It’s rare that I find myself with tears in my eyes at a concert, bursting out with laughter and being moved by incredible vocals and heartwarming stories. But on Friday, November 6, everyone in the audience at the McPherson Playhouse was engaged and loving every moment of Chantal Kreviazuk’s performance.
Kreviazuk, a complete vocal powerhouse, is also an ambassador and supporter for charities and causes around the world, such as human and animal rights and mental health, and is a founding artist of the War Child campaign.
But despite her positive community influence, she had no problem telling the audience a recent story about losing her cool at a woman on the plane to Victoria, who swore at her young son. Kreviazuk went into detail about the insults, curse words, and comebacks she used to defend her son as she described going into “mama-bear” mode in this hilarious monologue. Laughter filled the theatre; she wrapped up it up with an inspirational twist, and then got back to the music.
Kreviazuk was more down to earth than any other artist I’ve ever seen, interacting with the audience, making sure the front-row audience members could see her over the edge of her large grand piano, and talking to the people in the closest balcony seats. Everyone felt so comfortable that some audience members made comments about Kreviazuk’s ankles; she cracked jokes about that throughout the night.
Not only was she funny and passionate on stage, but her vocals were spot-on the entire concert. She always sung in tune and floored me with her jaw-dropping vocal range and raspy runs. When she became out of breath during the ending of one of her songs, she stopped the tune and joked about jetlag with her drummer and guitarist, before restarting the verse, finishing where she left off. She ended the song better than she started it, and I wasn’t bothered that she stopped for a moment.
Her newest singles were the best songs of the night, especially one of my favorite songs, “I Will Be.” Hearing it live was incredible; this will be a night I won’t easily forget.