We lost a lot of greats in 2016, and Keith Urban made sure to honor them during his New Year's Eve performance in Nashville. Oh, and wife Nicole Kidman came along, too.
Videos by Wide Open Country
During the "Music City Midnight" celebration, tens of thousands of soggy Nashvillians waited hours in the cold rain for a jam-packed lineup that featured Styx and Keith Urban. During his 8-minute set leading up to midnight, Urban paid tribute to Merle Haggard, Glenn Frey, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen and Prince.
Not everybody can go from "Hallelujah" to "Purple Rain" and stop at "Take It Easy," ""Heroes" and "Mama Tried" along the way. As he began singing, images of the stars appeared on the screen. It was quite the medley.
And you can watch it all, thanks to this video from CNN.
Urban cracks up a bit when his actress wife shows up on stage to dance along. She dances all the way through Bowie, Haggard and eventually the full-tilt performance of "Purple Rain." Kidman's role in 2001's Moulin Rouge featured a song that included Bowie's classic tune "Heroes."
Most New Year's Eve celebrations feature lots of performances, and even more lip syncing. It's hard to be memorable. (Unless you're really bad — just watch Mariah Carey's nightmare performance from New York for proof of that). So seeing Urban take the stage with an acoustic guitar and pay tribute to five musical legends is pretty special.
Happy New Year, everybody!
