Faces, Pages and Places

Alicia Keys was friggin’ PHE-NO-ME-NAL last night at the 02 Arena. Her set list consisted of 20 plus songs spanning all 4 albums (counting her Unplugged release) and included collaborations (My Boo with Usher), covers (Force MD’s Tender Love) and bonus tracks (Waiting For Your Love from As I Am). That is to say, Lance, May, Amal, Isya, Chuan, Nits and myself had an AMAZING 2 hours. We were on our feet the whole time, even during the slow jams, and grooved with the rest of the crowd to one brilliant performance after another.

Being the huge fan (and the equally big dumb ass) that I am, I told everyone to meet there as soon as the doors opened at 6:30pm. So, as you can tell from the pictures above, we were one of the first few to be at our seats with eager anticipation.

Alicia Keys’ own backup singer, Jermaine Paul, served as one of the opening acts for the show. He’s a really, really good vocalist, but his repertoire could do with more songs that better challenged creative boundaries. Amal went gaga nonetheless. Taking the stage after him was Soul II Soul, whose members included a string quartet, two DJs, two female leads (1 seemingly blind), three backup singers and one serious nut-job of a rapper. Let’s just say, No comment.

Then, at slightly past 9:00pm, entered Alicia Keys. She. Was. Absolutely. Breathtaking. And she brought the house down so hard on us, it wasn’t even funny. For me, the whole experience felt somewhat surreal, like I was watching its entirety through a pair of lenses from a far away place. Not that we had bad seats or anything like that (we actually got really incredible ones at a bargain), but it was just so unbelievable and so indescribable. No one tops Alicia Keys on my must-see-in-person-before-I-die list except for maybe Stevie Wonder. Then again, maybe not even he. Oh, Alicia! *I-can-now-die-a-happy-man sigh*…