Adam Levine shares No. 1 reason Maroon 5 loves coming back to Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Last Thursday night’s concert of Maroon 5 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena was the American band’s sixth show here in the Philippines and as expected, they did not disappoint the crowd.

Prior to their most recent visit, the pop-rock band held shows here in 2008, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2019.

The group, composed of Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, James Valentine, Matt Flynn, PJ Morton and Sam Farrar, set the lively atmosphere and dancing mood of the concert-goers with the opening track Moves Like Jagger.

The intense energy continued as they performed their hits one after another with This Love, Stereo Hearts, One More Night, Animals, Love Somebody, What Lovers Do, Makes Me Wonder, Wait, Maps and Harder To Breathe.

The love and support of the fans for the band members were felt and vice-versa all throughout the unforgettable night. Frontman Adam’s sexy dance moves and guitar solo were so impressive, electrifying the singing audience.

Before hitting the acoustic version of Payphone with James and Jesse on guitars, Adam shared the reason why they love coming back to the country. “For many reasons. However, the No. 1 reason we like to come here is because we know how much you guys love to sing… And as a singer, I cannot even tell you how much joy that brings (to) me and the rest of the band when we come out here to a place where I know…You guys love to f**king sing. And that just makes us feel so good out here.

“I want you guys to know that it’s a special place for us because we know that every time we come here, first of all, the crowd seems to be getting bigger and bigger, every time we come here. It just feels like you guys love to be in it with us. You guys sing louder. You sing louder than anywhere else in the world. It’s a beautiful thing. So thank you so much guys. We love you.”

He further encouraged the audience to keep on singing with them and they happily complied with the tracks Beautiful Mistakes, Don’t Wanna Know, Cold, Sunday Morning and Girls Like You.

The rockers then took a short break and came back on stage with a song from 2012, Daylight, from their Overexposed album.

It was followed by Memories, a song about loss with the lines, “Here’s to the ones that we got/ Cheers to the wish you were here, but you’re not/ ‘Cause the drinks bring back all the memories/ Of everything we’ve been through.”

They also put on a stripped version of Lost Stars while Sugar was their parting song.

Before that, Adam felt sentimental as he reminisced about the band’s journey for over 20 years. He said, “Our first album came out 20 years ago. That’s a long time ago. That’s older than you, you, you (pointing at the audience). And I just wanted you guys to know that we’ve obviously (come) very far away from here, being a musician, being in a band, singing for my art, my job, our job as a band to perform our songs for this long.

“For all the 20 years and being able to come to a country I’ve never been to before. But our music brought us here. And we were able to share something so special with you guys. And I just wanna say on behalf of the band, everybody back there, we appreciate it so much more than you could ever know,” he added.

He expressed the group’s gratitude to all their Filipino fans, saying, “And we just wanted to say thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts and we love you guys. And we see you and we appreciate you over the last 20 years ‘coz without you guys we cannot do this. And so we love you guys and we thank you.”

Adam then performed his “favorite song to sing,” She Will Be Loved, the third single from Maroon 5’s debut studio album Songs About Jane (2002).

The jam-packed concert was part of the band’s 2022 world tour. The Manila leg was presented by Live Nation Philippines.