mind-blowing sheila majid

my goodness, that was good. so good that i am even feeling the exhilaration two days after the concert.

sheila majid's legenda concert at the esplanade on saturday night must go down in my personal record as one of the most entertaining concerts i have ever attended. it was so good that the audience, 40% of which were sheila's fans, gave her a standing ovation right after she exited the stage, before coming back for the 30-minute encore. yes, you hear it right, a 30-minute encore!

to start a concert at 10:15pm and ended it on such a high note at the unearthy hour of 1:30am, it must be some kind of record for our jazz diva as well. from the fabulous venue, to the fantastic acoustic, to the creative lighting, to sheila's commanding performance, everything is so stupendously awesome! i was already in awe even in the first 10 minutes. the ambience in esplanade is just superb. a note to audiophile, the esplanade's acoustic is very good but i think our dewan filharmonik petronas is even better and warmer.

a true fan will be orgasmic to know that sheila covered more than 40 of her hits; some are put into medleys and some are in abrigded versions; simply, no stone is left unturned, no song is left unsung. and what moved me almost to tears are those killer ballads like "gerimis semalam", "kepergian mu", "mengapa kasih", "dia", "antara anyir dan jakarta" which sheila delivered with such tenderness and sublime emotions. there is something about good malay ballads that immediately tug my heartstrings. in certain quiet passages of these ballads, one could almost hear nothing but sheila's dulcet vocals caressing your deepest soul... those moments were truly magical. my goose bumps were raised throughout this superlative performance.

there are superstar singers who could sing but dead boring on stage (e.g. faye wong)but sheila, sheila was such a charismatic performer. she lightened up the stage with constant banters (e.g. "i am so flattered that you welcome me with fireworks... thank you singapore!") and anecdotes; she is such a complete performer; she is born for the stage.

i could notice many non-fans among the audience. during the interval, that was a long queue building up from those who wanted to purchase sheila's latest album, legenda 15-20, from the sales counter. i think they could have easily sold 200 copies on that night alone!

and i thought i was crazy coming from kl just to attend this concert, there were even indonesians coming all the way from jakarta!

pop singers come and go but few are as memorable as sheila majid. many years down the road, i would still remember this concert as one of my most enjoyable concerts of all time.

a quibble - no disrespect for sheila's husband, acis, who was the musical director for that night, i would have preferred mac chew and jenny chin cos they were the ones who created the legenda sound for sheila.