Madonna in Manila and Singapore...

Without a doubt, one of the main highlights of this year... of my life... is getting to watch Madonna not just once but twice, not just in one country but in two countries.

To be honest, I never thought I would get to see her perform live. Ever.

She was this unreachable star to me.

So, to be able to catch her live is just something to be thankful for.

Manila and Singapore were very different experiences - the crowd, the venue, the setlist, the atmosphere. Both will be stories to be told to my future nephews and nieces.

Thank you, Lea Salonga, for a great Saturday night...

Well, Saturday night was definitely the highlight of this weekend.

More than the Katy Perry concert, I was more excited to see Lea Salonga's concert. I may have mentioned in a previous post how I was slightly crushed when I learned that all tickets for the concert were already sold out. I was on the verge of being desperate to get my hands on tickets that I scoured the Internet for ticket resellers. There was one guy who was selling me tickets at a ridiculous price. A day or two before I was going to confirm buying the tickets, not one, not two but three friends messaged me on Facebook to inform me that the concert will have a second performance night.

Wooohooo! The heavens have heard my prayers. Hehe!

Without wasting any time, I booked the ticket and forgot about it for the next few weeks until last week.

I was soooo excited for the concert that I made sure there would be no other activities for the day. There was one, museum volunteer training, but it was something I really wanted to do.

Other than that, the afternoon was just spent resting and having a siesta.

Before going to the concert, I met up with Mon at City Hall for dinner. Richie originally planned to join us but he forgot that he had another appointment he couldn't get out of. So, Mon and I just met up with him around 7 and we all walked to nearby Esplanade.

The tickets were the cheapest, I think. It was less than $60. We figured that since it was a concert, what mattered more was that we could hear her sing rather than see her up close. Hehe!

The concert promptly started at 730 and for the next two hours or so, Lea just captivated the audience with her vocal prowess. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance. Her repertoire for the night was a good mix of pop, classic, Disney, musical theatre, and of course, OPM. There was no doubt that the Filipinos in the audience, including me, were expecting a few Filipino songs. Hehe! She got the audience to sing "Let It Go" with her, as well as get up from our seats to sing and dance to an ABBA medley.

On several instances, I found myself saying, "Oh my god! Oh my god!" because of how beautifully she sang a song. Even the international guests (does it sound more politically correct?) were enthralled by her voice. (The Singaporean lady seated next to me asked for the titles of the two Filipino songs - Freddie Aguilar's Anak and George Canseco's/Louie Ocampo's Ikaw). We came. We saw. Lea definitely conquered.

After the show, I dragged Jon to queue with me to get an autograph from Lea. I was hoping that we can get a photo with her, but she didn't have photographs with fans taken. To my really delightful surprise, we saw a long queue of Filipinos, Singaporeans and I suppose other nationalities queueing to get an autograph and to say hello to Lea.

By the time Lea signed the photos we bought, it was almost close to midnight. I checked the last train departing for Joo Koon from City Hall. It was at 1155PM. And so, with only a few minutes to spare, Jon and I made a mad dash to reach City Hall MRT station. When we reached the station, there was already an announcement calling passengers to board the train as it was the last train to Joo Koon. I, on the other hand, decided to take the last Red Line train all the way to Kranji. From Kranji, I will just take a cab to my place. But thankfully, thankfully, I was also able to catch the last train to Jurong East via Woodlands. That meant I was able to alight at my station. Yay!

What a fantastic Saturday night at Lea Salonga's concert! :-) I felt super proud to be Asian, Southeast Asian and siyempre, Filipino! :)

I had my own surprise..

Unknown to PG Boy, I had a surprise of my own for him. Hehe!

It was actually good that he was busy planning his surprise last Friday. That gave me time and an excuse to head down to faraway Boon Lay to get the tix to the JLo concert tonight.

I was able to find a seller via Gumtree and I was able to negotiate a good price for the tix. Hehe!

Sunday afternoon, PG Boy and I were at the Esplanade to catch Crazy Christmas. I was able to score some free tix and thankfully, he was game to watch the show.

While we were waiting for the audience to be let in, I gave the SISTIC envelope to PG Boy. I bumped into some fellow volunteers who were also watching so I chatted with them first.

A few minutes later, I went back to PG Boy and said, "Hey, can you check our tix? I want to know where we'll be seated."

He opens the envelope, pulls out the tix, and the first thing he says is, "Ey, how come it's free standing? I dun want to watch this if it's free standing."

Lol!

It took him awhile before it dawned on him that he was actually holding JLo tix. Haha!

We weren't really planning to watch JLo. I do like her recent songs, but I'm not really a fan fan. I knew PG Boy wanted to watch but I wasn't sure if he wanted to really watch.

Last week, I already had an idea what to get PG Boy for his upcoming birthday. When I heard him talking about the JLo concert, I decided that maybe I have to just give that planned pressie for Christmas instead. Hehe! Will just get him another present so he has something to open on his actual birthday.

Anyway, so there.

It was def a weekend of good surprises. Haha!

And tonight... we dance and love and dance... again...

Madz night...

As I've previously posted, a bunch of Filipino friends and I were able to catch the one-night only Madz concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall.

It was Coly who sent a group FB message whether anyone would be interested to watch the concert.

Everyone in the group said yes. Pg Boy also said he was interested to watch the concert since he missed the performance in his hometown.

Unfortunately, he had to fly out that week for work. Tipz and Rea were also not able to watch the show because of work.

Still, we ended up being a huge group - Coly, Rich, Mon, Owen, Jupiter, Ian, Chris, Edsel and me. Hehe!

As expected, the Madz didn't fail to amaze. After each song, there would be thunderous applause from the audience.

It was definitely a proud moment for Filipinos.

What was also great that night was that I noticed that there were several locals and ang mohs who watched the show. I thought that it would be 80-90% Filipinos, but I was really glad to see a mixed crowd. Yey!

The Philippine Madrigal Singers, or Madz, was founded in 1963 by tNational Artist Professor Andrea O. Veneracion. It used to be called the University of the Philippines Madrigal Singers. I'm not sure when the name change happened.

I can't remember the last time I watched them perform, so I was really glad they had a performance here.

The Madz at Esplanade this Thursday...

Thursday night is going to be good.

The company I work for is holding a free movie viewing of The Dark Knight Rises. As much as I want to go and attend that one, I have to skip it and instead head down to Esplanade for the concert of the Philippine Madrigal Singers.

Woohooo!

It's been so long since I last watched them perform. This one-night concert is definitely not to be missed.

 hope the repertoire is good. And I hope they would sing an OPM song. Please, please.

In the meantime, here's their rendition of Bituing Walang Ningning. One of the best Filipino love songs, imho.

Enjoy! :)

Born this Way Ball...

Almost missed Lady Gaga's Born This Way Ball concert.

When Pg Boy and his friends decided to buy tickets, I haven't made up my mind yet whether I really wanted to watch. One, they tickets they were getting were a bit pricey. Two, I'm not sure if I really want to see Gaga.

I do like a lot of her songs. And I have had many tugs nights both here in SG and back in Manila going gaga over remixes of her songs, but I really wasn't sure if I wanted to watch.

Big mistake in delaying my decision.

As expected, tickets quickly sold out for both days of the concert.

But luck was on my side. A third night of performance was announced.

This time, there was no way I was not going to get tickets. Hehe! Huge thanks to Richie for asking me if I wanted to watch with him, Mon and Coly. My ticket to the concert was secured. Hehe!

The concert turned out to be really great. She sang several most of her hits, which drove the crowd wild. The set was just amazing! I'm really impressed. The seats we got were a bit similar to the ones we got for Kylie's concert. Pg Boy and work colleague Alexie got the more expensive tickets for the pen, but they said that the ones I got was better.

On my way home that night, I realized that I would really have kicked myself if I missed this concert. I dunno when I'll be able to watch her perform again so I was happy to have decided to watch her.

I'm still dreaming of getting to watch the Madonna concert though.