In celebration of his brand new single, “Messed Up As Me,” Keith Urban surprised some unsuspecting travelers with a pop-up concert.
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One day after releasing the new song, Urban showed up at Nashville International Airport to perform live and help travelers kill some time before their flights. Setting up in the food court at concourse C, Urban and his band rocked out and tested some new music out in the live setting while also playing some of his classic hits.
“Sooooo fun celebrating the release of ‘Messed Up As Me’ with loads of you in Concourse C yesterday,” Urban said in a post following the surprise. “A massive thank you to everyone at @Fly_Nashville for helping us pull off the surprise.”
While the airport food court might seem like a random place to test music, for Urban it surely felt like home and was a definite upgrade from his last airport gig. In 2021, Urban revealed on The Late Late Show with James Corden, he once played a gig on top of a baggage claim carousels after his manager at the time struck “some very questionable deal” in order to get Urban’s three-piece band some airline tickets.
“We played in an airport,” Keith shared. “Which doesn’t sound horrible, except for the fact it was a tiny regional airport in Australia, like 20 years ago… You know the little carpeted area above the carousel where the bags come 'round... it's like an island thing above it, right? Yeah. That's where we had to play,” Keith recalled as he laughed.
“So we start playing and a couple people came over and they’re checking out the music, then a few more people,” Urban shared remembering in that moment he didn’t think it was a bad gig. But then, the bags came. “All the bags start coming,” Keith explained while laughing and mimicking the noise of the airport baggage alarm. “Everyone got their luggage and they just all left… I was playing to nobody.”
Playing for nobody wasn’t something Urban had to worry about last Saturday as several travelers sprinted to the food court from their gates after finding out Urban was playing a show. Probably the only time a delayed flight would have been tolerated.
Check out some of the videos captured by fans below.