Ronan Keating in Cape Town

Time of My Life Tour

 Ronan Keating is not just the blonde guy (with piercing blue eyes and three-day stubble) from that 90s Irish boyband, Boyzone. He is a successful solo artist in his own right who has had a string of hits from nine studio albums since going out on his own. His new album, Time of my Life, features some of his best work yet and forms the backdrop to his current world tour, which kicked off in its entirety at Grand West in Cape Town on 17 August. Here are some of the highlights of the show which took the audience on a musical journey through Ronan's professional and personal life. 

Ronan walked onto the stage in an understated but classic black jacket and black pants, a tight white shirt and a stylish silver-grey scarf, hair on point as always. The set started with Lovin' Each Day, an appropriate song considering the optimistic carpe diem tone of the Time of my Life album.

For As Long As We're In Love, Ronan called his limelight-shy wife, Storm, who co-wrote the song and who lends her vocals to the song on the album, to join him on stage. The couple were also celebrating their first wedding anniversary that day, which made the song extra touching, their on-stage kisses eliciting "aaahs" from the crowd.

I have to say the Cape Town audience was a little on the unenthusiastic side at the start of the evening, prompting Ronan to remark that Cape Town very 'civilised' and possibly the quietest audience he'd every played to - not a compliment. However, his more popular hits such as If Tomorrow Never Comes and The Way You Make Me Feel helped the crowd to loosen up and let their hair down a little, even doing a pretty adequate job of singing along when prompted.

Ronan spent some time on the West End stage in London as the lead in a highly successful production of Once (a total of 145 shows). He performed one of the beautiful songs from the musical, Falling Slowly, with his awesome backing vocalist, who deserves a shout-out for rocking the stage in black leather pants and six-inch heels. She also provided solid vocals on Last Thing On My Mind, a stunning duet originally recorded with Leann Rimes.

The three best performances of the night came near the end of the show. When You Say Nothing At All, originally a Keith Whitley song, was a massive hit for Ronan and even though it was played ad nauseam on radio stations, he managed to inject new life into the song in this performance. This was followed by his version of Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl, which had the entire audience on their feet and dancing (save a few lifeless souls who didn't even bother to clap along), and Life Is A Rollercoaster which raised the roof of the arena.

 For the encore, Ronan performed One More Song and the appropriately titled The Long Goodbye which was a hit single for a couple of other artists before Ronan decided to record it himself. The title of the tour lived up to its name; for two hours Ronan and his band made the audience feel like they were having the time of their lives, singing along to familiar favourites and introducing them to stunning new material that celebrates all that this rollercoaster of life has to offer.