FUN NIGHT WITH NICKI. Nicki Minaj painted Manila pink with her concert at the Mall of Asia Arena, Wednesday, last July 11, 2012. Minaj swept the crowd off their feet as she “boom-bo-room-bomed” on stage and into the hearts of her Filipino fans. Video by INQUIRER.net’s Cathy Miranda
MANILA, Philippines – The Mall of Asia Arena turned into one giant dance floor Wednesday night as thousands of fans partied to American rap artist Nicki Minaj’s concert.
Everyone was dressed in their best Friday-night party garb to go with Nicki’s Pink Friday World Tour theme. Lots of neon clothes and brightly colored wigs abound. Everyone was ready to party the night away.
And party they did. Hard.
From the moment the lights dimmed and the DJ dropped the bass, everyone was dancing. The 29-year-old singer kicked-off her first ever concert in the Philippines – wearing a neon yellow top, hot pink boy shorts over a pair printed tights – with Roman’s Revenge. She followed it with “Did it on ‘em” and “I am Your Leader.” From then on, the crowd knew they were in for a fun night.
For her second act, Nicki changed into a Barbie-inspired white dress with tulle skirt and white tights, and delivered more of her dance tunes like “Starships”, “Pound the Alarm” and “Where Them Girls At” and the crowd enjoyed every performance singing and dancing like the party animals that they are.
Every time Nicki told the crowd “Manila, make some noise!” the crowd willingly obliged with a deafening din.
Minaj slowed down a bit after a quick costume change (this time a white, floor-length corseted number) and proved that she could indeed sing when she performed “Fire Burns” (which she told the crowd she wrote for the guy who broke her heart) and “Save Me” (the song she wrote for the guy whose heart she broke).
In between costume changes, DJ Headache played more of Nicki’s songs like “Marylyn Monroe” to keep the crowd going. Nicki also engaged the crowd with her short spiels.
“Are there any freaks in the house?” she asked the crowd half-way through her show. And as an afterthought, Nicki added: “If you’re under 18, you can’t respond to that question.”
During the last part of the show, Nicki called up on stage four lucky fans up on stage to dance with her. The obvious show stealer was Philippine All-Stars member Naomi Tamayo who impressed Nicki with her moves. The Philippine All-Stars was the opening act of the show.
‘FEELS LIKE HOME’ Nicki Minaj’s music could convert rockers into hip hop dance fanatics as proven by some reporters covering her first Manila concert.
And it was obvious that it wasn’t just the audience who had fun that night.
“I want to thank you guys for being so awesome,” she told her fans before she played her last song. “This place reminds me of home. I’m from Trinidad [and Tobago] and I looked out the Manila Bay earlier and it reminded me of home.”
“You will always be in my heart forever,” she told her Filipino fans.
For her last song, Nicki sang her multi-platinum single “Super Bass” much to the delight of her fans. Everyone from the VIP section down in front of the stage, all the way up to the top seats on the fourth level of the Arena, fans were on their feet singing and dancing.
In all, Nicki played 23 songs in the hour-long concert but fans were quick to point out as they were leaving the Arena that the show ended too quickly.
“I thought it would end at 12 midnight,” the writer overheard some fans saying.
A few hours later, Nicki, on her official twitter account, uploaded a picture of the crowd during her Arena concert and said that crowd estimate for her first concert in Manila was 20,000.
On its website, Manila Concert Scene estimated Wednesday’s concert crowd between 7,000 and 11,000.
Pink Friday Tour was sponsored by Globe Telecom, Blackberry and media partner INQUIRER.net.