Musgrave Park review: Shania Twain stops Cork gig for 10 minutes to help fan in distress
Shania Twain in concert at Musgrave Park (Virgin Media Park) in Cork on Tuesday night. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
If you passed Musgrave Park on Tuesday evening, you would be forgiven for thinking it was a Guinness World Record attempt for the most animal print worn in one place.
Instead, it was thousands of devotees descending on the rugby ground for country music star Shania Twain’s debut in Cork.
After selling 100 million records, winning five Grammy awards (five of an astonishing 224 awards across her career) and being the best-selling female artist in country music history, it’s no surprise her Irish fans were quick to snap up tickets for Twain’s sell-out gig.
Cowboy boot-clad feet made their way to the stadium that evening, with cowboy hats perched on many heads.
Other audience members nodded towards Twain’s North American roots, with more than a few outfits styled with the Stars and Stripes and plenty of double denim to be found.
Supported by ‘Human’ singer Rag’n’Bone Man, who said it was his “great fucking pleasure to be here,” and Aussie singer and actress Delta Goodrem, Twain arrived to an extremely hyped crowd on Tramore Road and took to the stage at 8.50pm wearing a sparkling white denim jacket, a silver mini dress and rhinestoned cowboy boots and singing ‘Don’t Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)’.
She posted on Instagram before the show that she was “feeling silly with excitement” ahead of her appearance in Cork and her energy on stage matched that statement.
“We are going to do a lot of singing tonight,” she promised, dancing and clapping to encourage the crowd all night.
Reacting to their enthusiasm she shouted: “That’s the way to do it!”
Twain told the Musgrave Park audience that she felt welcomed during her time in Cork in recent days.
“I know the Irish can sing,” she said as she asked the crowd to be her backing singers for an acoustic set of ‘You’re Still The One’ that Twain said she would love to record and release and they gladly obliged.
“Beautiful,” she reacted. “Thank you for taking my music into your life and giving more meaning to it. I’m going to keep these memories forever.”
Shania Twain found global stardom in the 1990s with hits such as ‘That Don’t Impress Me Much’ and the crowd in Cork was a more settled audience that had matured with Twain as a soundtrack to life’s big moments.
‘From This Moment On’ serenaded many first dances at Irish weddings and had the audience swaying.
Shania paused her show for around 10 minutes after ‘From This Moment On’ as a fan near the front of the stage needed some assistance, turning off the music and displays and watching anxiously, waiting to get the thumbs up from the emergency services before continuing with her final songs.
“It seems like everything will be okay,” she told the crowd.
Of course, one song has an association with every girls’ night out so naturally, the screams of joy heard in Musgrave Park when Twain said the immortal words “Let’s go girls…” and launched into her hit song ‘Man! I Feel Like A Woman’ to close the show will surely rival those of Taylor Swift’s mega fans in Dublin this weekend.
Shania Twain brings her tour to Belfast on Thursday and Malahide Castle in Dublin on Friday before crossing the Irish Sea and taking to the Legends Stage at Glastonbury on Sunday.
Cork singer Cian Ducrot will play Musgrave Park on Friday, while retiring rebel music band The Wolfe Tones bring their farewell tour to the venue on Saturday, marking the end of the summer gig season there. Across the city, Live at the Marquee wrapped up on Tuesday night with English singer-songwriter Tom Odell.
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