Keith Urban pays tribute to “the incredible Christine McVie” onstage in Australia

As the world reeled from the death of Christine McVie this week, Keith Urban paid tribute to the late, great rock vocalist with a medley of Fleetwood Mac songs during a show in Gold Coast, Australia.

Keith offered his spin on snippets of “Say You Love Me,” “Everywhere” and “Songbird” — all of which McVie wrote solo or had a hand in writing — during his set. After the fact, he shared video footage of his tribute on his social media, with the caption, “Last night in Gold Coast.”

The country star prefaced his Fleetwood Mac medley by acknowledging the loss of “the incredible Christine McVie” and telling the crowd a little bit about what her music, and Fleetwood Mac’s catalog in general, meant to him growing up.

“For me growing up listening to their music, you had three incredible vocalists,” Keith said. “You had Lindsey Buckingham, who brought this kind of punk, angular ethos to the whole thing, and you had Stevie Nicks, whose voice was just angelic, otherworldly.”

The crowd cheered and whooped as Keith went through Fleetwood Mac’s bandmates, finally arriving at McVie. “And then you had Christine, who for me was the maternal, soulful, heartbeat vocal of the band. I just wanna sing a few of her songs tonight,” he concluded.

McVie died on Wednesday at the age of 79. A statement from her family explains that she died “peacefully at hospital” after “a short illness. The family requested privacy and added, “… we would like everyone to keep Christine in their hearts and remember the life of an incredible human being, and revered musician who was loved universally.”