The Star Online: Entertainment: Music
The Star Online: Entertainment: Music |
| MTV World Stage: Life's a riot! Posted: MTV World Stage proved it knew how to party safe with sexy and style. IT'S interesting that this year's MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia concert was held on a Sunday evening. Logistically speaking, the arrangement seemed greatly inconvenient, what with the next day being a school/ work day and all. Besides, there's only so much partying one could do after Saturday trails off. But here's my hypothesis regarding the situation: The fifth instalment of the concert series featured Robin Thicke. Yes, we're talking about that white male singer who has had more controversies and headlines this year alone than other celebrities (notwithstanding gender) put together. There's that original-cut Blurred Lines music video which caused an uproar among women's rights activists (with its lewd portrayal of the fairer sex) and a lawsuit scandal involving the late Marvin Gaye's family. And who could possibly forget the image of Hannah Montana, err sorry I mean Miley Cyrus, "twerking" with Thicke at the recent MTV Video Music Awards in New York? Earlier in the day at a press conference in a local hotel, Thicke revealed that he revels in controversies as that kind of attention gives him a chance for people to be acquainted with his music. You can't blame the man. He only wants to make popular music and sex has always been the tried-and-tested formula to mainstream success. But that's probably not the kind of attention that MTV would have wanted to expose to its tween concert demographic whom it had satiated last year with Justin Bieber. Hence, the reason why the event was held on an evening before the school week. Should that be the situation, the music television network had certainly underestimated the power of the youthful K-pop crowd. If anything, it was the fans of Korean boyband EXO that dominated this year's World Stage concert at Surf Beach @ Sunway Lagoon in Selangor. The mostly female fans camped out as early as Friday evening at the entrance of the venue, carrying banners declaring their adulation for the group. The wait was certainly worth it as the exports from South Korea didn't disappoint when they took to the stage later that night. Despite the torrential drizzle, the preppy-looking boys glided, danced and howled (no kidding!) their way through a 30-minute set on stage. EXO managed to rile up its fans into a wild frenzy with slick performances of songs such as Wolf, History and 365. On several occasions, the screams from fans were so loud that it drowned out the music. After the end of Growl – the last performance from the group – it was obvious that the majority of the 15,000 crowd had only made their way to the concert to catch the 12-member boyband. "Okay EXO fans, let's go home!" a female concertgoer was overheard cheekily saying as she followed the large mass of people leaving the concert grounds. With the infectious amount of boyish charm on stage, it's easy for the live audience to forget all about the performance from the previous act Joe Flizzow. However, one should not discount the opening set by the homegrown hip hop star. The local singer/ rapper did a great job warming up the crowd. The man "nailed it" with SonaOne and Altimet on a raucous performance of Havoc. Later on, Far East Movement escalated the party mood with a frenetic set. Hands were constantly up in the air as the group belted out hits such as Like a G6, Live My Life, Illest, Jello, Rocketeer and Turn Up the Love. The crowd favourite moment was definitely the group's unique rendition of Rocketeer which was remixed with Alicia Keys' No One. It was finally time for the man of the moment, Robin Thicke, to take the stage after Far East Movement. Unfortunately, his spotlight was slightly dampened when his show was plagued by a slight technical glitch. Thicke handled the situation in a suave manner though, belting out an a capella version of Blurred Lines before leaving the stage for a good 10 minutes. The man returned with the bass-heavy Give It 2 U and interspersed his show with some upbeat numbers (Take It Easy on Me, Shaking It for Daddy) and smooth R&B offerings (Feel Good, Lost Without U) before closing the show with the no-brainer Blurred Lines. All the bad press aside, there's no denying that Thicke is a great live performer. Coupled with a piano, he hit every single high notes on the heartfelt Lost Without U. MTV had better whip up something awesome for next year's event as this year's instalment had set a pretty high bar in the World Stage series. MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia 2013's full show premieres on MTV (Astro Ch 713) on Sept 21 at 12.30pm. |
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