MUSIC

Its time for

Buble

5
MONDAY
24 October
2005

BY NIKI CHEONG
I DONT want to sing anymore, Michael Buble
exclaimed at his recent Its Time concert in Singapore.
The crowd started laughing but with a straight face,
he went on: You dont know what its like. You
havent been singing this cr**since you were 16.
The laughter continued but it was noticeably less
loud. He just stood there in silence, and the crowd
went silent with him. I dont want to sing this cr**
anymore, he wailed.
Bodies were shifting uncomfortably; no one knew
how to react to his statements. Was he joking, or was
he really announcing his retirement plans at the age
of 30? With perfect timing, though, he suddenly held
up his microphone and said: I want to sing opera.
Josh Groban, Im going to kick your @$$!
The laughter returned as Michael sang the first two
lines of Gloria Gaynors I Will Survive opera style!
That was the wit, and entertainment that Michael
Buble brought along with him when he performed to
a packed house of about 8,000 people at the
Singapore Indoor Stadium.
I have to admit that I am an ardent fan of Michaels
music. Its just nice and fresh, and the idea of contemporary artistes singing old music interests me.
The thing about Michael, and other artistes like him
such as Jamie Cullum, Josh Groban and Robbie
Williams, is that he brings a certain youthful edge to
the music its as though Sinatra is alive and 30 again.
The one thing that amazed me most at the concert
was the fact that after some initial problems with the
sound system (his voice was drowned by the band in
the first few songs), Michael actually sounded better
than he did on any of his albums. Such was his voice
crispy, raw and infectious.
Whether or not youre a fan of his jazzpop, its hard
to deny what talent he has. Critics claimed that he
would have given Ol Blue Eyes (thats Frank Sinatra), a
run for his money if they were from the same generation. So theres really little point to talk about how
good his singing was.
What struck me most was the presentation in particular, the lighting effects. Each song had different
lights used to illuminate the singer and his band, and
served as the background for the stage. And what a
beautiful background it was it felt as though the
lighting was part of the orchestra, perfectly capturing
the moments in Michaels banter, and the meanings
of the songs he was singing.
As expected, Michael sang a whole range of songs
from his repertoire. These include Come Fly With Me
and Fever from his debut album, which, needless to
say were crowd favourites. And of course, he played
the popular Feeling Good and You And I from his latest
album, Its Time.
Halfway through his set, however, he sang the song
that most of the crowd was waiting for, the selfpenned Home. While the song in itself was beautifully
sung, I was disappointed with the arrangement it
just felt as though the innocence of the original version was lost.
But despite all the hit songs that made the crowd
fall even more in love with him, it was his cover versions of pop music that got the biggest reaction. The
crowd went wild when he did a version of Maroon 5s
This Love and went absolutely ballistic when he imitated Michael Jacksons Billie Jean, and very well too
might I add.
If youre wondering, at the end of all this, whether
the concert was enjoyable, well I dont think anyone
left disappointed. The loud calls for an encore and the
cheer at the end of it all said everything.