Through his evergreen songs of love and longing, crooner Engelbert Humperdinck transported a mesmerised audience into a musical fantasy land during his first concert in India, the land of his birth.

Engelbert, 69, had a crowd comprising mostly people in their forties and fifties clapping, cheering and singing like teenagers at the Siri Fort auditorium here Sunday night as he took to the stage for the first of a series of three concerts to raise funds for Bangalore-based NGO ACTS Trust.

Displaying a vitality far beyond a person of his age, Engelbert zipped through a concert that lasted almost two hours, firing on all cylinders and backed by a 12-piece band led by arranger Jeff Sturges.

But more than the songs and musicianship, the show was also about Engelbert the consummate performer and raconteur.

He took digs at just about everything, from his advancing age to his former reputation as a ladies' man, his legendary sideburns and his famous pals like Welsh singer Tom Jones.

"When I came here I didn't know what you were expecting. Probably someone with grey hair, but then you can get dye in the shops these days. And I use it," he said, with the self-deprecating humour that was on show throughout the concert.

At another point, as he nimbly broke into a moonwalk-like jig during a song, he quipped: "Look out Michael Jackson."

But it was the evergreen hits like "The Last Waltz", "There Goes My Everything", "A Man Without Love", "Release Me" and "Quando Quando Quando" that went down like a storm with the crowd, most of them with grey hair.

The crowd sang along to entire songs and gave several standing ovations to Engelbert, who admitted he was surprised that people in India were so familiar with his songs.

For good measure, Engelbert threw in several covers, ranging from the classic "Too Young" from Nat King Cole, one of his favourite singers, to the unexpected "Still" by Lionel Richie.

There were also tracks from Engelbert's latest album "Let There Be Love", a collection of love songs made famous by the likes of Ronan Keating and Bryan Adams. Among the new songs he performed were "My Confession" and "There's No Good In Goodbye".

Behind him, the band, including a three-piece horn section and two female backing vocalists, rolled along like a well-oiled machine. The horns in particular added a nice touch to several songs, powerful in tracks like "Release Me" and suitably subtle on tracks like "Too Young".

Engelbert, who was born in Chennai in May 1936 as the son of a British soldier posted in India, closed his show with a powerful rendition of "My Way", the standard made famous by Frank Sinatra.

The man who performs some 140 concerts a year also promised he would be back in India - something that gave many in the audience much to cheer about.

Engelbert will now perform at Mumbai June 7 and at Bangalore June 9.