on a night like this

It was Tuesday Nov 25, one of the things listed in my bucket list just got done. Let me recall how it went.

 

A month before I already got my ticket. I didn’t mind going alone because all my friends in Sing said “who’s Kylie?”, when I asked them. I kept explaining to them how I was a superfan and nothing could stop me from going to that concert.

 

In 2006, I had the peak of Kylie fever, I told a friend in Sing that I was coming over just to watch her one day concert in November. This was the Greatest Hits tour and first time she’ll come to Asia.  I was already looking for flights and thinking of booking the tickets when the sad news came out. Kylie was diagnosed with breast cancer and she cancelled the rest of the tour. I was so sad. It felt like the end of an era. Years later of course, she got better, and came back with a spankingly hot album, Kylie X. It was just last January when it was released worldwide. The album featured new tracks, more electronica/dance than pop, but elements of Kylie still held it together. I freaked out when I heard “Speakerphone”, absolute genius. And when Kylie sang “How does it feel in my arms?”, I just melted to mush. And don’t get me to talking about “The One”, when it just hits the right spot now that I have the one in my life. And I thought the “Wow” video conjured an 80’s Kylie still dancing and being her sexy little self. She is 40 years old now by the way.

Anyway, I was already ecstatic when I heard the CD, imagine what I felt like when I found out she was coming to Singapore for a one-night concert. Woohoo. My baby said “it’s your year baby!”. I couldn’t agree more.

 

Tuesday night I timed off from work early. Every single person in my office including my boss knew about it, and he agreed to my early off.  I went at 4pm just because I didn’t know how to get there yet. The venue was the Singapore Indoor Stadium.  I went to a mall first, had an early dinner, walked about and killed the time, and took a cab there. When I got there past 7pm, many people were arriving already. Maybe more that half of the people I saw were Caucasians, mostly Aussies. They came in droves to support their superstar.

I went to go to my gate and the funniest thing. I got on a lift with 5 gay guys. All Singaporean. They were in jeans and white tank tops that each had one letter printed across in sequins and beads, “k”, “y”, “l”, “i”, “e”. I knew then it was going to be a party.

I’ve been in Sing a while and I haven’t seen as much loud, boisterous, gay people around.

But that night was like a huge conference. Haha, I’m sure anyone who was gay was here at this venue. I wanted to ask if I could take a picture with them, but I got shy the last minute. It was just funny I was in the lift with 5 gay guys wearing the shirts. What are the chances of that happening? Anyway, I felt so underdressed. I should have worn something Kylie. They made us queue up outside for about an hour. People were already getting impatient. The stage wasn’t ready they said. Anyway they let us all in at 8pm and we got to our seats. The venue started to feel alive. So many Aussies, so many couples, so many gay people, families, kids, they all came to watch. I read a news article later that said 8,000 people came to watch. I was so excited about it, waiting for the show to begin.

 

Whenever gay people in costumes walked in, the crowd would clap and cheer. It was a fun party atmosphere. One big group of good-looking gay guys strutted in wearing tiaras and fur boas and high heels. Woohoo. They were at my wing so it was fun seeing the whole row of them like that. I wished I could be sitting with them, and I felt like putting on a fur boa myself.  Then on the other side of the stadium, 3 Singaporean men dressed in complete drag, shiny, sequined ball dresses with matching elbow length velvet gloves came in and everyone cheered. They wore big blonde wigs and they made a play for the camera. Woohoo. I was seated near the end of the row. On my right was an older Aussie couple who just loved Kylie. On my left were 2  Singaporean hotties (baby, di naman ganun kaganda, hehe) fully made up and wearing party dresses, raring to party the night away. In front of me was 9 Aussies, who didn’t want to sit down. I over heard one guy say “People, this is a Kylie concert, get up, get up, no need to be on your butts”. It was festive, it was vibrant, everybody chanted Kylie and waited for it to begin.

 

I sort of cried 2x during the show, just shed a couple of tears, and not really like cried or anything. Once was on the opening. They played Speakerphone and the beat was good, the sound was amazing and they fogged up the stage and Kylie came out. I cried for a bit. So overwhelmed. There she was my Kylie. Pint-sized and amazing. She looked radiant and flawless. Imagine if she looked pretty in photos, she really looked gorgeous in person, much more so than the photos could capture. Her skin glowed, her voice was strong and steady and oohlala, the costumes were 100 degrees  hot!!.. Oh my, oh my. I lost my mind from that point on, and sang every single word.

 

She changed costumes like 8 times, Sang nothing short of 20 songs. Did a 2.5 hour set it was amazing. There was a point she was just warming up the crowd and getting personal.

She looked at the 3 drags queens in the audience and said “I’ve got competition”. She was so charming and adorable. It was her first time in Singapore and first time in Asia for that, it was the first leg of the Asian part of the tour. She enjoyed herself I know it because she did 3 encores!!!.  I know this because I’ve seen the footage of the Kylie X show in other venues and it depends on the crowd how many encores she’d do. Some got “Love at First Sight” which was already amazing. She came back to do “ I should be so lucky” after exiting for 10 minutes and the crowd chanting “more, more, more”. No this is her usual ending as I saw in the other footage of the other venues. So I sort of prepared myself that it was the end. But then she came back again for the third time and that’s when I cried the second time. She came back did a song she already sung earlier (meaning it wasn’t really planned), she sang “The One” acapella. Woohooo and got the crowd going one more time and ended with the dance version of it. It was spectacular.

When she bowed with her dancers and band, I knew that was it. She said her signature goodbye line “Love to you all” and left. My Kylie. Woohooo.

 
What could I say exceot I was completely blown away. I was shaking from being too happy when I went out of the stadium. I bought a couple of Kylie shirts for me and my baby and I called my baby up and shared that wonderful moment in my life. We’re going to see her again. I’m sure of it. I have to show Kylie that when I sing “The One”, it’s because of my baby. Aaaawww.

Sorry baby, I guess you realize that you have no choice but to wear that shirt with me for the next concert. Hahaha. I got the Kylie fever re-ignited and just like that, one of my life’s wishes just came true. Imagine that.

Lalala people. Lalala.