Oprah Winfrey, the iconic TV personality and multimedia mogul, charmed and inspired a sold-out crowd in Vancouver Thursday night as she shared stories of her life and praised the city's cleanliness.
The night began with B.C.'s own Jimmy Pattison, followed by Winfrey's boyfriend, Stedman Graham, who made a surprise appearance to introduce his "girl." A standing ovation greeted the woman of the evening who wore a pink gown.
An adoring crowd of 16,000 at Rogers Arena listened to Winfrey talk about her childhood in Mississippi, her TV career, her business empire, her charity work and all the challenges along the way.
"My hope is that... you will leave here with a little morsel; a level of consciousness that allows you to be better, to do better," the Vancouver Sun reported her saying.
Like her sold-out stops in Edmonton and Calgary this week, "An Evening With Oprah" included Winfrey sharing inspirational quotes from her own heroes including Martin Luther King Jr., Deepak Chopra and Maya Angelou, said Shelley Fralic of The Vancouver Sun.
Winfrey told the crowd she couldn't believe how clean Vancouver's streets were. "It's unbelievable. There's no trash on the street! Can't even find a cigarette butt. Are you allowed to smoke?" said a tweet from audience member Vanessa Choot, quoting Winfrey.
Winfrey had the crowd grinning and laughing at times. She said a bad perm demoted her from the news anchor desk to the morning talk show instead, and the rest is history, reported Stephanie Ip of The Province.
Canadian TV personality George Stroumboulopoulos joined Winfrey on stage for the second part of the evening to interview the interviewer.
Tickets for the event ranged from $93 to $395.