Rock N Roll Circus 2025 Friday Headliner: Bryan Adams

Image provided by Rock N Roll Circus

What can really match one of the biggest bands in the world of the last 20 years? Well, how about one of the biggest artists in the world, ever. Bryan Adams, the Canadian born singer-songwriter, can easily stake a solid claim to that title having sold upwards of 50 million records over his illustrious career. A hitmaker of the highest order, Bryan Adams is one of the best-selling musicians of all time and is still managing to craft arena rock anthems. Now even at the age of 65, Adams is still recording and performing at the top of his game in a career that only began just under 50 years ago.

Adams started his music career with vocal roles in a couple of bands before he got his break as a solo artist in the late ’70s and early ‘80s. His self-titled debut album released in 1980 later became certified gold in Canada and was quickly followed in 1981 with You Want It You Got It and his first true hits in ‘Fits Ya Good’ and ‘Lonely Nights’.

His real breakout followed in 1983 with Cuts Like a Knife and lead single ‘Straight From The Heart’ which reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, with title track ‘Cuts Like a Knife’ not far behind at 15 and ‘This Time’ also hitting the top 30 with other tracks from the record also receiving significant airplay across North America. The album itself peaked at 8 in the Billboard 200 and went achieved three times platinum status in Canada.

Adams’ enduring knack for creating rock anthems truly shone through on his next LP though. With the genesis of Reckless, the world also first heard the likes of ‘Run To You’, ‘Heaven’, the Tina Turner duet ‘It’s Only Love’ and of course the ever-present ‘Summer of ‘69’ (though this was, somewhat surprisingly, something of a sleeper hit here in the UK, not getting much attention at first). 

The album of course shot to number one in the US and Canada and earned Grammy nominations for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group and Best Male Rock Performance, as well as winning the MTV award for Best Stage Performance and Juno Awards for Album of the Year and Best Male Vocalist, one of his 4-peat from 1983 to 1987. The album also became the first record by a Canadian artist to go Diamond in Canada, as well as reaching 5x Platinum and 3x Platinum in the US and UK respectively.

Adams’ talent for hitmaking continued to shine in all contexts. Through the rest of the 1980s Adams contributed to multiple number 1 charity projects before penning a little known track for the film Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves titled ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’ which went on to spend 16 straight weeks at number one in the UK Singles Chart and 7 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. It was the largest single shipment in the history of A&M Records at the time and also earned Bryan Adams his first Golden Globe Award for Best Song from a Motion Picture and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Fun fact but around this time Adams co-wrote and featured on ‘Nature Of The Beast’ by The Law, the music video for which was filmed here in Sheffield.

Now a bonafide global star, Adams’ prowess continued to shine through the 1990s on both his albums and other projects and singles. 1991s multi-award winning Waking Up The Neighbours became his second certified diamond album in Canada and topped charts worldwide with ballads to match ‘(Everything I Do)’ in ‘Can’t Stop This Thing We Started’ and ‘Do I Have To Say The Words’. In 1993 his collaboration with Rod Stewart and Sting on the single ’All for Love’ for The Three Musketeers again topped charts worldwide. Continuing in the film world, in 1995 Adams penned ‘Have You Really Loved a Woman’ for Don Juan DeMarco which received Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe nominations.

The track also featured on 1996's 18 til I Die along with other number 1 singles like ‘The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You’ as well as tracks like ‘Star’ which featured on the soundtrack for the film Jack. 1998 follow up On a Day Like Today also enjoyed widespread success, including two top ten singles here in the UK, including ‘When You’re Gone’ which featured Melanie C, might we see the duo team up for a rendition at Rock N Roll Circus this year?  

The new millennium didn’t slow Adams’ success as he picked up more Golden Globe nominations for his work on Spirit in 2002 before his next album, Room Service soared to the top 5 in the UK in 2004.  Adams also performed at the prestigious Live 8 concert in 2005 and was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2006 before another Golden Globe nomination in 2007 for co-writing ‘Never Gonna Break My Faith’ for the film Bobby.

His 11th album, 11, came in 2008 and became his first album to debut at number 1 in his home country since Waking Up The Neighbours. Things didn’t slow in the 2010s either as Adams peformed at the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Vancouver and the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cricket World Cup in Dhaka, also becoming the first international artist to perform in Nepal just days later. 

Fan would have to wait until 2015 though to get their next taste of new Bryan Adams material with the release of Get Up which peaked at number 2 here in the UK. In 2016 he began working with the producer and director of Pretty Woman: The Musical to write the music and lyrics for the Broadway and West End hit which debuted to widespread acclaim in 2018. His 14th album Shine a Light soon followed in 2019 and became his 11th album in the top ten and the fifth album at the top of the Canadian charts, while reaching second in the UK charts again, his 10th to hit the UK Top 10.

2022 saw the release of So Happy It Hurts with Adams receiving yet another Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance for the title track. His 16th album, Roll With The Punches is slated for release on the day of his performance at Rock N Roll Circus, Friday 29th August, which is sure to be a special day for many reasons besides this.

A tireless activist and humanitarian, veteran of too many tours and live shows to count and worthy winner of many many accolades, Bryan Adams is a true rock and roll legend. So who better to carry the torch after Queens Of The Stone Age use it to burn the house down? His set will be stacked full of hits and his vaunted showmanship will be on full display, and as we alluded to earlier, we may even get a surprise or two, what a way to spend your last Friday of the Summer.