Team MJ is still on a high from David Cook’s return concert tonight at Smart Araneta Coliseum. From the time the show opened with “Circadian,” David kept the energy level up to the delight of his Filipino fans. The audience rocked along to songs from his two albums, but David also took the opportunity to introduce a new song, “From Here to Zero.” He also sang his latest release, “The Last Song I’ll Write for You.” 

“I’m very happy to be back in Manila,” David shared with his enthusiastic viewers. During the concert, he shared that when he was first in Manila in 2009, in a concert where he was double-billed with fellow American Idol alum David Archuleta, he looked out to the 100K-plus audience and realized that “Halfway around the world, in a place I’ve never been, people were singing my songs back to me.” He told the cheering crowd that to date, this show remains his favorite since American Idol ended. 

He also told the crowd that when he first sang a cover at American Idol, he didn’t expect that his version “had traction”, and it was only later when he realized how well his song was doing in the Philippines. With this, he launched into the opening strains of the song that put him on the map, Mariah Carey’s ”Always Be My Baby”. The song became a duet when Filipina singer Yeng Constantino stepped out from backstage to sing the song with him.

A crowd favorite was his reworking of “Fade Into Me.” According to David, this song began as a power ballad until the time his guitar tech handed him a guitar tuned differently than expected and he had to improvise. The resulting acoustic version was the one he sang to signal the close of his show before finally ending on a high with ”Rapid Eye Movement.” 

Setlist

Circadian
Heroes (with a bit of Oasis’ Champagne Supernova)
Mr. Sensitive
Declaration
Tease of Free Bird (a request from the audience!)
The Last Goodbye
From Here to Zero
Hard to Believe
I Did It for You
The Last Song I’ll Write for You
Paper Heart
Come Back to Me
Goodbye to the Girl
Light On
Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll and Whole Lotta Love
Bar-ba-Sol
Always Be My Baby (with Yeng Constantino)
Fade into Me
Rapid Eye Movement

More David Cook on Amazon