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While McLachlan has been carried by a substantial rash of fan club voters in this contest, her appearance in the final can't be too much of a shock.
She has been a constant on the popular music scene for 16 years now, and her seventh album, "Afterglow," which she released in late 2003, is still selling at a torrid pace. The album went double platinum and has sold more than 4 million copies to date. A follow up DVD/CD released last Christmas, highlighting her 2004 summer tour, has also gone double platinum.
She had an abbreviated concert tour this year that started in April and ended in June with stops in Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and Canada. Her and it were so successful that as of last month it was the 14th largest grossing tour of the year.
Her performance at Live 8 was among the best (even if she did do a duet with Groban) and she is now gearing up for the release of her second remix album titled "Bloom," due in stores Sept. 6.
On the album, McLachlan presents nine previously unreleased versions of her music, done in collaboration with other artists and one brand new track that is sure to get mega airtime on several radio stations.
This intriguing new track, titled "Just Like Me," is a collaboration with Darryl McDaniels (DMC of Run/DMC fame) and was mixed by will. i. am. of the Black Eyed Peas. The song takes the Harry Chapin classic "Cats in the Cradle" and pumps some new life and imagination into the tune.
As for U2, well, was there really any doubt that they'd be here?
They've been considered by many to be the quintessential rock band of the past 25 years, and very few have argued against that label.
No matter where they play, they sell out. Every show. Indoor arenas, outdoor stadiums. You name it, there's not an empty seat in the house.
And the performances are superb. They are an experience. Which is why they command such a steep price tag.
Actually, the only person to publicly decry a U2 concert in recent memory is Sharon Osbourne who went onto a British radio station and said "Have you seen U2's live show? It's boring as hell. It's like watching CNN."
So it's Ireland vs. Canada in our finals, and you can send your vote for the best summer concert to us by e-mailing me at asanfilippo@delcotimes.com. U2 versus McLachlan. The deadline is Wednesday at noon. The results will be printed next Friday.
Before I leave this subject, I do need to send out a mea culpa of sorts for the inexcusable typographical error in Sarah's last name last week.
For some reason, I constantly added an extra "a" in her name at every reference. So instead of McLachlan she was MacLachlan, and that's just wrong.
While indefensible, I will throw myself at the mercy of the court of public opinion using this excuse for my error: I spent much of last week in Sarah's homeland (not her hometown of Vancouver, but Canada nonetheless), and wrote the music column from the Great White North.
In case you've never been to Canada, they still use the old English spelling for a lot of words.
So instead of "color" you have "colour." Instead of "labor" you have "labour," and instead of "favorite" there's "favourite."
My best explanation is that I was caught up in the adding an extra letter to words phenomenon and just decided Sarah wouldn't mind an extra "A" (for effort? No. Bad joke). Anyway, now that I'm back stateside, my American English spelling abilities have returned to nourmal.
