“Gosh, this show was worth every cent,” we overheard this sentiment from concert-goers as people begun exiting Plenary Hall KLCC after watching Calum Scott performed live for 1.5 hours in front of approximately 2000 fans.
After touring around Asia – namely Japan, Manila, Bangkok, and Jakarta – Calum’s latest pitstop for his “Bridges” tour brought him back to Kuala Lumpur. He wasn’t alone this time around though. We were introduced to Mitch James, who has been the opening act for Calum throughout most of his tour.
Mitch James is a talented singer-songwriter from New Zealand (who has previously opened for big acts like Ed Sheeran and Six60). The Kiwi artiste sang a couple of pop acoustics and got personal when he sang about feeling lost (“Motions”), an ex-girlfriend (“Bright Blue Skies”), a trip to Japan with his former flame that never came to be (“Japan”), and also being inspired by mommy dearest (“Fade To Black”).
Around 9pm, the lights dimmed, signalling the man of the hour – Calum Scott. An introduction audio of him echoed throughout the hall, where he talked about the making of his sophomore album “Bridges” and what music means to him. As soon as the 34-year-old took to the stage with “Rise” and “I’ll Be There”, we were hooked.
Before the infamous “Crying Corner” segment, Calum spoke to the audience, “Selamat sejahtera Kuala Lumpur. It’s great to be back. We’re going to make you dance in your seats, on your feet and make you cry and cry some more. I just wanna say we’re going to take you on a journey.” It was an emotional journey, yet very cathartic for yours truly and many others present that night.
There were many laughter and tears throughout the night as Calum sang his catalogue of beautiful songs including “Cross Your Mind”, “Biblical”, “Flaws” (where he encouraged all of us accept our imperfections), “Bridges” (one of the darkest times of his life when he contemplated taking his own life), and our personal favourite – “No Matter What”, the song about him coming out to his mother.
For his Malaysian concert, Calum decided to swap “Boys In The Street” for another song- “Love Is Just A Word” a duet he did with Jasmine Thompson – after hearing that this song has been a fan-favourite hit among Malaysians. Mitch James was invited back on stage to perform the track together. Since this was an impromptu number, Calum admitted that they barely had time to rehearse properly, but the duo pulled it off with their harmonies blending together perfectly.
The Britain’s Got Talent star also spoke of his past, a time when he was in a Maroon 5 cover band (or rather Maroon 4 since they lacked a 5th band member). He even joked about being frontman Adam Levine, but minus the creepy DMs (throwing shade at his recent cheating scandals). He then sang Maroon 5’s “This Love”, before moving on to more uptempo numbers like “Where Are You Now” and “Run With Me”.
The crowd got progressively louder and everyone erupted when Calum began singing “You Are the Reason”, with him saying, “Kuala Lumpur, you are my reason.” As with other Asian countries where he invited his duet partners on stage to perform the single “Heaven”, everyone cheered as our very own local singer and actress Diana Danielle appeared to deliver a beautiful ballad with Calum.
Calum finished off the night by returning for an encore to perform the song that shot him to fame – his cover of “Dancing On My Own”. As aforementioned, a Calum Scott concert is not to be missed. We thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.
