Thousands of Westlife’s fans, including many foreigners, packed the Hanoi-based My Dinh Stadium on Saturday night to loudly chant the name of the Irish boy band and sing along with their idols.
There were certain concerns before the Westlife concert which came not only from the bad weather but also the love for pop ballad, the band’s strength which was very popular in Vietnam a decade ago, has gradually faded away.
But the concert dimmed those concerns when the boy-band showed up, warming the atmosphere up with 2 songs, “When You’re Looking Like That” and “World of Our Own”.
In the 100-minute show with over 20 songs, among those from the latest album, Gravity, Westlife also performed some hit pieces of music that have brought the boy-band to list of the world’s most popular artists, including “My Love”, “Seasons In The Sun”, “You Raise Me Up” and “Flying Without Wings”.
The four well-dressed men, comprising of Mark Feehily, Nicky Byrne, Shane Filan and Kian Egan, though all exceeding their 30s, still made many young fans bursting into tears with their friendliness.
Almost all the audience turned on the flash lights of their mobile phones after being asked to do so as the boy-band started to sing “You Raise Me Up”. The moment was recorded by the 4 singers’ mobile phones.
The 4 men also had a very close interaction with audience by shaking hands with them, and Nicky and Kian even helped their fans take the photos by using their own digital cameras. Kian also asked the audience to shout out “Twinkle”, the nickname of his wife’s second pregnancy, so that he can record the view for his future child.
Westlife kept its promise to their fans as not only showed off sweetest love songs but also more exciting music with the cover of 5 songs, including Viva La Vida (Coldplay), Only Girl (Rihanna), The Time (Black Eyed Peas), Bad Romance (Lady Gaga) and I Predict A Riot (Kaiser Chiefs).
They ended their Vietnam’s live concert with “What About Now” and “Uptown Girl”.
After the show ended, Nicky immediately logged on Twitter to share the 32-second clip he recorded the moment thousands of Vietnamese fans cheering up and singing along the hit “My Love”.
The four-man idol group said they decided to add “My love” to their list, although it was not originally included after finding out before coming here that the song was their most popular song to local fans.
"We are very surprised by the warm welcome of the Vietnamese fans here. It brings many fresh emotions for all four of us. You give us a feeling of being at our 20s. We wonder that why we have been to this country for the last 14 years, "Shane said in a press conference before the show.
"Hopefully, we can offset that with the show tonight," Mark said.
Nhu Hoa, a 24-year-old audience who began to love Westlife since entering high school, told newswire Vnexpress that for her, it felt like “Flying Without Wings” - a Westlife’s famous song that was also performed at My Dinh Stadium. “For over an hour and a half, it felt like I was back to my 12 and started to grow up with Westlife’s songs with countless memories suddenly recalling."
Another audience told the newswire that he came from central city of Hue to My Dinh Stadium with the main task was not to listen to the music as he was not a Westlife fan. But he was impressed with the professionalism of the boy band, along with their very gentle and passionate vocals, and the organizer as well. Hanoi audiences, mostly young students, though being very passionate and exciting, were very polite.
Source : TT