April 13, 2008 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Stadium Merdeka)

[hamsterball]

Thank you so much your videos!!

[Céline's Blues]

14/04/2008 Celine Dion’s Kuala Lumpur concert was phenomenal! Posted by Winston Hoo

http://winshoo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/celineklconcert.jpg

It was definitely a night full of joy and excitement as I finally got to see this diva performed live in person! Celine gave an energetic show filled with powerful vocals and brilliant choreography. I still cannot believe I was there to witness it!

 

Honestly, I am a fan of Celine Dion’s (considering I own many of her CDs) but didn’t plan to attend the concert at all (Yeah, shoot me). The ticket prices were way too expensive! I wouldn’t dig out RM1000 for a near 2-hour show as I rather get myself an 8GB Ipod Touch which will last for 2 years! Anyway, in my mind, I still have that urge to get myself a ticket to watch her show ‘cuz it’s CELINE DION after all! She only comes here, like, once in a century! Just two weeks before the concert, I came across an SMS contest to win a pair of tickets. So, I thought I could try it out since I have so much credit left in my cellphone. On the following week, I was driving to work and a call came in. The guy on the line said this, “Hello. I am calling in regard to the Celine Dion SMS contest and congratulation because you are one of the Top 10 fastest.” I was like, “Are you sure?? OMG! Thank you so much! OMG! I really won? OMG!” The RM30 credit that I dumped into the contest really paid off! Although the tickets worth RM288 each (ONLY!), it was better than not winning any. I decided to give one to my good friend, Melvin, as a gift because he will be moving to the island of Maldives to work in a luxurious resort soon, so I thought I should give him a chance to enjoy a rock concert before he starts isolating himself from the city, friends & family, and live in a secluded island, hehe, eating nothing but mostly tuna for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper every day! I am not joking…

 

http://winshoo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/celineklconcert2.thumbnail.jpg

 

We arrived at the entrance of Stadium Merdeka at approximately 3.00pm yesterday, hoping to be the first few to get good seats. An hour later, we realised that the weather turned against us as it started to pour rain real bad! Thank God, I brought along 2 mini packs of raincoat that we finally made full use of. The rain stopped, yay!, and more people arrived at the gate to queue up. At around 5.30pm, we heard live music being played from the stage and a very familiar voice started to join in. It was Celine singing! She was doing a soundcheck and some of us rushed to the gate to catch a glimpse of her. It lasted for 30 minutes and we got to hear (or rather, see from a far) her rehearsed some songs like “Taking Chances”, “Alone”, “The Show Must Go On”, “Shadow Of Love”, etc. She wore a light purple top with a black skirt and was moving around the stage with her usual singing hand gestures. We were kind of enjoying a free concert from outside the stadium, ha-ha. She sounded fabulous as usual.

 

When the gates opened, we ran towards the cemented seats (ie. cheap seats.) and looked for the perfect position to get the best view of the stage. Surprisingly, the stage wasn’t as far as I expected. Of course, we still had to rely on the giant screens to see Celine’s wrinkles on her face. While waiting, everyone in the crowd started to do Mexican waves just for self-entertaining, I guess. It was really fun though. I have never participated in one before this.

 

The concert began right after the arrival of the King and Queen (including Tun Dr Mahathir. And even our Deputy Prime Minister. *shocking*) at 8.45pm. The 3 giant screens played a beautiful fast-paced montage of Celine’s and the crowd started to cheer. The music to the track “I Drove All Night” came on and she appeared on stage to sing the song - we all went crazy and screamed! Right after that, she gave us “Power Of Love” which was, like, THE song that I’ve been wanting to see her perform live! She definitely gave me chills with that fabulous rendition.

 

Usually, I would not expect a first class artist like Celine Dion to talk for over a minute or so in a concert but she did it in her most sincere way. After singing the song “Power Of Love”, she took the time to welcome the King and Queen and apologised to all her fans for rescheduling the concert due to her recent lungs infection while performing in Australia. I managed to record the so-called speech with my cellphone and she said something like this :

 

“

… hope that those of you enjoy the show tonight. What an honour to me and all of us here on stage to have your friends among us tonight.

”

[This part was directed to the King and Queen.]

 

“

We have started this tour a couple of months ago and it has been an amazing dream so far. And it is our very first time in Kuala Lumpur… and especially all of you people are extraordinary. You have been welcoming all of us here in a very very special way, we’re feeling very welcomed. And this afternoon, when we got here, and it started to rain so hard, I was like “Aww…” but I’ve been told that it rains a lot here in the afternoon and I look up in the sky tonight and we have a beautiful moon with us, and I am very thankful, not only to the moon

[*the crowd giggled*]

, but I am very thankful to all of you. First of all, if I may, apologise to all you for having to reschedule the show. I know it is not always easy to postpone and to reschedule everyone’s schedule, everybody has work, everybody has family… and I wanna to be here and have fun, to be in top-shape and I wanna thank you for your patience and your understanding. Thank you for giving me another chance to perform here in Kuala Lumpur!

“

 

Wow! That 3-minute moment was one of the best in my life, LOL!

 

Anyway, she continued the show with the title track of her new album, Taking Chances. And the rest of the songs were as follows :

 

• It’s All Coming Back To Me Now
  
• Because You Loved Me
  
• To Love You More
  
• Eyes On Me
  
• All By Myself
  
• I’m Alive (Remix version)
  
• Shadow Of Love
  
• I’m Your Angel
  
• Alone
  
• Por Que Tu M’aimes Encore
  
• Think Twice
  
• My Love
  
• We Will Rock You
  
• The Show Must Go On
  
• It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World
  
• That’s Just The Woman In Me
  
• Love Can Move Mountains
  
• River Deep, Mountain High
  

My favourite performances from the above setlist were “Because You Loved Me” and “All By Myself”. Celine Dion completely nailed the song “All By Myself”. I went nuts when the music paused and everyone could only hear her angelic voice belting the final chorus “All by myself… all by myself ” before reaching the climax which really blown the crowd away.

 

She made a tribute that night to the magnificent English rock band, Queen, with their hits “We Will Rock You” and “The Show Must Go On”. I personally never enjoy any of their hits but Celine really got the crowd singing along.

 

Of course, how could it be a Celine Dion concert without her biggest ballad ever, “My Heart Will Go On”. She ended the show with this heavenly performance and everyone was waving and singing to it word by word.

 

No doubt, Celine is still one of the greatest vocalists in the world and she proved it to us in this 105 minute concert. It was a night that I will remember as long as I could. “Thank you for giving us the show of a lifetime, Celine!“

 

 

 

 

 

_________________

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celine Dion Will Go On …

Under Siti Nurhaliza By admin

 

Divas of the world, be warned. Celine Dion and her colossal voice are taking over the universe - one country at a time - with her Taking Chances world tour. Well, most countries besides Singapore, that is.

 

The 39-year-old singer - with her manager-husband Rene Angelil, 81-year-old mother and seven-year-old son in tow - was in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday to show 10,000 fans, celebrities and politicians why she is one of the best-selling female artistes of all time. KL was her only stop in South-east Asia.

 

Perhaps no one told her our observation wheel is, like, totally bigger than theirs. Putting aside national pride, it wasn’t difficult to see why the ballad queen is as popular as she is.

 

In person, Dion is pretty much what you get with her songs - pleasant. Her well-rehearsed PR spiel, delivered in an ethereal speaking tone as if she were singing right at you, bordered on the contrived but was never offensive.

 

Like her trademark big hits, most of what she said veered on the side of mushy and sentimental. The Grammy winner said the reason she agreed to her recently-concluded five-year Caesars Palace deal in Las Vegas so she could “go home to be a 100-per-cent mother”. She said things such as “I only choose to do songs that I love and to please my fans” and how her son “is ready to run so we want to run with him”. And nobody gagged.

 

In fact, photographers clamoured to snap the best shots of a tudong-clad Dion playfully posing draped in batik shawls. Such is the power of Celine Dion - the incredible ability to make the bland incredibly palatable.

 

Demonstrating that power at the Stadium Merdeka later that night, the Canadian singer won over fans, singing 23 songs over an hour-and-a-half.

 

Her gangly sequin-and-leather-clad frame took centrestage in front of her band, six dancers and three backup singers, and she belted out signature hits such as Power of Love, It’s All Coming Back to Me and All By Myself.

 

Her live singing voice was distinctly lower in register than her studio recordings, but the audience enthusiastically lapped it up.

 

The Malaysian press reported that Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor; former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his wife Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali; singer Siti Nurhaliza; and Malaysia’s royal family were all at the concert.

 

When Dion asked the audience to sing the last line of Because You Loved Me for her, the closet Celine Dion fan in this reporter found a buried voice suddenly singing along - with goosebumps forming on my arm. That’s what an impeccable voice singing familiar love ballads will do to you.

 

Including only five songs from her new album Taking Chances, Dion ended her performance with the inevitable encore of My Heart Will Go On in a flowing yellow gown - complete with her customary scrunched-up facial expression as she hit the high notes.

 

Watching her perform live, you experience first-hand how surprisingly-tasty bland can be. - TODAY/ra

 

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[fred]

Isn't there one bootleg of Think Twice from this concert?

 

/fred

[plume]

bonjour,

 

y à t'il des photos de la conférence de presse?

 

merci

[CSCfan]

Isn't there one bootleg of Think Twice from this concert?

 

/fred

 

No! no! no! noooo!

[Dionesque]

Just my question, fred! But I haven't asked it not to seem greedy and unsatisfied with what we already got here from our fellows fans, haha!

[fred]

Just my question, fred! But I haven't asked it not to seem greedy and unsatisfied with what we already got here from our fellows fans, haha!

 

Who you call greedy?!

 

 

Yea, I know but I took the risk It's the best song on this booring setlist.

 

/fred

[Krys]

there is one taken by my friend. she hasnt had the time to upload it yet. the rest of the fans who were recording the show didnt seem to recognize Think Twice

[JessCC]

Yeah, I think your friend also said that if people are nice, then only they'll post it up.

 

there is one taken by my friend. she hasnt had the time to upload it yet. the rest of the fans who were recording the show didnt seem to recognize Think Twice

[Krys]

you are nice

[JessCC]

haha... so are you. Let's hope your friend notices that.

 

you are nice

[Krys]

im still waiting for those 2 vids that i asked Bellamy to put watermarks on

[JessCC]

I'm waiting for me to watermark my videos/pictures.

 

im still waiting for those 2 vids that i asked Bellamy to put watermarks on

[Koolan]

Finally, the 2 videos from Krys.

 

 

 

[nano]

yay....thanks!

 

lol..I love how she shows the box to Rene, signs it and then looks whats inside.

[Bellamy]

Means Celine has no idea of the limited woodbox edition exists.

[kgkean]

Finally, the 2 videos from Krys.

 

 

 

 

who is the lady on the second vid beside Celine when is signing the drawing ?

Edited April 18, 2008 at 08:04 AM by kgkean

[kgkean]

Means Celine has no idea of the limited woodbox edition exists.

 

which album is that ? taking chances album ? whre can get it ?

[Bellamy]

I think it's Falling Into You. Someone had posted photos in collector section before.

[Krys]

Finally, the 2 videos from Krys.

 

 

 

 

who is the lady on the second vid beside Celine when is signing the drawing ?

 

the lady is Sylvie Beauregard, Rene's PA

 

this was the poster for KL

 

http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/830/img0129ul9.th.jpg

Edited April 18, 2008 at 09:16 AM by lamourpourCeline

[Jacqui]

Thanks for sharing your experiences and videos with us! I'm so glad you all got to meet her Wow, you were all so quiet though, and Celine was quiet too!

[Nando Férri]

Finally, the 2 videos from Krys.

 

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She looked amazing. Very beautiful, but I think she acted a little bit weird. A little "far from there".

[Krys]

She looked amazing. Very beautiful, but I think she acted a little bit weird. A little "far from there".

 

she seemed tired. she arrived at 12am the same day. she came down to the press conference an hour late as well

[Dionesque]

I think it's normal because she surely was on the hurry, she wanted to please her fans as much as she can but knew that in every moment she can get the message from someone that she has to go to the next point of the programm...

 

I love these videos, guys! What can I say?! Simply dreams came true for you!!!

 

Thank you for sharing these dreams with us!

[tativale]

I think it's Falling Into You. Someone had posted photos in collector section before.

FIY??? I've never seen that box,looks beautiful!!!!!! Does anyone where it is from?

 

Thank you for the videos!!! hehehe Yeah she looks tired. Anyway hehe OMG it's beautiful heheh Krys you rocked Celine! hehee

[KimboCosmo]

Awesome videos! Hope I capture some when she comes here

[mirage]

ABM...

 

Dont wanna live... WOW... i like that part

[Dionesque]

Tati, take a look in Collector's Area - a fan from Malaysia posted a pic exactely of this "FIY" box with Céline's autograph on it!

(I think it's in "Showcase your collection" topic)

 

Indeed, it's VERY beautiful!! I saw it on eBay like once but it was way too expansive for me back than...

[Krys]

kelvin told me he paid a bomb to get that FIY limited edition

[Dionesque]

Yeah, that was a bomb price what I've seen back than... At least 300 bucks or more, I don't remember exactely. But it's real beauty and a gem in the collection - even more now when Céline has signed it!

Congrats Kevin!