On our second night at Baloise Session, we were lucky enough to get to see OneRepublic and the talented Alma. Another great evening with too many hits to count and a sold-out Baloise Session.
Alma was up first. I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I’ve heard of her but wasn’t too familiar with her music. The first thing you notice is her bright red hair, her powerful and beautiful voice, and her energy. The audience needed a second to get into the groove, but once the first 3 songs were over, a bunch of fans ran up to the stage and started partying.
A Finnish surprise
As mentioned, I wasn’t that familiar with Alma music, but I can assure you, she’s made me a new fan. I loved watching her run up and down the stage, interacting with the people. I could see that many others were mesmerized by Alma too. She mentioned that there’s a new album coming out next year and we’ve actually been blessed with hearing some of her new songs. Be prepared, that will be a fantastic album!
Concert Pictures: Alma @ Baloise Session 2022
Time for OneRepublic
Shortly after 9 pm, it was time to get ready. People were getting back to their seats and were starting to prepare for the big headliner. You could feel the tension and the excitement. Only getting 1 song to photograph, before the fans were let to the front of the stage, got me nervous too. But everything worked out well. Once the fans stormed to the front, the party started. OneRepublic started out their set with “Love Runs Out” and everyone was hooked.
While Ryan Tedder sang out his heart, it was an absolute pleasure to see the band playing together. You could feel the “chemistry” on stage. This was the bands’ second headline show at Baloise Session. Still crazy to think they would fill arenas like the Hallenstadion, now we’re here in this small and intimate venue with 1000+ people. Talking about an exclusive show!
Name-dropping like a pro
We all know Ryan Tedder is a master of his craft – he writes kick-ass pop songs. During the show, there’s a part where Ryan talks about his songwriting and who he’s written songs for. And he’s written some major hits and bops, be it Beyonce, Leona Lewis, The Jonas Brothers, or Ellie Goulding. He then continues to sing some of those songs. I love this part of the show and watching people be super surprised that Ryan is behind these songs.
The setlist was a bit different from the one they played at their headlining show at Hallenstadion, Zurich, back in May. While every single song was a hit, I realized there were still so many others they could have performed and people would have known them too. Crazy. Being in the crowd up front, I always find it interesting to watch people and try to figure out what songs they know or when they might have become a fan. I love how diverse the audience was too. There were quite a few, let’s say “older” men dancing and singing along. Some younger fans and pretty much everything in between.
You could definitely spot all the Top Gun fans when they started playing “I Aint Worried” 😀
Short Football Break
Suddenly Ryan disappeared… The music continued and a few seconds later Ryan came back out and confessed that there was a football game on and apparently something crazy/weird was happening and he just had to go check up on that. At least he’s being honest about this 😂The bands’ little jam session during these few minutes apparently wasn’t planned – but then again, you can see they’ve been doing this for so long and were able to just improvise. Love it!
OneRepublic always puts on a great show!
From OneRepublic’s first headline show many fans already knew that Ryan will probably pop up in the middle of the crowd to perform the encore. So once the “official” set was over, everyone already turned around and was looking for Ryan. And just like suspected, Ryan did show up on that little mini-stage right in front of FOH. “Counting Stars” was the first encore and while some people in the audience were still chilling in their seats before, they were now on their feet and dancing! Closing the show with “Lose Myself” and loads of confetti was perfect.
Thanks, OneRepublic for another amazing night filled with so much joy and great music! Thank you Baloise Session for letting me be part of this great festival again – I can’t wait for next year!
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