I’ve watched almost all Siti Nurhaliza’s concert videos. And last Sunday was the first time I watched her perform in a concert, live.
Entrance was Aizat with two songs. He is a good newcomer. A singer and a song writer.
From his performance itself, I can sense that the sound system is really good with high clarity- bass and treble was carefully checked.
That’s brilliant to kill two birds with one stone- have another singer perform as a thorough sound check before the main singer enters the stage.
Sutramaya, one of my favorite songs, was one of the first songs that Siti Nurhaliza sung, the quality equivalent to the CD track. This song is a high quality easy-listening piece, suitable for everyone in general. It’s like an appetizer to speak up to the audience: “Hey, I’m back, my vocal is as great as usual!”
Mulanya Cinta, the track that she sang in the P Ramlee musical- this time the diction and singing is very clear compared to how she did at the musical play itself. An obvious proof that she had done enough practice. No longer hiding behind a microphone with extra echo that could cover any disadvantage of the singing.
Kurniaan Dalam Samaran, a song of traditional Japanese genre, wow. It was sung amazingly powerful and perfect. She wore a red kimono, and as she walked down to the front of the stage, the floors behind her raised up like a giant fleet of stairs, revealing the very, very long red trail of her kimono behind her. Personally this song is not my favorite, but when I watched her singing this, I was left stunned in amazement.
Tanpa dendam di hati and Bila Harus Memilih- two songs specially requested by the fans. Very tricky to tackle on the low ever-changing intervals, but as usual powerful on the high notes. These songs might sound easy on our ears, but think again. There was a slight struggle in the beginning. Hope she’ll able to handle these two flawlessly next time.
In the series of very catchy pop songs, the backup vocals showed off their strong vocals (I was like, wow, wow, wow) in the entrance of Pendirianku. There were really good. I salute them.
Ku Milikmu, arranged cleverly to tease the audience in the middle part- filled with the famous brass part of Beyonce’s Crazy in Love.
Ku Mahu sounds more Latin than ever, strong brass part, strong percussion part. I loved it.
There was this one song, the main theme of a hit drama on local TV called Spa-Q. The song has a trendy modern pop feel in it, if the singer goes for songs like this in her future albums, she would be way, way forward in the pop music culture. I was a bit disappointed because there were no dancers at this moment to give mood to such a “happening” song.
Siti Situ Sana Sini. An already fast paced song, specially re-arranged to fit the concert. That night, this song reminds me of the catchy upbeat Japanese pop genre, eg: Mika Nakashima.
Bukan Cinta Biasa; this songbird sang it so sweetly. Sometimes she stops, and the music stopped too. That was cute. This is the best BCB rendition since her Royal Albert Hall concert years back.
Two words- I LIKE!
Anyway. Suggestions to add value and quality of the concert in future-
Siti Nurhaliza’s concert SATU is already an outstanding performance on its own. However, there’s always room of improvement to make it even more amazing. Think about world-class, instead of only the best in the nation.
Of course there might be a constrain in time and budget in this SATU concert, but who knows, chances could be a lot better for the next performance of Siti Nurhaliza.
A few aspects that could make the concert even more wow:
DANCERS
More dancers! More intricate catchy choreography that will leave people gasp in awe. Always go for detailed synchronized dance steps, should only allow one or two dancers to do abstract/free style moves to add some contrast.
VISUAL EFFECTS- SETS, PROPS AND LIGHTING
I kept forgetting that this is a concert and not a musical theater. Thus, I expected too highly in other aspects like lighting and prop arrangement. But then again, this is a live, high class performance. Visual attraction is very important. Usage of building blocks, special cloth, whatever. In future, it would be a great idea if the production can fill in more of that in slow tune segments where it felt a bit too vacant and draggy.
The production does not need to go far- It’s possible to do some study on Bangkok’s modern musicals (seriously their sets are really, really good), and concert DVDs of international entertainers.
MUSIC/SOUND
Perhaps a slightly bigger team of instrument players?
It would be wonderful if they can have a strong brass section, with trumpets and trombones and horns. A few cellos maybe, to add to the warmth and would make the sound dark and big. A complete orchestra with good players? That would be perfect!
One closest example: Konsert Tiga Diva.
I don’t know if this could be improved in the national theater Istana Budaya- but I think on the upper circle of the audience seats, the speakers were a bit too loud. Imagine leaving a disco, where you can hear your ears buzzing, painful after exposed by loud music.
It would be nice that the sound engineers could test the loudness from up there. Maintain the already good sound quality and clarity. Control the volume. Don’t compare to a disco or a rock concert. Compare with good sound like TGV Dolby Surround in cinemas nowadays. Or concert performances in the Dewan Filharmonik. After all, this is Siti Nurhaliza’s concert we’re talking about.
The overall conclusion is- again, like I said, Siti Nurhaliza’s production team should go towards world-class excellence. Because, based on the concert SATU, they can go even further.
The Sun, July 1st – Datuk Siti Nurhaliza proved one thing at her Konsert Ekslusif SATU at Istana Budaya last Friday night – this songbird can sing.
In my opinion, Siti has without doubt the best voice in the country and no other singer can hold a candle to her. In fact, she can even give Celine Dion and Mariah Carey a run for their money.
But what Siti fails to realise is that a powerful voice does not a good concert make. She needs to have showmanship and well-choreographed dances and good sets to turn a concert into a showpiece.
Backed by about 25 dancers and 20 musicians, she performed a three-hour show that showcased much of her hits, both past and present.
However, her back-up dancers were a disappointment. If anything, the dances were clichéd and out-dated.
It did not help that the sets also lacked creativity. Using a broken photo frame and flashing stills of beautiful images on a backdrop somehow did not convey the feeling of a concert.
Despite all these, the singer still managed to bring the crowd to their feet. She wrapped up the concert with Destinasi Cinta, Di Taman Teman and Cahaya Cinta.
