"Thank you for supporting my music for nearly.... (she walked towards the piano) nearly... three decades. (she pretended to stumble). Most of you may not even be born when I started." - Celion Dion, 3 July 2018, Singapore
But I only knew about her for two decades. It's been twenty-one years since the day my aunt introduced My Heart Will Go On and I fell in love the first time I heard it. I was seven. I remembered the days that I always waited in front of the TV for MTV to play her music videos or the radio to play her songs. At the time, there was neither YouTube nor Spotify for me to stream whenever I wanted to listen to her. There was no internet. Regardless, it didn't stop me from discovering more of her music. It became an item in my bucket list to watch her live performance after seeing videos on YouTube. I missed the opportunity to watch her in KL back in 2008 and thought I would never have the chance anymore until my friend told me that she is going to perform in Singapore this year, in conjunction with Celine Dion Live 2018. Since then, I have been checking on the site on the update of ticket sales. It was on the 17th May, 2018 at 1003 hours that I managed to get the ticket, 3 minutes after the tickets went on sale to public. The concert dated 3 July 2018, one and a half month to go.
Since the concert was held on a Tuesday, I took the chance to explore more of the little island. My visit spanned for 3 days and 3 nights as I ought to take days off from office anyway. I would consider the trip more like a gastronomical hunt as I have been to the country before. I stayed at The Bohemian which was located in the vicinity of Chinatown, served by Downtown (blue) and North East (purple) Line. Chinatown is equidistant from Orchard Road and Marina Bay which made it quite a strategic location. If you are a budget traveller, the blue line connects you to Changi Airport which is a plus point too. 27 dollars for 3 nights, the hostel was a decent stay that came with simple breakfast, in which I skipped as I decided to have my tummy filled elsewhere first thing in the morning. The lobby setup was quite cozy though there was nothing much to shout about the room. After checking in, I had a pot of frog porridge at Tiong Shian which was walkable from my hostel. The frogs were meaty and the portion was satisfying enough to suppress my hunger till supper.
As the night started to fall, I met up with my friend to have a stroll around Gardens By The Bay. My previous visits have excluded this place and I finally made it this time around. All these while I thought the garden is limited to Supertree. Was rather amazed by the scale of this park and the trees only constituted small part of it.
Counting down to her concert
Few days before the trip, I was told by my friend there is going to be a special night event at Singapore Zoo, Rainforest Lumina. As it coincided with the day I arrived at Singapore, I decided to go for it. The entrance fee was 22 dollars and can be covered in an hour. The lighting shows were rather incredible though there weren't much animals to be seen at night. Singapore Zoo was reachable by public bus. I just found out that you can check the status of public transport via mobile app.
For my second day in Singapore, I spent most of my day at Orchard Road doing some shopping. Apparently it was Great Singapore Sales (GSS) season so I spend more that I initially budgeted. I needed to add new items to my wardrobe anyway. My actual plan for breakfast/brunch was to try the coffee place my friend recommended at Chinatown Complex. However, it was closed on Monday. There were a lot of stalls around and it caught my attention when there was a group of people queueing. As I went on, it turned out to be the famous Uncle Chan Chicken Rice, rated 1-star Michelin restaurant. My friend has strongly discouraged me to try this. At that point of time, there were no other stalls that were enticing enough and I decided to betray my friend and gave it a go, since it was only 2 dollars. It was decent or it was just not my preference.
A decent brunch
Headed over to Hong Lim complex for lunch which was just next to Chinatown Point. I found myself keep on queueing on this day and I waited for 45 minutes for Outram (pronounced as ou-tram) Park Fried Kueh Teow. The serving was rather sweet compared to kueh teowI usually had. Could have saved a little space for Tai Wah Pork Noodle as I found myself stuffed.
Tai Wah Pork Noodle and Outram Park Fried Kueh Teow
Thankfully for dinner, we were at the eatery early enough as we were seated almost immediately when we arrived. I ordered the signature ramen at the shop. The ramen was good but the broth was too salty for my liking. It was compensated by a fine green tea right after at Hvala Tea House and ended the night at Merlion Park, enjoying the night view of Singapore city.
General serving of ramen with a-bit-too-salty broth
Tea session at Hvala. You can observe the workers preparing the tea for you
Mixed of Hojicha and Macha Latte
Enjoying the night view of Singapore City
I think this is the first time I visited Merlion at night
Finally I have the chance to try the coffee next day at 1950's. I kicked off with a simple brunch with toasts and eggs. The coffee was really good and can compete with Nam Heong White Coffee that in Ipoh. I tried the Ming Fa Fishball Noodles which was just next stall on the last day before leaving Singapore.
Brunch at 1950's: milked coffee, toast and soft boiled eggs. Simple meal, simple life.
Ming Fa Fishball Noodles
On the 3rd of July itself, I headed to the concert place early to check out the place after my brunch. When I arrived at Marina Bay Sands, the signages of Celine Dion Live 2018 in Singapore were up. I noticed there was "Meet and Greet" under Celine Dion Concert on the event list projected on the LCD screen. I checked with a lady at the concierge at the expo and she mentioned to me there was one at 3pm and meant for public. Subsequently, I headed back to my hostel and change as I decided to stay till the night after the session, or so I thought. As the time came, the ticketing booth was already up and I went over if there was a need to reprint my ticket and concurrently to ask about the meet and greet event. Surprisingly, the persons behind the counter told me there was none scheduled. Confused, I went ahead and double checked with the event concierge at another level (the first lady I approached was not around at the time) and the guy told me it may be only open for VVIP tickets holders. Started to get disappointed (as I was excited at first) as the information I received from the last three persons were conflicting one another. My last resort was to reconfirm with the information counter and it seconded "there was none scheduled". 5 hours ahead of the concert time, I spent the rest of my evening at The Shoppes.
The ticketing booth of Celine Dion concert
As my watch showed 6.30pm, I found my way to enter the concert hall. As I was super early, there was no line at all to go through the security check. Found my seat and patiently waited for the show to start. Though, before I go on, I would think the seats arrangement could be better, for the price I paid for that is. The chairs were arranged on the same level for the same zone which caused the the views from second row onwards were rather obstructed. My seat was at the forth row and thankfully the persons in front of me didn't grow any taller.
Early bird and patiently waited for the show to start
When I thought the show would start promptly at eight, there were still no action on stage. It was about fifteen minutes later the hall went dark and someone started singing. The audience were started to get excited and just to find out it was just an opening gimmick by Veronic DiCaire. It was entertaining regardless as she impersonated a number of singers which include Mariah Carey, Pink, Kelly Clarkson, Adele, Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, Shakira and so on. The opening act lasted for about thirty minutes before another short break.
Once again, the lights were off and a familiar voice started to fill the hall, singing "The Power of Love". We could see a silhouette of a lady in the middle of stage before revealing herself with a spotlight on her when it came to the line "cause I'm Your Lady". There she was, standing with her gold outfit while people started cheering as Celine Dion, the real her, is now on the stage singing. I may not be able to get see up close but the thought to hear her live instead from any audio device was mesmerising. She went on and sang "That's The Way It Is", which I would consider my second favourite song from her during my childhood.
There she went to express her gratitude towards her fans and how she was amazed about coming to Singapore for very first time. She continued with "I'm Alive" and she ended with "We're Alive". "Because You Loved Me" was sung to end the first set.
The piano opening for the second set indicated the next song in the set list is "It's All Coming Back To Me Now". She went on duet with one of her backup singers to sing the theme song of "Beauty and The Beast" before the soundtrack of Deadpool, "Ashes". I wasn't that familiar with her earlier songs when she started to sing "Think Twice" and "Falling Into You". The songs that follow were "The Reason", "Pour que Tu N'Aimes Encore", "Recovering" and "All By Myself".
She started her third set with a beautiful black dress and sang acoustic version of medley of "Seventeen", "A New Day Has Come" and "Unison". As the other band members left the stage and the violin player stayed behind playing the familiar intro, it gave chills to my spine as I knew what's coming, "To Love You More". Songs of the final set include "Love Can Move Mountain" and covered song such as "Kiss" and "Purple Rain" which originally sang by Prince and "River Deep Mountain High" by Tina Turner.
She bade good night and the stage lights went off. A mother with her daughter to my left started to leave the hall. While the rest was chanting "We want more", I knew what's coming. It was all coming to this final, final song. There is no way she would leave the hall without her signature song. After a moment of silence, the instrumental soundtrack of Titanic started to play and one of the fans shouted "Celineeeee, we love you so much", coincidentally, intro of "My Heart Will Go On" played and I cannot contain my excitement which can be heard evidently in the video. She reappeared on the stage with a pink gown to end the marvellous night.
As I left the ballroom, I can't help to get myself her concert merchandise T-shirt as my memorabilia of this glorious night. Headed back to my hostel listening back to these recordings and it still seemed so surreal that I have actually attended Celine Dion's concert. Till these days, I have been watching these videos, including those uploaded by her fans around the region. I still cannot move on.
Last photo of the day signified the end of my date with this wonderful songstress
This trip may have come an end but memories with Celine Dion shall continue to live on in my mind for as long as I'm still breathing. If there is another opportunity to see her perform again, I won't mind grab it once more. Miss you, Celine!
