My Honest Review of Frankie Valli Live—and Take on Viral Videos

Even if you haven’t seen the viral videos of Frankie Valli performing live, you've probably heard about the recent buzz surrounding his concerts. At 90 years old, the legendary singer is still taking the stage, but the internet has raised concerns about his health and performance. 

Amidst the slew of jokes, some people started to raise genuine concerns about the Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You singer’s well-being, posing the question of whether he was being forced to perform. While Valli recently released a statement in which he assured fans he was still enjoying touring and doing so of his own volition, it hasn’t completely quieted the commentary. 

Keep reading for a first-person review of the iconic crooner’s recent concert! 

Frankie Valli’s viral concert videos: Fans express support 

TikTok videos of Valli walking out on stage to sing some of his most popular melodies have received millions of views, sarcastic comments and even been repurposed as memes. 

This snippet of one of his recent performances of Sherry is just a single example:

Frankie Valli addresses concerns about his live performances 

“I absolutely love what I do,” Valli recently told People. “And I know we put on a great show because our fans are still coming out in force, and the show still rocks.” 

The Grammy nominee went on to explain how the shows are orchestrated. 

“The Four Seasons sound was always about layering vocals and instruments,” he said. “We use our 60 years of experience so we sound like the records. I sing. I have singers who sing, great arrangements…everything. I get a chuckle from the comments, wondering if someone is forcing me to go on stage. Nobody has ever made me do anything I didn’t want to do.”

“I plan to be doing shows as long as I can, delivering that great Four Seasons sound,” he concluded. “Like that line in Jersey Boys, ‘I’m like that bunny on TV, that just keeps going and going and going. Chasing the music.’”

Here’s my honest review of Frankie Valli live in concert

Let me preface this with a disclaimer: my mom and I bought tickets to Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons at NYCB Theatre at Westbury on Long Island over a year ago. From the moment we made that purchase, we talked about how we would be tempering our expectations walking in to see Valli perform live at age 90. 

We scoured the internet ahead of time and read reviews written by audience members from recent concerts who complained that Valli was lip-syncing and barely moving or blinking on stage (the central point of those viral videos that caused many people to liken Valli’s appearance to an animatronic), but my mom and I still agreed that it would be worthwhile. 

We cared only about the fact that we would have the opportunity to be up close and personal with a music icon whose tunes evoked nostalgia and made us get up and dance. I mean—we saw the off-broadway production of Jersey Boys six times within one year and spent countless car rides belting out Walk Like a Man, Big Girls Don’t Cry and Dawn. 

And we were not disappointed. He was actually really, really great. He made the crowd laugh with his jokes, sang chart-toppers like Rag Doll and December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) with all his heart and gave a performance we’d never forget.

I’m not writing this with the intent to convince people that—unlike in those videos—Valli was up there putting on the performance of a lifetime. Yes, he was a little slower on  stage than he might have been once, and he occasionally seemed to stare off into space a little. 

But here’s the kicker not shown in those videos: it was abundantly clear that despite a very loud background vocal track which made it challenging to tell whether he was singing at all, this man still knew every word to the majority of his discography. 

Between songs, he told stories about how and when they were written, and at the end of the show passed the spotlight to each of his backup singers and the entire band, introducing them each by name and recalling his decades of friendship with his music director. My favorite part, personally, was being one of the lucky fans with whom Valli shook hands at the end of the night. And this girl was trying very hard not to cry.

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