Composer Hans Zimmer Takes Melbourne to the Next Level
By Woodrow Stevenson
Among the 88 shows of mostly pop and rock concerts hosted at the Rod Laver Arena this year - from Tame Impala and Noah Kahan to Lorde and Olivia Dean - one recent stand-out was an artist who doesn't sing a note: Hans Zimmer.
Zimmer brought his “The Next Level” world tour to the iconic centre court location at the Melbourne home of the Australian Open just 18 months after his last tour, “Hans Zimmer Live 2025”. He may not sing, but you’d undoubtedly recognise many of his tunes when performed with a full orchestra and heard in the darkness of a movie theatre. The two-time Oscar-winning German composer has a 44-year discography including some of the most famous film soundtracks of all time: The Lion King, Interstellar, Dune, The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Gladiator and his most recent Golden Globe-nominated score for the Brad Pitt film, F1.
A recent wet Melbourne evening marked the second of two shows on October 24 & 25, with close to 15,000 patrons packing into the stadium to watch Zimmer and his band of approximately 19 musicians kick off with a medley of songs from The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, followed by the song Paul's Dream, from Dune: Part 1, with vocals performed by Loire Cotler, the rhythm vocalist artist Zimmer discovered on YouTube in 2017.
Zimmer and his band continued with What Are You Going to Do When You Are Not Saving the World? and If You Love These People from the 2013 action/sci-fi film Man of Steel, and also included music from Sherlock Holmes. Between songs, the composer who mostly plays piano and guitar throughout the show entertained his audience with his signature humour and wit, telling stories about the songs and providing context about the films they featured in. He admitted at one point that Australia was one of his favorite countries to visit and perform in, asking the crowd “not to tell the other countries.”
It turns out the band included a few Melbourne musicians, Zimmer proudly revealed during introductions later in the show. To highlight this, he brought out Melbourne singer and co-composer of his Golden Globe-winning Gladiator score, Lisa Gerrard. Gerrard had originally provided the iconic invented language delivered in solo vocals on the Gladiator soundtrack, and performed her song, Now We Are Free.
After a fifteen-minute intermission, the second half of the show included Dream Is Collapsing, from the Chris Nolan film Inception, 160 BPM from Angels and Demons and two songs from Zimmer's iconic 2001 Michael Bay blockbuster film score for Pearl Harbour; And Then I Kissed Him and Tennessee.
When Zimmer and his band performed the song F1 from the film, F1, the set included a synchronized lighting display featuring four massive beams of red light turning on and off to suggest the starting lights of an F1 Race. It was a nice touch, as the show then transitioned into a medley of songs from one of Zimmer’s' most famous soundtracks for the other Chris Nolan film, Interstellar. Zimmer provided plenty of insight into how the music and film came together as his band joined him on that film's tracks; Day One, Murph, Coward, and Stay. One of the night’s biggest highlights was the sudden appearance of aerialist Nina Treiber, who became part of this medley when she dramatically showed up above the audience, dressed as a Mirrorball and providing a breathtaking series of twists and turns in her harness under eight spotlights coming at her from all angles.
Another surprise was revealed when the orchestra began a Lion King medley and introduced South African composer, singer and songwriter Lebo M (Lebohang Morake). Morake co-composed the Oscar-winning score of The Lion King film and famously sang the iconic Zulu chant during Circle of Life, both in the film and during the show.
Zimmer closed with a spectacular medley of songs from one of his most well-known scores, Pirates of the Caribbean, finishing with He's a Pirate, as pirate flags waved across the stage. Then he dimmed the lights for his last song, a piano-only version of Time, from the Chris Nolan film Inception.
When the lights came back up for the curtain call, it was no surprise the audience were on their feet, marking a memorable night of film, music and performance with a standing ovation.
Check out other highlights from the show, courtesy of Instagram: @HansZimmerLive
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