It was a family affair during Shila Amzah (茜拉)’s “Loving You” concert at Arena of Stars, Resorts World Genting over the weekend.
Not only were her husband Haris Elias and family in the audience, but her dad ND Lala and sister Syada also got to perform a duet with the pop star separately. Clearly, music runs in the family.
The concert kicked off at 8:30pm sharp, when the lights dimmed to signal Shila’s entrance. The opening number was “沙粒的秘密 (Sha Li De Mi Mi)”, followed by “涂爱星球 (Tu Ai Xing Qiu)”. Clad in a pale blue glittery head scarf, metallic top and black pants, the pop star was supported by 6 female back up dancers.
“Hello, Genting! I’m Shila. Welcome to my brand new concert ‘Loving You’, and it’s all about love. I hope I can use all the languages in the planet to show my love,” the 28-year-old Malaysian songstress was quoted as saying. And used it to the best of her ability – she did.
Throughout the “Loving You” show, the talented singer sang in 7 different languages; 8, if you include ND Lala’s solo number. She performed in Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Malay, French, Korean, and Tagalog, while her dad sang in Hokkien.
“The theme for this concert is ‘Loving You’. It’s about my love for music, my family, my friends, my husband, my fans and myself,” she previously told Star2 about the significance of her new concert. Love is indeed a big theme in Shila’s life seeing as how she recently became a wife after tying the knot with Haris Elias earlier in April.
We could tell that the newlyweds are still in their honeymoon phase. Every now and then, Shila would look at her husband, who was seated next to her mum, and teased him about teaching him Mandarin. “If I’m old, will you still love me,” she asked before launching into the romantic single, “如果我们老了(If We Get Old)”, which she also sang at her wedding.
There were plenty of popular covers during Shila’s concert. For the classic, “月亮代表我的心 (The Moon Represents My Heart)”, she brought her dad on stage. We’ve seen more cover versions then we can count, but what made this performance special was the chemistry the father-daughter duo shared.
ND Lala recalled how he got his Chinese influence when he was staying in Jinjang, Kepong. From there he learned that success is essentially 30% God’s will and 70% comes from hard work. Despite feeling under the weather, Shila’s dad brought some nostalgia with the song, “爱拼才会赢 (Ai Pin Cai Hui Yin)”.
In addition to her father, Shila also introduced her sister, Syada, to the crowd after they performed South Korean girl group Blackpink’s banger “Whistle”. If you’ve been watching Shila’s YouTube covers, you’ll know that this Malaysian star has previously covered the hit song before. Soon after, Syada took centre stage to belt out Anne-Marie’s smash hit “Ciao Adious”.
One of the highlights of “Loving You” was watching Shila slay 3 separate medleys during her 2-hour long concert. The Joey Yung Medley included “密友 (Mi You)”, “损友 (Sun You)”, “心甘命抵 (Xin Gan Ming Di)”, “早有预谋 (Zao You Yu Mou)”, “罪魅 (Zui Mei)”.
There was a Little Mix Medley (“Power”, “Black Magic” and “Shout Out to My Ex”) as well as a Divas Medley (Celine Dion’s “I’m Alive”, Mariah Carey’s “Emotion”, and Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”). Regardless of what age gap you belong to, there was something for everyone thanks to selection of songs from different eras.
In keeping true to make “Loving You” a more organic concert experience, Shila surprised fans when she got down to interact with the audience during the 10th number, “到时说爱我 (Dao Shi Shuo Ai Wo)”. The VIP section was a frenzy as concert-goers tried to get as close as they could to the singer.
Besides her breakout performance of “Rolling in the Deep”, Shila was impressive when she sang the Filipino ballad “IKAW” by Yeng Constantino and popular French song “La Vie En Rose” which can be translated as “Life seen through happy lenses”. Despite not understanding these languages, Shila’s emotional delivery sent chills tingling down our spine.
Not to alienate her Malay fans, the pop star also treated fans with 2011 single “Patah Seribu”. The song represented a major milestone for Shila’s career. It also received Pop Song of the Year and Song of the Year at the 19th Malaysian Music Awards.
For the encore, Shila returned to the stage with 2 more songs – “最长的电影 (Zui Chang De Dian Ying)” and “想你的夜 (Xiang Ni De Ye)”. Before concluding the wonderful night, the Malaysian sweetheart promised fans that she’ll always be churning out music and will continue to entertain in years to come.
Shila Amzah’s “Loving You” World Tour 2018 setlist:
- “沙粒的秘密”/
- “途爱星球”
- “相爱”
- “如果我们老了”
- “天神记”
- “洋葱”
- “月亮代表我的心”（with ND）
- “爱拼才会赢”（ND solo）
- Joey Yung Medley
- “到时说爱我”
- “记得”
- Little Mix Medley
- “IKAW”
- “再见”
- “Rolling in the Deep”
- “Whistle”（with Syada）
- “Ciao Adios” (Syada solo)
- 3 Divas Medley
- “La Vie En Rose”
- “Patah Seribu”
- “征服”
- “最长的电影” (Encore)
- “想你的夜” (Encore)
