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Ahh.. The Force of Nature concert, for the first time in the Malaysia's history, a pool of stars from all over the world got together for a benefit concert, names like Wyclef Jean, The Black Eyed Peas, Boyz II Men, Lauryn Hill, the Backstreet Boys, Jackie Chan and Nicholas Tze. Other 'surprise' appearance includes, American Idol's Paula Abdul, Clay Aitken, Alan Cumming, Bai Ling, Ken Watanabe, Indonesian songstress Ruth Sahanaya, David Blaine, Nick Stahl, Joey and Lance from NSync and Carmen Electra. *Whew*.

The concert was scheduled to start at 7pm but for some unknown reason, the first artiste, Lauryn Hill came out at 8pm after being introduced by Paula Abdul. I arrived shortly after 8:30pm, thus missing the first performance. Road leading to the concert venue were surprisingly clear and there were no trouble with parking space. :)

Upon reaching the entrance of the Stadium, I noticed there were scores of fans and media crowding along the 'red carpet' entrance. Even more crowding to buy tickets to enter the Stadium. Anyways, made my way to the RM352 sitting place and was quite disappointed as it was the lower tier behind the stadium. You can see the stage but not as not the performers. No worries tough.. there are 2 projector screens visible from where we were sitting.

Back to the concert... after Lauryn Hill performed, local boy bands, Innuendo and V.E. performed. They got the crowd singing to Belayan Jiwa. Following that, Sheila Majid came out and sang a few of her hits and did a duet with Annuar Zain. Finally, all local performers including Dayang Nurfaizah brought the house down with Ikhlas Tap Jauh. Not bad performance I would say. Here's the downside of the concert. After each performance, there is like a 15-20 mins delay to get all the equipment set up for the next artiste. Seriously, we were all sitting there yawning and I ppl just walking out of the stadium after every performance. Boring! Boring!

The next group came out were Boys 2 Men! Yeah! There were seriously good. They make the local artiste look SO bad. They sang all their 'classics', from Mama, Water Runs Dry to End of the Road! Great performance!Their voice are so powerful and rich, even with accapella they rock the house. Amazingly, they got everyone to sing to thier tune eventough they haven't been around for the past 10 years!

After that, Wyclef Jean came out and did his stuff... this reggae fella looks like he was on drugs! hahaha.. but nevertheless, he put the energy back into the house. His group did some scratching and sang hits like Jump Around, No Woman No Cry and Guantanamera. he later did a duet with Lauryn Hill for songs like Oh La La La, Ready or Not and Killing Me Softly — from their Fugees days. Wyclef did an exceptional job putting the energy back to the crowd.

Next we have Indonesian star Ruth Sahanaya with a medley before teaming up with American artiste Eric Benet to present Everybody Doesn't Matter. Later Eric Banet did a few Jazzy numbers on his own with help from a what he claims to be a newly formed trumpet and saxophone band from the east and west. Not bad for first time together!

After another long break, this time with some clips of the tsunami, Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh came out to give a speech. They introduced Yumiko and Nicholas Tze as representative from 'the east'. Yumiko and Nicholas both did a number respectively. So-so performance from those to. Jackie Chan and Puan Sri (Can't remember) did a duet. Jackie was saying that he is a movie star and he can't sing... but for charity, he'll do anything.. hahaha..

Finally, here's what everyone is waiting for... Backstreet Boys. What's interesting during this performance was that people from the back of the stadium started going to the front (near the stage). Sadly, I reckon the urshers had a long long day cos BSB performance was at 12:30 am... it's pretty late. Anyways, BSB did a couple of their hits from Backstreet's Back, Shape of my Heart, I'll be the one, I want it that way and a couple more.. if I'm not mistaken.. around 7 songs including their brand new single which is due in June. Yeah... I am guilty of going to the front as well.. but it was during the middle when they sang I want it that way.. hahaha.. used to like that song. Excellent performance by them. Something I learned.. the boy band moves are like robots.. their dances are so well coordinated. Some moves are actually quite corny and I find it funny at times. Nevertheless, they were really good.

After another long break, Bai Ling came out and commented that this is the 'earliest' concert she's ever been to. She then introduce, the Black Eyed Peas. For myself, I am not really a big fan but we were all just waiting for Where is the Love. I tell you.. they sang and sang.. I think more than 5-6 songs.. most of them unheard of... did a few drum solo and came that hit song. It was already 2:15 am then. After the song, we decided to leave to beat the traffic.

On the way to the car, we could still here the Black Eyed Peas rocking the house.. by then, we were all too tired. Thank God the road was clear. Got home around 3am.

Overall, excellent performance by the international artiste, great planning for the organizers (heard they did the whole thing in 1 1/2 months), excellent publicity but lousy in-between performance during the concert. C'mon 20 minutes break in-between each performance is ridiculous... even ads on Astro isn't that long. Imagine those who came ON time, before 7pm. Ouch... more than 8 hours inside.. for me.. 7 hours is more than I can handle.

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