First off, a million thanks to that good buddy of mine who got me 3 free tickets at the last minute! At RM 260 per ticket, I was planning on skipping it already when the good news came. Decided to go with my parents.. 
Parking there was as usual, a madhouse. People who drove are forced to pretty much park at the side of the road almost the entire stretch of the highway. Heck, there were even ‘parking attendants’ charging RM5 for you to park on the curb - with assurances of “jangan risau, sudah settle dengan polis, takkan dapat saman punya“. But kudos to the management who did put on signs for people to park at designated carparks quite a distance away, and arrange for free bus trips.
Elliot Yamin had just started when we arrived. It’s a good thing that people were well equipped with umbrellas, cause it started to drizzle and rain for a bit. I unfortunately don’t know the titles to the songs he sang - but he showcased his American Idol soulful vocal prowess that night - and the crowd (regardless of rain) showed positive response to his performance.
If I’m not mistaken, Joe Flizzow from Too Phat came up next, doing his local hip hop numbers complete with breakdancers. Too bad though, it was almost the same performance that got them boo-ed off stage when they opened for Linkin Park oh so long ago. And it didn’t impress me one bit. Judging from the crowd response, they weren’t impressed either. Took this time to go to the loo, and bought myself a nice King Pie and drinks for dinner.
I’m going to take this opportunity here to gripe about the overall lousiness of the sound engineering setup and technical glitches. Many of the mic volumes were not properly adjusted, backup singers either had non-working mics, or overly loud ones (Whitney), some didn’t even work at all! Even Shaggy didn’t hesitate to show his annoyance when the mic he was using kept having loud screeching feedback issues. The huge LED backscreen was massively faulty and had to be turned off because it was more distracting than it was useful. And someone apparently was a fan of TRANCE and HOUSE music, because they couldn’t stop blasting it during the intermissions. It’s a POP concert. Geez. Ok ok, I should shut my gap - I got free tickets after all.
Next up was a pretty long medley of local musicians, each one of them doing their own rendition of an English ballad. I have to say that most of the ladies did their numbers beautifully (Jaclyn Victor, Noryn Aziz, Nikki and Sofiah Noor), while the men on the other hand were baddd by comparison in terms of pronunciation and singing on key (Annuar Zain, Mode & Azan from Ruffedge, Lah from VE). Particularly loved Noryn’s original take on “I Will Survive” and Nikki’s “Lady Marmalade”.
Shaggy, with his mic stuffed down his pants. LOL
I have to admit, I’ve never thought much about Shaggy and his songs - they were way too egoistical and crude for me - but his concert performance was amazing. He rocked the house with his antics, made us scream, and boo, and point middle fingers at each other. Not to mention, made most Malaysian women there take moment to think when he asked “How many of you Malaysian women have your own HOUSE, have your own JOB, drive your own CAR?” LOL - the cheers weren’t so loud for the first 2 questions I can assure you. 
He also did so many pelvic thrusts that night he puts ‘Hard Gay’ to shame. And he sang all of his hit singles! - Boombastic, In the Summertime, Oh Carolina, It Wasn’t Me, Angel, Hey Sexy Lady, Strength Of a Woman - over almost an hour. I wonder if he got his wish for ‘wanting’ a Malaysian woman that night (must be single and of age 
).. Bravo performance.
A small portion of the crowd playing along to Shaggy’s exhortations
All hyped up now.. it was 1145pm already when Shaggy left the stage, the crowd stood in patient anticipation for the highlight of the show. Rest assured, divas are never on time, and we were kept waiting until close to 1230am when Whitney Houston finally came on. I’ve never seen a concert drag until so late before.
This was the best picture I have of her given the circumstances
There was periodic announcements throughout the setup period that NO photography or filming was allowed for Whitney’s concert (of course to loud boos). It was probably because this is Whitney’s first major comeback concert in years - especially just after her divorce, winning custody of her daughter, coming out of drug rehab, etc. and her managers probably wanted to minimize the probable feedback that would have flooded the net.
Good reason too, cause Whitney was definitely not in her peak form that night. The crowd was already very impatient at the long wait and late hour, and after her first song, a trickle began leaving the compound. her vocals were nowhere near where it once was, but it was still good. Some of her songs were sung a key lower, and she needed more interruptions than I thought was necessary. She was still as lovely as ever though - especially when she sang My Love Is Your Love with her daughter Bobbi Kristina (+ all hugs) on stage.
I was massively thunderstruck by the irony of standing all by myself in a crowd of strangers when she sang “I Will Always Love You”, as every line hit home.. It’s one thing to get emo listening to a CD recording, and another thing altogether hearing the legend herself sing it (with the entire crowd singing along).
And typical Malaysian nature yet again for not understanding the concept of an encore. The moment she finished - HALF the crowd started walking away. I mean WTF. The lack of supportive cheering or of a coordinated “we want more” was almost embarassing to me. Even her musicians who stayed on stage had to physically gesture us to scream louder. Sad sad.
It was almost 2am when we reached the car, drove to McDs for supper, then headed home. Man.. what a night. Despite the hiccups, it was still a good one.
