By Ho Khin Wai, Year 2, Diploma in Banking & Financial Services
Ever wondered what popular YouTube singers like Jason Chen and Tiffany Alvord sound like LIVE? I know I did. On May 5th, my friends and I got a chance to see and hear it for ourselves! We were so excited to be at the first ever YouTube Stars Music Festival 2012 held at The Coliseum in Hard Rock Hotel, Resorts World Sentosa.
The show started with a special item by two popular and well-known Singapore YouTubers, Toh Yifan, known as TheSingaporenRapper, and SammmyDee aka Electricladyland8. The duo performed a cover of “Nice Guys”, which was originally created by YouTube stars KevJumba, Chester See, and popular YouTuber, Nigahiga.
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| Toh Yifan (TheSingaporenRapper) and SammmyDee. Photo Credit: Gracia Chua |
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| Clo (Singaporean Youtube singer). Photo Credit: Gracia Chua |
Tiffany Alvord then came on stage to rock the crowd with her stunning vocals and charisma. Her rendition of Carly Rae Jepson’s “Call Me Maybe” had the whole crowd dancing and singing, “Hey I just met you, and this is crazy, but here’s my number, so call me maybe”.
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| Tiffany Alvord. Photo credit: kelvinfok.com; facebook.com/punkd1 |
When Joseph Vincent came on stage, the crowd screamed and cheered to receive him. Joseph started his performance with an original song, “Bumble Bee”, before swinging into a medley with Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” and Jessie J’s “Price Tag”. After the song, he invited a lucky member of the audience on stage and serenaded her with a song, saying that “every young lady deserves to be serenaded once in her lifetime”.
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| Joseph Vincent. Photo credit: Shirlene Loo |
As with Joseph Vincent, the crowd went into frenzy and screamed with glee as Jason Chen got on stage.
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| Jason Chen. Photo credit: kelvinfok.com; facebook.com/punkd1 |
Known for his incredible vocals and great musicality, Jason enchanted the crowd with his recent single, “Gravity”, and did a cover of Michael Wong’s “Tong Hua (Fairytale)”. He also covered a popular original called “Best Friend”, singing a few verses and choruses in Chinese, which got the crowd singing in unison.
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| Ana Free. Photo credit: kelvinfok.com; facebook.com/punkd1 |
Ana Free was up next, after a short video introduction by Singapore’s very own Kumar. She did an energetic cover of Shakira’s “Waka Waka” which got the crowd into the party mood.
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| David Choi. Photo credit: kelvinfok.com; facebook.com/punkd1 |
Finally, the YouTube star many people had been waiting for emerged on stage. David Choi, a talented musician and singer/songwriter brought the concert to a lighter note with his new originals, “Missing You” and “Rollercoaster”. He also sung well-known tracks “That Girl” and “By My Side”, which got the crowd swaying their hands in the air and singing along with David.
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| Photo credit: kelvinfok.com; facebook.com/punkd1 |
Just when everyone thought the show was over, David called the other YouTubers out on stage. Together with Sam, Yifan, Jason, Joseph, Clo, Tiffany, and Ana, David and the stars performed a final group rendition of “Baby” by Justin Bieber. The crowd enthusiastically chanted along “Baby, Baby, Baby, ohhh” during the chorus.
So what’s good?
Almost everything! The music, the band, the atmosphere, the crowd, and not forgetting THE YOUTUBE CELEBRITIES! What more can you ask for after seeing and hearing your favourite YouTube celebrities “live”, when you have been watching them on your computer screen all along? The experience was not only amazing, it was stunning! The crowd sang to every single song being sung and clapped in rhythm to the music.
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| Photo credit: kelvinfok.com; facebook.com/punkd1 |
What’s not?
Don’t get me wrong, I loved the crowd there. As each YouTube singer went on, the crowd cheered ever so faithfully, and with so much enthusiasm till the last song of the night!
So what bothered me was:
1. The heat! As night fell, more and more people gathered and squeezed one another, contributing to the humidity. Even the YouTubers on stage were sweating!
2. We also had to stand throughout the whole 3-hour concert in the sweltering heat with no way to sit! However, I would not entirely blame the organizers for this “negligence”. After all, if everyone were sitting comfortably in their seats, the crowd would not have been that hyped up and the concert atmosphere would probably have been “mediocre”.
3. “Don’t block, please!” This is a common gripe concert-goers would face. My friends and I were lucky, as we managed to get a spot near the stage. Still, an awkwardly tall dude was blocking our view of the stage every now and then.
At the end of concert, the host announced that the YouTube Stars concert will be held annually. So, if you have missed this year’s exciting performances, be sure to keep a lookout for this event next year!
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Khin Wai is an NYP Year 2 Banking and Financial Services student from School of Business Management (SBM). He started writing for NYP Portal in 2011 out of interest and was soon "addicted" to it. He has also written book reviews for Straits Times YA Classified. Besides writing, he loves singing and has performed for various events in NYP under NYP Soundcard.
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