An evening of great emotion: Rod Stewart in Sofia

For the very first time ever, and if the tour slogan ‘One Last Time’ is to be believed, then possibly for the last time, superstar Sir Rod Stewart performed in the Bulgarian capital Sofia yesterday evening.
Bulgarian fans, who due to political circumstances in recent decades have not necessarily been blessed with a multitude of performances by international artists, were probably even more ‘on fire’ than visitors to the British singer's previous concerts and celebrated to their hearts' content.
Sir Rod, in high spirits, which was to change over the course of the evening, but more on that later, kept to English punctuality in Sofia and opened the evening at 8 p.m. sharp with his 1980 hit ‘Infatuation,’ which he quickly followed with other smash hits. ‘Tonight I'm Yours’, ‘Some Guys Have All The Luck’ and ‘Twistin' The Night Away’ quickly brought the fans in the sold-out arena up to operating temperature. The 12,000 or so visitors literally soaked up Stewart's performance, ready to enjoy this moment for eternity from the first to the last second.
Here and there, the language barrier may have made it a little difficult to sing along, but the people in front of the stage and in the stands more than made up for it by dancing along constantly.
The gratitude of the people was evident on many faces, grateful that they could be part of this unique experience for the city of Sofia.

And the man on stage, who as usual changed his outfit a few times during the evening, did his very best to ensure that everyone in the hall had an unforgettable two hours.
The 80-year-old played almost all of his greatest hits, from ‘Maggie May’ to ‘Baby Jane’ and ‘Forever Young’ to ‘Hot Legs’ and ‘Sailing’ – everything the fans wanted to hear. When he rocked the stage to ‘Young Turks’ after about an hour, his favourite club Celtic's home game in the UEFA Europa League against AS Roma was kicking off in distant Glasgow. Rod, usually a regular at home games at Celtic Park, was kept up to date during his performance in Sofia by his crew members, who signalled to him and occasionally glanced at the television provided backstage to see what was happening some 3,000 kilometres away. And although he probably didn't like the news from Paradise (Celtic were already 0-3 down at half-time at 9.45 p.m.), the undoubtedly frustrated Celtic fan didn't let it show, jumping from side to side as in the best of times, throwing his microphone stand through the air, blowing kisses to the audience from all corners of the stage and waving to the fans. A true professional. If the Bhoys in Glasgow had brought as much energy to the pitch as Sir Rod did to the arena stage in the Bulgarian capital, the match would probably not have been lost so decisively.
Rod enchanted the audience – once again. During ballads such as ‘I Don't Want To Talk About It’ and ‘Have I Told You Lately’, the arena was transformed into a sea of hundreds of lighter lights, while during ‘Da Ya Think I'm Sexy’, there were real ‘battles’ among the audience as they jostled for the signed footballs that were thrown from the stage into the crowd. And those who were lucky enough to catch one of these highly coveted balls jumped around with excitement, clutching the signed leather ball under their arms like little children – an early Christmas present.

The Bulgarian media also celebrated the music icon's performance to the fullest. The online news portal Fakti.bg wrote: ‘Rod Stewart transformed the arena into a place of great emotion, where the audience shed all seriousness and could enjoy themselves and simply celebrate without any pretensions.’ The paper attested to Stewart's ‘enviable fitness’ at his age and described the entire evening as a ‘declaration of love to the Bulgarian audience.’
At 10 p.m. sharp, the curtain fell with ‘Love Train,’ and Rod rushed off stage to watch the second half of the Celtic game in his dressing room. He probably didn't like what he saw, even though the Hoops performed a little better in the second half than they did before the break. Let's hope that the 0-3 defeat didn't ruin Sir Rod's whole evening after he had given so many people so much joy for two hours.

Setlist:

• Infatuation

• Tonight I'm Yours

• Some Guys Have All The Luck

• It Takes Two

• Twistin' The Night Away

• It's A Heartache

• The First Cut Is The Deepest

• You're In My Heart

• Forever Young

• (I Know) I'm Losing You

• Baby Jane

• Young Turks

• Maggie May

• I'd Rather Go Blind

• Downtown Train

• I'm So Excited (Band only)

• I Don't Want To Talk About It

• People Get Ready

• Have I Told You Lately

• Proud Mary (Band only)

• Da Ya Think I'm Sexy

• Hot Legs

• Sailing

• Love Train