DON’T fret over Bryan Adams not playing your favourite song when you attend his concert, because he will try his best to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Speaking to The Business Times ahead of his show in Singapore on Monday (Mar 13), the veteran Canadian rocker said: “When I was touring Europe last year, I allocated a section of the set to just seeing what everybody wanted, because, you know, the last thing you want is for people to say ‘Oh, you didn’t play my song’, and I want to make sure that everyone walks away happy.”

But playing everyone’s favourite song will be a mammoth task, given that his four-decade strong career has spawned countless hits – from the stadium-sized rockers like Summer Of ‘69 and Run To You, to radio-friendly ballads such as Everything I Do (I Do It For You) and Heaven.

This is why Adams’ hit-filled concerts can be pretty epic. At his Budokan gig in Tokyo earlier this week, he performed close to 30 songs; in Nagoya the next day, close to 40 fans held up signs advertising their song requests.

“Inevitably, there are too many songs, so yeah, you can’t fit them all in. But I do my best,” he said. “The other night in Tokyo, we played Into The Fire, the title track from my 1987 album, and it was really amazing to do because we hadn’t played it in a while. It’s fun because it keeps me excited about it too.”

The Groover from Vancouver, as the 63-year-old is affectionately nicknamed, is hitting the road again on the back of his 15th studio album, So Happy It Hurts, which came out last March. The title track received a Grammy nod for Best Rock Performance this year. 

A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU

Friday, 2 pm

Lifestyle

Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself.

Sign Up

So Happy It Hurts was also just one of four LPs Adams put out in 2022. The other three are Classic I and II, a double record of newly-recorded versions of his best-loved hits, and another digital-only album comprising songs he wrote for the musical adaptation of the Richard Gere-Julia Roberts rom-com, Pretty Woman.

His 16th studio album has already been recorded and is awaiting release, either this year or the next. “Things were going good and I just didn’t want the train to slow down, so I decided it was better to just keep going.”

On top of the new material, he revisited his older albums and re-recorded them ‘live’ during his mini residency at London’s Royal Albert Hall last May. The first one, Cuts Like A Knife, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, is out now; Into The Fire (1987) and Waking Up the Neighbours (1991) will follow later this year. All three will be available in both video and vinyl formats, he said.

Music aside, Adams is an acclaimed photographer whose works have been exhibited and published. Not only that, he also shot the album covers of fellow musicians like jazz-pop diva Diana Krall (Wallflower), the late Amy Winehouse (Lioness: Hidden Treasures) and German industrial rockers Rammstein (Zeit).

Asked how he strikes a balance between being in front of the mic and behind the lens, he replied: “Both music and photography are actually very intrinsically connected… and the great thing about them is both are about being creative!”

Bryan Adams plays at The Star Theatre at 8 pm on Mar 13. Tickets from S$118 are available from Ticketmaster online and at SingPost outlets