Keith Urban stopped a celebratory New Year’s Eve concert in Nashville to celebrate the lives of some of the music legends who died in 2016. Wife Nicole Kidman even joined him on stage to dance along to David Bowie’s “Heroes.”
The tribute started with Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” before he turned to the Eagles “Take It Easy,” a tribute to Glen Frey. Kidman surprised her husband on stage next, singing and throwing her arms in the air with abandon as the country singer took lead. Twitter was mixed about the actress’s dance moves, but you can’t argue with her enthusiasm.
Merle Haggard was next, with Kidman still dancing as Urban sang “Mama Tried.” The crowd loved this break from his set. It came just five minutes before Nashville’s famous musical note dropped to ring in the new year. Appropriately, Prince’s “Purple Rain” closed the medley. A rainy night threatened the Music City celebration, but tens of thousands still turned out to be a part of the festivities.
At the end Urban and Kidman embraced and then kissed. She would return to the stage as the countdown began.
Urban’s New Year’s Eve show capped a busy year for the “Blue Ain’t Your Color Singer.” He released his Ripcord album, and took Maren Morris and Brett Eldredge on the Ripcord World Tour all year. Thus far he only has festival dates on his 2017 tour schedule.
Saturday night (Dec. 31) wasn’t the first time Urban sang “Hallelujah.” During his Nashville tour stop last fall he also performed a short version of the song in tribute to Cohen.
