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CONCERT IN MELBOURNE
On April 2, 2008 Celine Dion performed at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia with the "Taking Chances Tour" in front of more than 15,000 people. This was the second of five concerts in Australia with this tour.
CONCERT IN SYDNEY
On April 5, 2008 Celine Dion performed at the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia with the "Taking Chances Tour" in front of more than 21,000 people. More than ten years the fans in Australia had to wait for Celine´s stage return. But they were now princely rewarded. Celine has presented a enthusiastic and fantastic completely sold-out show experience of absolute quality. Right at the beginning Celine´s power voice has drew all fans under her magical spell with the rocking "I drove all night", before the audience has luxuriated in sweet memories with Celine´s greatest-hits like "The power of love", "It´s all coming back to me now", "My heart will go on" and "Because you loved me". The enthusiastic fans had seen Celine in her element live on stage. Celine has not only touched her fans hearts and souls with up-tempo songs as "Shadow of love", but also with ballads like "Think twice". The legendary "All by myself" finally gets conviction only with Celine´s five-octave voice. When Celine is singing and modulate perfect vocal nuances the very big emotions are awakening and none remained unaffected by Celine´s naturally charming, and was dazzled by the magic of her voice. She also sang "Eyes on me", "Alone", "Love can move mountains", "River deep, mountain high" and many others. Celine continued performing at the Acer Arena in Sydney on April 6, 2008. For these two show, it wasn´t used the center stage.
CONCERT IN SHANGHAI
On April 11, 2008 Celine Dion performed at the Shanghai Stadium in Shanghai, China with the "Taking Chances Tour" in front of more than 50,000 people. Celine performed on the Chinese mainland for the first time, with a concert at the 50,000-seat Shanghai Stadium. Though the Beijing concert had been canceled, the Shanghai performance was confirmed to be a big success. A leather suit accompanied the slim diva during the 90-minute concert to protect her just-recovered voice in this early spring weather and due to the cold. Celine opened the show with "I drove all night", "The power of love", "Because you love me", which sounded familiar to the Chinese audience. She also selected a song: "My love". And the following French songs and rock songs made the concert-goers more excited. Finally, Celine performed two famous songs of English rock band Queen, "We will rock you", "The show must go on" and concluded the show with one of her best-known songs, "My heart will go on". For this show, it wasn´t used the center stage and there were no outfit changes, maybe due to cold weather. According to few fans, Celine looked tired and maybe exhausted. She looked totally bored, and she only gave 50% of herself at the concert.
CONCERT IN KUALA LUMPUR
On April 13, 2008 Celine Dion performed at the Stadium Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with the "Taking Chances Tour". In her first concert in Malaysia, Celine gave a rousing performance at the Stadium Merdeka, pleasing the crowd with every hit song. This was the only South-East Asian venue on the tour list. The show started at 8:50 hs p.m., shortly after the arrival of Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin and Raja Permaisuri Agong Tuanku Nur Zahirah, accompanied by deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor. Perhaps a stickler for time, Celine, dressed in what looked more like fake leather sleeves (it´s actually a mini bolero), a glittery mini dress thigh-high black boots, performed one song after another without much pause in between. The singer took only a few short breaks, but even those times were filled with performances by her eight dancers and background singers. Celine, left the polite banter to a minimum too, though she greeted the King and Queen, and thanked the audience for giving her another chance to perform after her initial postponement (the concert was originally scheduled on April 8, 2008). Of course, she also did the quintessential apa khabar and terima kasih (with good diction too!) bit during the show. But what she didn´t say in words she made up for in her many exaggerated facial expressions, her criss-crossing arm movements, her playful winks and kisses and, of course, her great voice. As Celine is known for performing with elaborate stage set-ups and special effects, visual effects in the form of video clips played a big role in her KL show. In a way, the videos set the mood for every part of the show (the concert had five parts): Rock, Passion, Fashionista, Soul and a Queen Tribute. On stage with the singer at all times were no fewer than 10 musicians, including a violinist/acoustic guitarist extraordinaire, a pianist, a keyboardist, three other guitarist, a drummer and a female timpani-cymbal-chime-bongo player. Her only male background vocalist, Barnev Valsaint, played double duty during the duet "I´m your angel", singing the part of R. Kelly beautifully. Valsaint also did a medley of upbeat songs during the Soul part of the concert, paving the way for Celine´s "It´s a man´s man´s man´s world". Celine only coaxed the crowd to sing with her on a few songs, and even that was kept short. But far from it being a diva trait, the reason for that was simple enough, nobody in the crowd could sing like Celine. Not even the talented Datuk Siti Nurhaliza, who was seated at the VIP area with husband Datuk Khalid Mohd Jiwa. The eager crowd that turned up for the Celine concert. For this show, it wasn´t used the center stage specially designed for the tour and there were only two outfit changes. For the finale, Celine used the yellow large outfit and performed "My heart will go on".
CONCERT IN MANCHESTER
On May 2, 2008 Celine Dion performed at the Manchester Evening News Arena in Manchester, UK with the "Taking Chances Tour" in front of more than 22,000 people. Playing her first British dates in almost a decade, Celine filled Manchester´s largest indoor concert venue on that night. This was the first concert of the European leg of the tour and there were a lot of changes. With a flower bombing Celine was welcomed by her fans, as she has began her concert almost 40 minutes later. Celine presented in a 100 minute show, with 26 songs and fabulous new costumes. The show has began with music videos on large LCD screens. Opening with "I drove all night", she burst on to an elaborate in-the-round stage (specially designed for this tour) loaded with trap doors, moving walkways and revolving video screens. Rounded by 8 dancers and a small army of musicians, she struck a proud, statuesque, drag-queen pose. This kind of sense-blitzing excitement rarely lasts long, but Celine delivered two hours of mostly engaging, revved-up spectacle. This was partly due to her busy, bustling, hi-tech stage presentation, which allowed no room for irony or boredom to take hold. But her famously supple voice was a factor too, remaining strong and fluid as she rocketed through the octaves. Modelling a succession of diva-ish outfits, each more glamorously impractical than the last, Celine was undeniably camp in Manchester, but never kitsch. There was no hint of snickering, guiltily pleasurable irony when she belted out classics such as "Alone" and "The power of love". Both gave big-haired 1980s power ballads a good name. Even better was "All by myself", which Celine transformed into a towering Taj Mahal of self-pity. During "My love", another blustery weepie from her latest album, she even choked back tears. A handful of nondescript plodders tainted this show, including a graceless medley of Queen and James Brown covers. But, overall, there were more highlights than lulls. The inevitable encore of "My heart will go on" was performed atop a lofty podium surrounded by flickering candles. For that song Celine used an spectacular violet long outfit never used before on this tour. Celine also performed "Taking chances", "It´s all coming back to me now", "Because you loved me", "To love you more", "Eyes on me", "I´m alive" (a remix version), "Shadow of love", "Fade away", "I´m your angel" (in duet with Barnev Valsaint), "Pour que tu m´aimes encore", "Think twice", "Love can move mountains", "River deep, mountain high". On May 3, 2008 Celine performed at the Manchester Evening News Arena one more time.
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