Marie Digby Live in One Utama

I first got to know about Marie Digby was when she released her rendition of Rihanna's "Umbrella" on radio. Apparently that song made her an overnight star in YouTube. When her album was released I was pleasantly surprised her songs are good,and that she wrote or co-wrote all her lyrics. Talented girl. I especially love her current single "Say It Again" to the extend it's my ringtone now :)

When it was announced that she will be performing in One Utama (sponsored by GAP), I did not hesitate to make plans so I could leave office early and catch her performance.

I reached the concert area located near Tommy Hilfiger around 7pm.The concert was supposed to begin at 8pm. After surveying the grounds and estimating the crowd, I decided to go up to 1st Floor to watch the concert instead.

This was the crowd @ 7pm

The next one hour or so was spent 'lepaking' - so to speak - as I can't afford to leave my so-called 'prime spot' until the concert was over. Most of the time I was just observing the crowd below me. Most of them are teenagers and young working adults. Some came in tees and jeans, others in office wear. I noticed some ladies came in sexy party dresses and they probably don't realised that it's quite revealing when you are observing them from above...

While waiting for the show to begin, suddenly a girl whose been standing in front collapsed!

The organisers and security guards were stunned. They quickly cleared the crowd surrounding the girl and attempted to move her. However, before they could even do that, the girl just then stood up!

Not too sure what happened there, her friend took her away from the scene...

And the crowd conveniently took over her place.

By 7:50pm, the area was full. Not just on the ground floor, but also on the 1st and 2nd floors too.

Heck, even the higher floors are filled with people! I wonder how much can they see from there?

Around 8:15 pm, the event started out with the two deejays from Mix.fm as emcees. There was a singing competition where a 12 year-old won the prize.

This was followed by a performance by Acoustiq 39, who won 2nd place worldwide in some Marie Digby cover competition. They sang an acapella version of 'Say it Again' and I thought they did a fantastic job.

Around 8:4pm, Marie Digby finally came on stage to perform! She kickstarted her showcase with 'Say It Again', prompting cheers from the crowd.

She later proceeded with more songs from her album. I can recall only 'Fool', 'Stupid Girl' and 'Unfold' among others. She also sang "Paint Me in your Sunshine" which is one of the songs featured by Gap as part of their 'The Sound of Colour' campaign.

Marie Digby has such a great voice, and she is just so sweet and pretty in person! I expected her performance to be as good as in YouTube and she lived up to my expectations. I also like how she explained the meaning behind each songs. Looks like she had some sense of humour as well, as she occasionally cracked a joke or two in between songs.

As the crowd start to become restless, Marie then mentioned that she will be performing her last song for the show. Naturally the crowd cheered on again, as they know that it is none other than her hit song 'Umbrella'. She got the crowd singing along the chorus with her, and some people were waving as well. One even showed off his orange umbrella as she performed!

After the concert was over, it was announced that there will be an autograph session inside the GAP shop. She will only sign on her CDs or any GAP T-Shirt. After the announcement, I went down to Level G to try and take some more photographs and then go the the GAP shop to see if I can catch a photo of her inside.

This is what greeted me at Level G instead - the queue for her autograph.

The queue extended as far as Shu Uemura...

...right up to Guess...

and in front of GAP.

No wonder right after a few songs, many people left the premise! I thought they were not interested, but turns out they were already queueing up to get her autograph! I wonder how long Marie will take to clear that line!

I hung around outside the GAP shop hoping to get another glimpse of her before I headed home. It was only then I realised that the autograph place is just near the window panes but I was at the wrong pane! After a few attempts of wrestling with other fans, this was the best photo I can take of Marie Digby signing autographs...

Afterthoughts

Marie Digby may be new to the music industry, but her fame was propelled through YouTube, where fans are located in any part of the world. GAP was smart enough to take her in as their spokesperson, and then launch a mini world tour for her while she's still hot property. For me, today's concert is a win-win situation for all. Have a free concert to attract publicity, sell CDs and T-shirts for autograph session. She gets to sell more albums, GAP can sell more T-shirts, and the fans are happy.

I'm simply glad that I was there for her performance and enjoyed it thoroughly. I may be crazy enough to wait one hour for a good spot for her performance, but don't all other concert goers if it's free seating?