Girl Power!

Yesterday I attended Avril Lavigne's concert, here in Singapore, a part of the Asian leg of her 'The Best Damn Tour' and boy was it a Revelation!

I am not a major concert-goer. I've been to a couple (Santana and Elton John) courtesy a dear friend, and had a blast, but its not something I do by habit. Santana and Elton John are two all-time favourites and I know their music well. Avril Lavigne on the other hand is not someone I have followed at all, except for the occasional 'Girlfriend'. I knew she was a young teen Phenom and yesterday I got to see just why!!

The venue was full of young girls mostly between ages 9-12 (we ourselves had two aged 9 & 11) dressed in what I'm assuming are the latest teen fashions! Tights with mini-skirts, denim jackets, flip-flops, dark nail polish and pink hair-streaks! They all looked adorable! Many had Avril T-shirts over their outfits and almost all had pink and black flags to wave during the performance, as did we! None of these came cheap, but that didn't seem to matter!

The performance started an hour late and the children waited somewhat patient but fidgety, letting of steam through repeated collective chants of "Avril, Avril, Avril!" She came on at last at 9 pm and I was immediately deafened by the collective roar from thousands of screaming fans!! She launched into 'Girlfriend' and there was no looking back! My friend and I might possibly have been the only two people left sitting in our seats! Everyone else was on their feet - screaming, dancing and singing along.

Right in front of us, was a young girl (she couldn't have been more than 9 yrs old) in denim capris, an over sized black Avril tee and silver guitar earrings. She was obviously a huge fan and knew every word of every song that Avril sang, singing along with her, as did every other girl there including our two! It was amazing to see them sing lyrics, which they were still too young to fully understand and touching to see their devotion to their Idol :-)

Avril didn't disappoint! She was utterly charming, extremely pretty and wonderfully talented! I loved 'When You're Gone', 'Complicated' and 'Happy Ending'. For a moment the little girl's father and I made eye contact as we watched his daughter's joyful celebration in shared amazement and exchanged a knowing smile. In that moment I understood how she felt and I was right there with her!

'Go Avril!'