Flag-filled Song Festival Arena greets UK’s sinful superstar as national hero.
Robbie Williams wows Tallinn as one-man-festival
22nd August 2013, 15:41
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In mid-June, a nostalgic Rock Summer 25 «anniversary» edition attempted to lay guilt on anyone not attending: who’s a true Estonian avoiding a milestone this grand...
This very card was wilfully played by the Robbie Williams show promotion machine: come to see megastar on Regained Independence Day, immortalise nation in movie shot, shown at cinemas in all of 44 countries.
And come they did – over
60,000 all told, a big part from abroad. Robbie being a cult, the eternal British Bachelor big enough to afford defilement of lips and X-rated jesting. The folks taking no offence... feeling rather flattered by being paid attention to, at all, by somebody that famous. The same spirit having rubbed off on the warm-up-act, English pop singer Olly Murs – carefully copying the indecent movements of the idol, also succeeding in getting the crowd crow.
Mr Williams, visibly of age now and not at the heights of his one-time fame a decade ago, was still worth the ticket money, to the euro.
The grandiose stage, the close and comfy conversations with audience, the unique «overhead spider» camera, a helicopter in the skies, the untiring underlining of fans watching Europe-wide – this surely was top notch pop entertainment, worthy of all exclamation marks.
In his 23-years of career, Mr Williams has birthed many a hit and a bunch of genuinely good pop melodies to fill two hours with, live, excluding boredom. Wisely, the most popular ballads were kept to the last: «Feel», «She’s the One» and the unavoidable «Angels» heartily sung along by the audience.
The British superstar’s paradox being that, in spite of his fame for the teary pathos, Mr Williams is no saint at all – rather a charismatic working class scoundrel thus likable to masses.
The more so that Robbie will not fail to laugh at his very self, not trying to present a perfect facade: onstage, he told the tale of nearly having to cancel the concert for severe back pain, still rising to the occasion thanks to the excellence of Estonian pills, at his honourable age of 39.
This being August 20th, the Song Festival Arena was covered in Estonian flans and cheeks painted blue-black-white. A Belgian friend, recently having moved over, was wondering at why we would want to celebrate state holiday with some big British singer, and why the public at large took no offence.
To the backdrop of the All Night Song Festivals and festivities these past years, this does feel like the top way to celebrate nationhood. A day before the Williams thing, Tartu Song Festival Arena featured an all-night-sing-along so mighty that all doubt disappeared: 22 years after freedom again came around, thousands feel like marking the occasion by hitting huge greens, sitting side by side, humming along to popular tunes.
Looking back now: who cares Rock Summer reached an almost empty arena, this June... now that Robbie Williams has treated us with a national-like one-man mass-feast? Again repeating: what a star, what a wide coverage... and what a tiny country to deserve it all!
As claimed by the concert press secretary Ilja Judeikin, a whopping 63,000 people showed up. A live DVD is now in the pipeline, to say nothing about a TV programme to be broadcasted nationally. And a documentary.