Oar Pali

Obama is just Bryan Adams without music

O’ar Pali talks to the ageing Canadian rocker and realises that the President-elect has merely emulated the pious pop-star rhetoric that has made Adams a global brand

issue 13 December 2008

O’ar Pali talks to the ageing Canadian rocker and realises that the President-elect has merely emulated the pious pop-star rhetoric that has made Adams a global brand

It would be no real surprise to pick up the first issue of The Spectator from 1828 and find a review of a Bryan Adams show: he is one of those performers who is just there, and (it seems) always has been. Unless you were on a different planet during the 1990s I guarantee that you heard, loved or hated his single ‘Everything I Do’, which was one of the best-selling records of the decade. Adams has picked up Grammy and Oscar nominations like confetti. And if you haven’t danced to his 1984 floor-filler, ‘Summer of ’69’, then your children or grandchildren have (during Freshers’ Week while nervously drinking punch). In addition to his musical career, he has been a stalwart of the Prince’s Trust for the past two decades, photographed the Queen and mounted a photography exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

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