Paul McCartney

Some artists play concerts. Paul McCartney creates events. On November 12, 2018, Sir Paul took the Plenitude Arena stage and gave 40,000 spectators an evening that defies every law of time, music’s, and the heart’s.

Almost 3 hours of show, 38 songs, 40,000 spectators. A night outside of time.

He walked on stage as if it were the most natural thing in the world, opened with A Hard Day’s Night, and in a single chord, the room was gone. This wasn’t a concert beginning, it was sixty years of musical history pouring out all at once.

The setlist was breathtaking

38 songs in nearly three hours, a complete journey through a career with no equal in the history of popular music. The Beatles, Wings, solo records, all of it, in a sequence that felt both perfectly crafted and utterly alive. All My Loving, Got to Get You Into My Life, Eleanor Rigby, Lady Madonna, Blackbird performed alone on acoustic guitar in near-total silence. Something, opened on ukulele as a tribute to his “brother” George Harrison. Here Today, the heartbreaking 1982 song written for John Lennon. Footage of the early Beatles rolled across the giant screens, and with it something universal rose to the surface : youth, memory, the pure joy of songs you thought you knew by heart, still landing like a revelation.

McCartney spoke French

Throughout the night, he addressed the crowd in our language with ease and warmth that sent the room into raptures. “C’est super de revenir ici à Paris.” He introduced Michelle as “la seule chanson en français qu’on connaît.” He dedicated My Valentine to his wife Nancy, who was in the room. And near the end, he called out “Je vous kiffe !” triggering a roar that shook the walls.

Flames shot up, fireworks exploded above the stage

The apotheosis was called Live and Let Die

Plenitude Arena experienced one of those moments of total spectacle it was built for. Then came Hey Jude, the great collective ritual, McCartney conducting 40,000 voices through the most famous “na na na” in the world, men on one side, women on the other, everyone united in something that went far beyond a concert.

He left. He came back. Because with McCartney, when you think it’s over, it never is. The encore was everything : a blazing Helter Skelter, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, and to close, The End, the final track from the Beatles’ final album, a perfect full stop on a perfect evening.

38 songs. Nearly three hours. A 76-year-old artist running, singing, playing guitar, bass and piano with undiminished fire. That night, Plenitude Arena didn’t host a concert. It hosted a living legend and everyone in the room knew it.