the stage.. :P
I know everyone are prolly thinking that my post about Christina Aguilera's Back To Basic concert will be very predictable. That, i had tremendous fun singing along my favorite singer and all that jazz. And guys, yes i ain't gonna disagree with your assumptions, for i incredibly had a lot FUN, it was indeed spectacular and that i am really flabbergasted with what adjectives i would use to describe this whole experience. It was one of the most memorable nights that i'll surely won't forget. Christina is undeniably a mega-star and so she just proved it by staging a mega-amazing show.
7pm is the start of the show which is expected to end at around 11:45pm (according to the ticket's event's detail.. though, as per Christina's show, it officially started around 8:30 and ended at exactly 10pm) i arrived there 15mins early and i can definitely feel the excitement and the anxiety filling the air as i step foot at the Bonifacio Global City Open Field (it was a sold-out event) grounds.
The Fil-Canadian guy (i forgot his name, sorry) which is a finalist of their own "Canadian Idol" and our very own RnB singer Kris Lawrence opened up the show singing their hits, some old favorites and of course covered some new songs.
The anticipation that's emanating from the crowd grew further as the hosts (the MTV VJ's) announced the that songstress herself will stage the stage momentarily. After some playbacks of few vintage pieces.. at last, the moment that everybody's been waiting for has come as the pop siren Christina Aguilera stood fashionably atop a propped stairs as she belted out the intro of her hit "Ain't No Other Man" (i'm so proud of her that she was able to hit the F5 note live!) in a very familiarly-melismatic tone, and so this officially opened up her long-waited Philippine concert.
I came there with my expectations that she's gonna be singing a lot of new materials (for the concert's title itself is pulled after her latest album, Back to Basics) so i wasn't disappointed that she didn't sing some of her early hits like "Genie in a Bottle", "I Turn To You", "Nobody Wants to be Lonely", "The Voice Within" etc. Like what i've said, i know what i came there for.. although she sang some of her "teeny-bopper days" big hits like "Come On Over" (but in jazz arrangement) and "What a Girl Wants" (in reggae fashion, weird? wait till you hear it.. it's really nice and is one of my favorite performance)
Christina Aguilera while performing taken from the widescreen.. if only i could get near her.. :(
After the first song, she then followed it up with powerful performances of her B2B tracks like "Back in the Day", "Slow Down Baby", "Makes Me Wanna Pray", "Understand", "Oh Mother" (where she talked to us audience explaining how this song is so important to her, she wrote this song for her mother who were a battered wife from her late Ecuadorian father), "Still Dirrty" (a sequel to her controversial single "Dirrty", where she brought up her chaps again.. but this time it didn't look skanky), and then the song "Thank You (..dedication to fans)" was played with a VTR from her fans, while she's having her [numerous] costume change.
Then there comes the second part of the event, which gives us audience that "circus feeling" as several people came flooring in the stage complete with caped magicians, dancers, flame masters and other sorts wherein Christina made an appearance by having herself hand-cuffed in a spinning target board and started singing "Welcome". Another costume change happens while the crowd is being pacified by her retro song "I Got Trouble" playing in the background paired with a very 50's inspired video of herself. The lights went up again and this time "Xtina" is now mounting on a carousel horse figure as she sings some of her older hits like "Dirrty" and "Lady Marmalade". She then went on to sing more new releases like "Hurt" where her emotional delivery was really felt, then came her singing "Beautiful" which was so moving to the crowd as everyone joined her by lifting and swaying our hands together as we sang along the universal, inspirational anthem song.
I thought it was the last song already but i was so wrong because she came back again where she joyously sang that oh so sweet-chocolate-sugarcoated latest single "Candyman" where everyone literally went nuts as everybody (including me) moved along the "dance-y" tune of the song and we are hysterical (in amazement) when she pulled that E5 (in full voice) adlib note, bravo! She continued with the closing song and her biggest Philippine single as well, "Fighter" which made the crowd even crazier as everyone obviously loved that rock-inspired song. After that rain-blessed last song, she then ran around the the stage, waved and blew kisses to everyone as she thanked Manila for the support and uttered the tagalog phrase "mahal namin kayo".
16 beautiful songs from a really talented artist? Totally well-worth my 1K-priced general admissions ticket.
Christina Aguilera thanking the crowd right after the finale song "Fighter".. she kneeled and bowed right before the crowd which is so humble of her.. I LOVE HER!
PS.
i hate those poorly-captured pictures.. i thought it's prohibited to bring digicams in for i called Ticketworld before i left the house inquiring if digicams are allowed.. to my dismay, digicams ARE allowed.. so SAD!
* thanks to bullet444 of YouTube for uploading this one.
* for more videos, type in the keywords "Christina Aguilera in Manila" at YouTube's search engine, you'll find loads there. ^_^
Labels: Lalon Day-Day
Wah! Tang-ina talaga! (Sorry sa pagmumura. Can't help it.) Sayang talaga! Whew.
While reading your post, tumindig balahibo ko! Promise! Tapos sobrang tumindig pa when I saw the video from Youtube!
Ggrr. Seven years na akong fan niya, pero hindi ako nakapag-prepare. Sayang talaga. :|