OneRepublic, an American pop rock and Grammy-nominated band, returned to Manila last Thursday, February 23, 2023 for their first solo concert in nearly 10 years.

Successful Big Dome comeback! After Canadian singer Jessia took the stage and played some of her own songs, including “But I Don’t,” “One of the Guys,” “Nobody Hates You,” and “I’m Not Pretty.” One Republic took the stage and opened their set with “Secrets,” the band’s second hit off of their sophomore album, 2009’s Waking Up studio album, followed by another song from the same album, where Ryan [Frontman] tweaks some lyrics, “Where I’ve been for the past few years or so, from Paris to Manila to Colorado” from “Good Life.”

Ryan got the chance to address the audience before going on to the band’s third song, saying “We absolutely love, love it here in the Philippines. We’ve been coming here since, I think, 2009? And this building has a lot of history; it’s a sacred place that I don’t think exists anywhere else in the world. We’ve played in about 90 countries, and if people ask me in interviews — and you can look this up on the internet — what country loves music the most, I always say “The Philippines.” “You guys feel music like no other country on the planet; you can sing better than anyone. It’s been 3 years; it’s been a long time since that weird virus, but now that we’re over it, we can hang out together. Let’s have an incredible evening.” “Thank you for showing up tonight, Manila!” He introduces the next song as the second song they ever put out and a song that kept them together as a band. They performed “Stop and Stare,” followed by their lead single off their fifth studio album, “Human,” “Rescue Me.”

The band, which started in Colorado Springs, has kept their upbeat approach and huge ball of energy. They haven’t wasted any time going from one song to the next. They took off with “Wherever I Go” and glided to a soft landing on “Love Runs Out.”

Ryan went back to talking to the crowd, introducing their next set. He explained that they will be playing most of their hits. He said they’ve been a band for 16 years, and he’s also been writing songs for hundreds of other artists, naming everyone from Taylor Swift [he even sang a piece of Welcome to New York] to Paul McCartney to Ed Sheeran to Lil Nas X, Beyoncé, and LANY. He also bragged about his family living in the Philippines for the last 30–40 years, telling him that the Philippines sang better than any country in the world. “Nobody sings better than the people in the Philippines.” He also said that in 16 years, they have done mostly OneRepublic songs, but in Manila, they will play a concert inside a concert, a cue for a medley of songs starting from Beyoncé’s love letter to Jay-Z, “Halo.” Here, he took the opportunity to command his crowd as a master conductor for an arena of choirs as he let Manila participate with him in singing the highs and lows of this song, and it sounded pleasingly beautiful.

He also highlighted how “Rumor Has It” began for Adele. He also said that it is impossible to predict which song will be a success during the composition process. He shared that while writing “Apologize,” he didn’t have the idea; he was just writing a song for a bunch of girls who broke his heart in high school—these 2 or 3 girls that “destroyed” him in high school and college—while moving us to the most played song of 2022, Lil Nas X’s “That’s What I Want” to “Sucker,” where lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Tedder hyped up the crowd by going off stage and walking towards the audience towards the end of the song.

The crowd stayed just as interested until “Lose Somebody” by Kygo and OneRepublic and “I Ain’t Worried,” the second and final singles from the Top Gun: Maverick (2022) soundtrack, came on.

OneRepublic played a wide variety of instruments, including the cello, violin, acoustic guitar, and xylophone. Occasionally, Tedder would take to the piano, as he did for a more mellow and stripped-down rendition of their 2007 smash hit “Apologize.” It went to number one in sixteen countries with their first album, Dreaming Out Loud, and got them a Grammy nomination. Here, they turned the audience into a massive choir, orchestrated by Ryan himself, giving everyone chills and confirming, “This is by far the best choir we had out of 45 countries.”

The undying energy was sustained all throughout the night, as the band played one song after another without even stopping to take a breath. The band ended the night by performing their popular songs “I Lived,” “Counting Stars,” and “Lose Myself,” giving their Filipino fans an ultimate performance to remember.

The energy given by OneRepublic left their crowd wanting more and proved that they are worth the wait. Tedder said, “It’d be a dream to perform here two to three nights in a row, even better.” OneRepublic was in the country last October 2019 for the International Justice Mission, joining their fight against slavery. The voice, energy, talent, and magic they possess on stage are just incredible. We are left enthusiastic about this band; we can’t help but want more sing-alongs with them.

Special thanks to Wilbros Live

Words by: Josiphine Tagudin