HI there,
Your Abang here, just back from the Singapore Indoor Stadium, where I have witnessed a Kelly Clarkson concert. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a big fan of hers. Sure, I know Since You’ve Been Gone,Breakaway, Because Of You – but that’s only because I work for a newspaper.
But anyway, the Kelly gig was the first gig at the Stadium that I’ve seen in a while, and I was ready to be disappointed. But lo and behold, I wasn’t. I’m not going to go into some long rambling speech about it, mostly because I’m quite tired, but also because there’s no need to.
The fans loved the show. Period. What was surprising was that I didn’t not like the show. Which is a good thing. The first thing that struck me was how much she’s grown. As a singer, lah. I mean, sure, she was tubbier than I remember her to be, but her voice was still as strong and powerful as the last time she was here, if not better.
The other thing that struck me was how easily she connected with the audience. As she said, this was her first big gig here, so there was a little nervousness I’ll bet. But Kelly came and Kelly got on like wildfire, conversing with the crowd, and at one point even pointing out her blooper as she halted momentarily during a song. “You’d think I’d know this – I wrote it!” she joked.
When introducing Because Of You, she once again corrected: “Some people thought I wrote this about a guy. I did not!” During her “Twitter moment” – where she sang a string of songs that her fans had Tweeted her to sing – it was as if we were watching an intimate show, instead of being in the cavernous SIS.
What I liked the most was the way she just leapt into covers like it was the most natural thing to do. I mean, not everybody can do covers well. But it was her selection of songs that intrigued me. Perhaps drawing on the current penchant for mash-ups, she mixed Alanis Morissette’s That I Would Be Good with Kings Of Leon’s Use Somebody, then later slipped in a snatch of Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, and for the encore, burst into The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army.
It was also interesting to see these two ladies next to me – who had been sitting down, looking stoic the whole night – suddenly jump up and shake their booty during Since You’ve Been Gone.
Maybe they were just waiting for that song, but they remained on their feet for the encore. Which I guess, meant that the show really worked. Kelly promised to be back (”After all that, we’ve got to come back”) and then it was over. I didn’t expect much from the show, but I got a lot more than I bargained for. And that’s a good thing.
(Oh by the way, I have to say that the Circle Line is the best thing to happen to public transport – for me, anyway. Otherwise, I’d probably still be trying to get a cab or something at the SIS, instead of being at home, having already eaten my dinner and typing this before midnight.)
Thanks to Sim Yijin for helping with the photos.