place among the big stars of the country with more than 65 million albums sold in career. The kind of competition, too, that pushes her to want to mount the "best show possible", which left more than one in swoon Monday.
At the beginning of the Cry Pretty video , the title song of her sixth and final album, Carrie Underwood comes on stage in a thunderous applause. As a premonition, his arrival on the boards of the Canadian Tire Center sparked the same warm welcome. Remember that the superstar married Mike Fisher in 2010, while the hockey player was playing for the Senators, and the couple lived in Ottawa for a few years. Obviously, the Ottawa public - especially women, who knows why - had been bored with "her" Carrie. "It's a bit like doing a show at home," smiled the star blonde, greeted by a new salvo of cries.
Wearing a robe covered with mirrored slats, Idol opened the ball with a series of recent and old hits . Southbound gave way to Cowboy Casanova , then to Good Girl and Backsliding . Between the sequences - and the four costume changes -, Underwood disappearing into one of the most impressive elements of his show: his stage. The device crossed three bridges in the center of the arena. In its long version, its present tour is entitled Cry Pretty Tour 360. It had to be seen to understand what "360" means. For spectators to the east, Carrie Underwood sang a verse opposite them. For those in the west, she came running for the chorus. Those on the second and third floors? Platforms propelled by hydraulic pumps lifted it up with its musicians, spitting here and there jets of fire or fireworks. Above, screens went up and down, continually projecting animations and movie sequences. What to delight the eyes: the show looked like a movie.
Among nearly 12,000 spectators - vis-a-vis -, the neophytes of the country could have feared a complete change of scenery. But the blonde singer is at ease in as many styles as her masterly voice allows - that is, in an almost infinite palette. From Church Bells' "in the teeth" country , the performer moved easily to the smoky jazz of Drinking Alone , which she sat on a red velvet couch, surrounded by a saxophonist and a contrabassist . In rock, Dream On is encrusted in a potpourri of her old songs that she "does not have the opportunity to do often", like Temporary Home and See You Again . Pop is invited in End Up With You, dancing title of Cry Prettythat she concluded with a djembe solo. And rap? It was Steven, from Carleton Place, who did it. The result of a competition, the policeman was able to go on stage at the end of the show to remind the passage of Ludacris in The Champion .
Which does not leave aside the country, which composed much of the repertoire of the evening. Let's highlight his ballads, like Jesus, Take the Wheel , which Carrie Underwood delivered with emotion. Finally, a highlight of the show: a medleyin tribute to the great ladies of the country. While the genre is often singled out for the greater visibility of its men than its women, the 36-year-old singer tackled it head-on by sharing the spotlight with five female artists. After breaking the ice, the trio Runaway June and the duo Maddie & Tae came back on stage for a potpourri of songs from Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton and Shania Twain, among others. One way, Underwood justified, to thank the "pioneers" of the country.
Beautiful, impressive in the ear, the show has given reason to Ottawa fans to stay loyal to the job. In two hours, Carrie Underwood has been able to join fans of her pop, country, or simply her extraordinary voice, which seduced since 2005.
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