I've got 10 minutes to spare before the morning ward round, so here's a review of Ronan Keating's show last night.

Methinks the tickets didn't sell as well as they could've, since some parts of the Singapore Indoor Stadium were conspicuously empty, and most of the audience was packed in the central area. But numbers didn't matter, 'cos the crowd yesterday rocked!

Things got off to a rather slow start at first. Even with upbeat songs like "Lovin' Each Day", the bulk of the spectators -- especially on my side -- remained glued to their chairs. More got to their feet when he belted out 2 Boyzone numbers - "Picture of You" ( from the "Mr. Bean" movie soundtrack ) and "Baby Can I Hold You". However, Ronan was savvy enough to specifically ask "all those with seats to stand up anyway", and that really did it :) Everybody moved their butts after that! And the concert was on its way!

It was an overall enjoyable show, no doubt about that, featuring many hits like "Life Is A Roller Coaster", "If Tomorrow Never Comes", "When You Say Nothing At All", "We've Got Tonight", "The Long Goodbye", and even a cool cover of "Brown-Eyed Girl". The band is terrific, and one of the backups ( who plays the guitar and keyboard, and also sings ) is really gorgeous :D Had a fine time staring at him, since he was directly in front of me, haha!

Concerts are always the best of the music experience for me. Listening to an artiste on the CD can never compare to seeing them in person, especially if they're well-known for being good live performers -- e.g. Ronan, Robbie Williams, Westlife, The Chieftains, The Corrs, Barry Manilow, Cliff Richard, just to name a few. And what can possibly beat the high of singing and dancing along with them, and seeing them respond to your enthusiasm? Ronan was obviously feeding off our catcalls and whistles, gaining momentum with each song until he literally collapsed onto the floor. Quite hilarious!

During the last song -- in a 3-piece encore set, no less! -- Ronan craftily used the lyrics of "The Long Goodbye" to ask us, "Are you coming back again?". And when we cheered ourselves hoarse, he replied, "Guess I'll be coming back again!" Well, it's been fantastic having you here, Ronan. Come back soon. :)