Stevie Nicks manages to harness the serene blend of gentle lilt and witchy wonder

Stevie Nicks brings solo show to Toronto for one-of-a-kind night to remember: REVIEW

Fleetwood Mac frontwoman was supposed to perform on Aug. 15, but fractured her shoulder.

Jane Stevenson

Toronto Sun

Stevie Nicks

Scotiabank Arena

Saturday night

RATING: **** (4 out of 4)

No one can accuse Stevie Nicks — now 77 years old — of fading away.

So it should come as no surprise that the formidable Fleetwood Mac frontwoman with a unique style all her own began her solo show on Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena with a cover of Buddy Holly’s Not Fade Away.

Backed by an eight-piece band including seasoned guitarist Waddy Wachtel — whose licks stood out on such highlights as Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around, Stand Back and Edge of Seventeen — Nicks has lost the high heels on her signature black suede boots and the black top hat but otherwise remains quintessentially Stevie.

Head to toe black velvet top and chiffon skirt, check. Long shawls, check. Long blond hair in curls, check. Endearing commentary between songs, check. And that beautiful voice and those classic songs, check.

After the Buddy Holly cover, Nicks ventured into solo territory on If Anyone Falls and Outside The Rain before getting to the night’s first big moment with Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams.

The next crowd-pleaser was Stop Dragging My Heart Around with Wachtel filling in on Tom Petty’s vocal parts.

Nicks explained she’d made no secret of wanting to join Petty’s band on more than one occasion and later performed his hit, Free Fallin’, while photos of them in concert together were displayed on a huge screen behind the stage.

She also paid tribute to her fallen Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Christine McVie, during the emotional show-ending Landslide which followed the Fleetwood Mac chesnut, Rhiannon, during the encore as photos of them on stage and off were shown.

Nicks explained early on in the evening that the Toronto performance was a make-up show for a previously scheduled Aug. 15 date which had to be postponed, along with other concerts, after she fractured her shoulder, which required her to lie in bed for a month.

THE TWIRL STILL THRILLS

Still walking gingerly around the stage during the one hour and 40 minute set, Nicks briefly performed her signature twirl a few times which caused the audience to roar.

And whenever she brought a new shawl out to wear — at last count three including a gold one for Fleetwood Mac’s Gold Dust Woman — it was like she had brought antiquities on stage for everyone to marvel over. (She explained they were originals from the time she recorded the songs.)

Such is Nicks’ exquisitely designed myth-making.

She also explained that Fleetwood Mac’s Gypsy, which she also performed, was written while she and former love and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham were in the early stages of their careers with the requisite highs and lows. (They were Buckingham-Nicks before joining Fleetwood Mac in 1975, breaking up in 1976 and greatly contributing to the band’s juggernaut release, Rumours, in 1977.)

Nicks told us to make herself stay grounded during those early days she used to pull their mattress off its bedspring and put it on the floor with a beautiful cover she’d found and sit on it and say over and over: “I’m still Stevie.”

All these years later, she certainly is, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

SET LIST

Not Fade Away

If Anyone Falls

Outside the Rain

Dreams

Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around

The Lighthouse

Wild Heart / Bella Donna

Stand Back

Free Fallin’

Gypsy

Gold Dust Woman

Edge of Seventeen

ENCORE

Rhiannon

Landslide

With whimsy and chatter, Stevie Nicks brings a steady, cautious stream of hits to Toronto

The legendary Fleetwood Mac vocalist was fanciful and steady across a compact, career-spanning set. 

By Hayden Godfrey

Toronto Star

Stevie Nicks

2.5 stars (out of 4)

Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 at Scotiabank Arena

For as long as she’s been draping ribboned scarves over her microphone stand, Stevie Nicks has trafficked in verbs, not attributes. Actions, not texts. She rasps, she enchants, she twirls and she mystifies.

Even at 77, she manages to harness the serene blend of gentle lilt and witchy wonder that has made her one of the most revered performers of the last half-century.

Still, her 14-song Saturday night jaunt at Scotiabank Arena — the rescheduled seventh-to-last stop on her North American tour — was a mixed bag, blending solo highlights with somewhat underwhelming renditions of all-time classics.

“Yes, me and my barely-coming-back-together shoulder are here to see you tonight,” she said, alluding to the reason for having to postpone the gig in the first place.

Going back to her days as an angelic California rock heroine, Nicks’ vocals have oscillated carefully between two distinct shades: girlishly tender and huskily gravelly. She could be as light as Joni or as gritty as Joplin, embodying each tonal chassis with ease and comfort depending on the mood.

Now, all that remains is the thin version of the latter, which works well on some reworked classics (“Gypsy,” “Stand Back”), but falls flat on others (“Bella Donna,” “If Anyone Falls”), giving her limited set list a bit of an uneven feel.

Fleetwood Mac fans, luckily, were well-served by the breadth of nostalgic material, even if the quality of those arrangements was subpar when compared to their full-band contemporaries. “Gold Dust Woman” shimmered with sorcery despite its attempted rework into a thumping, glitzy arena rocker, while “Rhiannon” and “Dreams” remain the classics they always were. As a tear-jerking closer, “Landslide” is as pertinent as ever, with Nicks’ more mature, almost owlish delivery elevating what was already a lyrical triumph to an eternal opus.

But there’s an almost intangible magnetism missing from them when performed outside the charged, visceral confines of a Fleetwood Mac performance. Her band, captained by longtime lead guitarist and musical director Waddy Wachtel (James Taylor, Warren Zevon) and garnished by vocal deputy Sharon Celani, do a fine job backing up Nicks’ vocals, but they’re a far cry from the chemistry, rawness and subtle finesse of Nicks’ erstwhile Mac bandmates.

Some of her solo cuts, though, still sound great. “Edge of Seventeen” is ever the showstopper, especially in its extended form, while “Outside the Rain” glistens with her trademark marvellous poise. She even threw in a cover of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” for good measure, complete with a wistful slide show of pictures of the two from tours and songwriting sessions past.

As she’ll likely be the first to tell you, Nicks does little in the way of stage antics or quirks, perhaps in part due to her recent injury; she’ll sway, do a spin or two and mimic an electric guitar during a crunchy riff, but nothing that compares to her majestic stagecraft of old.

But she partially mitigated her lack of mobility (and available, famed duet partners) with charming, albeit wordy stories of her globe-trotting past, lending an underlying grace to her presence. Whether she’s waltzing through poetic stanzas or wrapping herself in coloured capes, she is, unmistakably, still Stevie Nicks.

“Keep dancing,” she encouraged, before shifting to a decidedly goofier anecdote in her closing message. “In the middle of the night, when I get up and go to the kitchen, I dance all the way there and all the way back, and I love it!”

She doesn’t move mountains like she used to, but for the misty mass of flowy skirt-and-shawl-wearing acolytes of all ages, Nicks is still kicking, with a childlike attitude and the same delicate get-up to boot. And with a career this rich and filled with gauzy mythology, that’s enough.

Stevie Nicks Ranks No.8 on Global Concert Tours

The Top 20 Global Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows Worldwide. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.

The GLOBAL CONCERT PULSE ranks each artist by its average boxoffice gross per city worldwide and is based on data reported within the last three months.

TOP 20 GLOBAL CONCERT TOURS

Stevie Nicks ranks at No. 8 

		Average Gross	Average Attendance	Average Tix Price
1	The Weeknd	$7,484,350	47,488	$157.60
2	Chris Brown	$6,646,005	42,077	$157.95
3	Eagles	$4,839,340	16,270	$297.43
4	Shakira	$4,589,482	39,630	$115.81
5	Lady Gaga	$3,257,626	14,625	$222.73
6	Guns N’ Roses	$2,829,947	29,109	$97.22
7	Post Malone	$2,548,102	30,896	$82.47
8	Stevie Nicks	$2,521,044	12,839	$196.35
9	Hozier	$2,192,177	25,875	$84.72
10	Bruno Mars	$2,069,640	5,295	$390.87
11	Dua Lipa	$1,875,200	12,988	$144.38
12	Tyler Childers	$1,836,384	19,246	$95.41
13	Tyler, The Creator	$1,824,709	14,262	$127.94
14	NBA YoungBoy	$1,727,551	13,215	$130.72
15	The Lumineers	$1,672,533	17,173	$97.39
16	Katy Perry	$1,595,968	16,196	$98.54
17	Bad Bunny	$1,556,102	14,599	$106.59
18	Chayanne	$1,501,359	11,628	$129.11
19	Benson Boone	$1,490,169	14,242	$104.63
20	Junior H	$1,475,247	12,938	$114.02

Stevie Nicks rocks with relentless passion, colorful personality and punching-above-her-weight power

Review: Stevie Nicks dances, entrances and chats up a thrilled St. Paul audience

The Fleetwood Mac goddess brought passion, personality and power to Grand Casino Arena on Wednesday.

by Jon Bream

The Minnesota Star Tribune

Photo: Joe Lemke

Legend and icon are such overused terms that they’ve become almost meaningless.

Goddess. Now that’s the appropriate word for Stevie Nicks.

Not just because she became the first woman to be inducted twice into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (with Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist). Not just because she’s the oldest woman, at 77, to headline on the arena circuit. Not just because she’s become beloved by multiple generations thanks to recent appearances on TV’s “American Horror Story,” cosigns from Taylor Swift and Harry Styles and a viral TikTok of a man skateboarding to the Nicks-sung Fleetwood Mac oldie “Dreams” that ignited a surge in streams and sales during the pandemic.

It’s because Nicks rocks with relentless passion, colorful personality and punching-above-her-weight power as she demonstrated Wednesday night at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul. She showed an ability to touch hearts and minds — and feet. Yes, you can dance to Nicks’ music even if you’re not draped in a shawl and twirling like she does.

Her dancing during the opening “Not Fade Away,” “Stand Back” and “Gold Dust Woman” was a crowd-tantalizing treat, though she may not be as agile as she once was. Remember, she fractured her shoulder this summer, forcing the postponement of this concert that was originally scheduled for August.

It was a thoroughly satisfying, late-in-career arena performance, as the expected mystical and magical combined with some down-to-earth chattiness. Moreover, Nicks’ seductive husky siren of a voice was in fine form, for the most part, and she remarkably hit her high notes on Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” and “Gold Dust Woman.”

The otherworldly hippie with long blond hair, an endless supply of shawls and beads draped on her microphone stand is revered by women, who made up the majority of the 14,000 fans in St. Paul, for being a survivor. She survived the romantic traumas of Fleetwood Mac and facing her overbearing ex, Lindsey Buckingham, night after night onstage. And she knows Fleetwood Mac is history after the 2022 death of her Mac soul sister Christine McVie.

Nicks pressed on, touring, writing poetry for Swift’s 2024 “The Tortured Poets Department” album, recording with Gorillaz and Dolly Parton and releasing last year the most politicized piece in her catalog, “The Lighthouse,” a spooky single in reaction to the repeal of the Roe v. Wade abortion decision

“Don’t let them take your power,” Nicks implored Wednesday during the dark, haunting stomp of a tune. Afterward, she declared: “It’s an anthem. It’s yours.”

Besides featuring that political detour without any between-song preaching, this Nicks concert was very different from her two most recent performances in the Twin Cities. Two years ago, she was paired with fellow Rock Hall of Famer Billy Joel at U.S. Bank Stadium. Nine years ago, she teamed with the Hall of Fame Pretenders, led by Chrissie Hynde, at Xcel Energy Center.

This time, Nicks plucked an unknown rural Minnesota singer/songwriter, Anna Graves, to open. Apparently, Graves’ booking agent’s aunt is a friend of Nicks and introduced her to Graves’ music. And the 28-year-old was courageous enough to perform solo in a hockey arena. Saying she graduated from Northfield High and lives in Webster, Minn., she was earnest and engaging, with a clarion voice and some promising songs.

With an obscure opening act, the evening didn’t exactly have the gravitas of Nicks’ two most recent Twin Cities performances. No one was complaining as she delivered 14 songs in 100 minutes.

The highlights were many, including the electrifying “Edge of Seventeen,” Fleetwood Mac’s closing acoustic “Landslide” (dedicated to her late husband Kim Anderson from Minnesota), the captivating “The Lighthouse” and “Stand Back,” which started with the buzzy synthesizer funk of the Twin Cities’ own Ricky Peterson and kept building in tension as Nicks and her eight-person band rocked out.

In her seventh solo Twin Cities appearance, Nicks was chatty, as is her wont in solo shows.

She shared a backstory about producer Jimmy Iovine telling her she needed a single after they’d finished recording her debut solo album in 1981. He was also producing Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers at the time, and he asked Petty if he could try a duet with Nicks on Petty’s “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”

“It was just enchantment,” she said of collaborating with Petty.

On Wednesday, veteran Los Angeles guitarist Waddy Wachtel sang Petty’s part on “Stop Draggin’” as photos of Petty, Bob Dylan, Prince, Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin appeared on a giant video wall behind the stage. For part of the night, Wachtel served as Nicks’ key foil in much the same way Buckingham was in Fleetwood Mac.

Nicks didn’t go into detail about the collaborator on “Stand Back,” her 1983 hit. But the story goes Nicks heard Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” on the radio while driving to her honeymoon suite, and she started humming along to the melody. She recorded a demo that night and called Prince to tell him about it. A few days later, he came to the studio and played synthesizers on the record without receiving credit, though he did get a royalty split.

Nicks didn’t say anything about Prince on Wednesday. Goddesses don’t need to talk about gods.

Stevie Nicks Nicks enchanted St. Paul crowd of about 14,000

An ageless Stevie Nicks charms Grand Casino Arena crowd

Now 77, the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer was as bewitching as ever

By ROSS RAIHALA
TwinCities.com

Photo: Joe Lemke 

Stevie Nicks busted one of her white wings this summer, forcing the twirling songstress to postpone a number of shows, including an August stop at the St. Paul hockey arena then known as Xcel Energy Center.

Nicks absolutely enchanted the crowd of about 14,000 at her make-good gig Wednesday night at Grand Casino Arena. And her once-fractured shoulder wasn’t apparent in the slightest during her delightful, spirited performance.

Now 77, Nicks certainly moves more slowly than she once did, but she’s still got every bit of that larger-than-life charisma that’s kept her star burning for more than five decades now. It’s no wonder she was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice.

In interviews, Nicks often speaks about focusing her energy on doing things she finds fun, which as one would imagine rarely include her former life and musical partner Lindsey Buckingham. After seeing her sixth local show of the past 20 years, it was clear performing live is one of those things that brings her joy. In between her solo hits and Fleetwood Mac classics, Nicks smiled and chatted with the audience, sharing stories about her songs and her life. And, yup, she really did seem to be having fun.

She opened with a rollicking take on Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away,” a song that was released when she was 9 years old. It must be a favorite of hers, as she recorded a version of it for a 2011 Holly tribute album. She’s never performed it live until this tour, though. Maybe she relates to its title, as she’s showing no signs of fading away herself.

From there, she explored her solo career, turning in a fantastic take on “If Anyone Falls” and performing “Wild Heart” and “Bella Donna” as a medley, another first for Nicks on her current run of dates. (After wrapping “Bella Donna,” she told the crowd the cape draped over her shoulders was the same one she wore on the back cover of her 1981 solo debut album of the same name.)

Because she’s got so many gems in her catalog, she casually dropped a goosebump-inducing version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” in as the fourth song of the show. Her voice has grown huskier with age, not a bad thing at all, and remains strong. She also knows where she needs a little help and employed a pair of backup singers to beef up some of the numbers.

Nicks’ band extended the instrumental introductions to some songs like “Edge of Seventeen” and “Stand Back” to give her time to slip backstage and change into a new shawl. One of the few weak points of the evening arrived in the latter, as someone — maybe her longtime musical director Waddy Wachtel? — made the decision to downplay the song’s distinctive synthesizer hook in favor of a muddier, guitar-heavy take. (Prince, by the way, played it on the original recording.)

Given her age, it’s not too surprising she’s drawing such strong crowds these days. Surely, some of her fans are worried this might be their last chance to catch Nicks live.

Nicks clearly realizes that speculation is out there. At the close of her main set, she told the audience with a steely resolve: “See you next time. And there will be a next time. Hope to see you here!”