Bon Jovi played Istanbul for the first time in 18 years! and they felt incredible to be back!
Visiting Turkey for the first time in 18 years, the world rock stars, famous for mega hits as “Livin’ On a Prayer,” “Always,” “It’s My Life” and “You Give Love a Bad Name”, performed at Istanbul’s Türk Telekom Arena stage on Friday evening July 8th as part of their Bon Jovi Open Air Tour 2011.
Bon Jovi surprised his Turkish Rock fans going on stage while wearing a Turkish flag shirt. The Bon Jovi show was dubbed as “Istanbul biggest concert of the year,” and it lived up to expectations, as the 35,000 people present for the American rock giants’ performance at Türk Telekom Arena would tell you.
The set’s opening song was “Raise Your Hands,” which was, in a way, the most perfect way to kick start a stadium show. Jon Bon Jovi, the band’s 49-year-young frontman, took a short tour around the stage during the song’s chorus, calling the crowd to do what is urged in the song title.
Bon Jovi played almost all of their hits, from the 1980s’ powerful kicks to 2000s modern rock tunes. And they stayed on stage for about three hours.
They kicked off the European leg of the tour in Zagreb on June 8, the group will continue on from İstanbul to Romania, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, Austria and Spain, wrapping up their summer tour with a concert in Lisbon on July 31.
The band will perform concerts in the U.S., Canada and throughout Europe. Globally, the Grammy® Award-winning band has sold more than 125 million albums, and performed more than 2,700 concerts in over 50 countries for more than 35 million fans.
BON JOVI GREATEST HITS debuted at #1 around the world in November, with the band’s three-decade-spanning retrospective charting higher and selling more copies in its first week than their 1994 Cross Road release, which has sold more than 21 million copies to date. Previously, the band’s “Lost Highway Tour” was named the #1 tour of 2008. Nearing three decades of an incredible career, Bon Jovi shows no sign of slowing down.
Their 2010 Circle Tour was the highest grossing concert tour of 2010 according to Billboard’s annual countdown of the top 25 concert tours. Bon Jovi last performed in Turkey in September 1993 at İstanbul’s İnönü Stadium.
