Wednesday, December 05, 2012

On a high with J. Lo



IT was a sight to behold: Jennifer Lopez, the globally-renowned American singer-entertainer, standing on the stage at Stadium Merdeka, drenched, in the heavy downpour last Sunday evening.

Just a minute before that, Lopez had slipped and fallen as she struck a pose at the end of a song.

But this good sport just laughed it off casually, saying: "It's a little slippery out here!" before getting on with her next song.

As this is the height of the monsoon season in Malaysia, I wondered why it hadn't dawned on concert organisers that it would probably rain and would have been a better bet to have held the concert indoors.

It also wasn't the greatest of sights to see almost 15,000 Lopez fans waiting at the entrance of the stadium since 5pm under the pouring rain. They were finally
only allowed to enter the stadium at 8pm. Mind you, 8pm is when the concert was scheduled to start.

Up until the moment when Lopez's band members came on stage at 9pm, I was pretty sure that the diva might cancel the performance but the rain obviously didn't stop this singing sensation – even when it started to pour cats and dogs again.

How wrong I was, especially when Lopez herself came on stage at 9.10pm, to let her fans know that nothing would stop her from having fun with her fans that night. Not even the rain.

In a glittery bejewelled catsuit, Lopez kick-started the evening with Get Right, and it was at the end of this song that she fell on stage.

She stole the audience's hearts when instead of running back to the shades, she stood still under the rain and asked the audience: "Do we care about the rain? No! We will dance and will you dance with me?"

The fans cheered loudly for their bootilicious idol, in the rain, in their colourful raincoats.

Lopez carried on with Love Don't Cost a Thing and even orchestrated the crowd to sing along with her. This was quickly followed by I'm Into You and Waiting For Tonight.

The next set was a lot more fun with Lopez coming on stage in a tracksuit with sneakers and all. She performed a hip-hop medley and took Malaysians back with her to the neighbourhood she grew up in – the Bronx, New York.

Songs in this set included some of her biggest hits – I'm Real, All I Have, Ain't It Funny, and of course, Jenny from the Block.

After all the dancing and singing in the rain, Lopez went back stage and came out again, this time in a soft and flowing blue dress which worked well with the slow and sentimental numbers she sang along to her guitarist.

While singing Secretly, If You Had My Love and Until It Beats No More, the rain finally gave in and sort of stopped to listen, paving way for the next sexy samba set.

It was an amazing samba party in the stadium when Lopez performed Lets Get Loud, in which she and her dancers did a lot of booty-shaking in skimpy outfits that left nothing to the imagination.

One thing's for sure – this lady has an amazing figure for a 43-year-old mother of two!

Lopez then performed Papi and ended the night with On the Floor and her new single, Dance Again, as the encore numbers.

After all the long hours of waiting and heavy downpour, I have to say that the concert was totally worth it – even if the complete set was quite short with less than 20 songs.

To me, Lopez is a great performer who knows how to capture her audience's heart with not a hint of diva attitude expressed on stage.

She may not be the best female vocalist, but her dancing and energetic performance surely made her concert one that I truly enjoyed.

No comments: