Robbie WilliamsCroke Park, Dublin\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n
On Sunday night, Robbie Williams<\/a> returned to Croke Park<\/a>, standing before 80,000 people and demanding to be loved. You could say that\u2019s what every concert is, but only the greatest performers do it with such naked honesty. <\/p>\n The evening opened with a tongue-in-cheek prelude: a film reflecting on the irreplaceable role of entertainers in the age of artificial intelligence, punctuated by deepfake tributes from Elvis, Freddie Mercury and Bowie. Seconds later, Williams burst out in a white spaceman suit and aviators, tearing into Rocket as the stadium erupted. He scaled a towering frame while dancers waved RW flags, then floated down.<\/p>\n The spectacle never slackened. It was, as he said, his \u201clove letter to entertainment\u201d, and he pulled out every trick. The outfit changes came relentlessly: astronaut to diamant\u00e9 red tracksuit, to flamingo-pink puffs to hot pink suit, and finally a white rhinestone Elvis homage. Around him, dancers flickered from towering Egyptian goddesses to flappers, to nymphs, to black-feathered peacocks. The choreography and setlist was calibrated perfectly to ensure no lull, no dead air. The challenge of a two-hour set is that Williams doesn\u2019t have enough hits to fill it, but he found inventive solutions, drawing the crowd into raucous singalongs of Y.M.C.A. and Islands in the Stream, just brief enough to dodge copyright while keeping the energy high.<\/p>\n His banter was perfectly pitched: self-deprecating, needy, mischievous, yet irresistibly charming. \u201cThank you for being here, it would be really weird if you weren\u2019t, and very expensive for me and my family,\u201d he quipped. Above all, he showed an acute awareness of who he is and who the audience expects. \u201cI\u2019m not cool, I\u2019ve never been cool. Nobody has ever said: that Robbie Williams, he\u2019s so mysterious,\u201d he admitted, before tearing into New York, New York, an anthem of triumphant uncoolness.<\/p>\n Two moments stood out. In one, Williams bantered with a projected deepfake of his 17-year-old self, a reminder of the boy who only ever wanted to be famous. In another, he delivered a soaring My Way, epic and richly tragic. <\/p>\n