Idina Menzel Performs Live in Manila

Idina Menzel visited Manila and performed live at the MOA Arena last night(7th of June 2015). Manila is one of her stops for her World Tour.

Idina Menzel is known for singing the song "Let it Go" from the top grossing Disney movie Frozen and she played the role of Elphaba in the famous Broadway musical Wicked.

One of my favourite musicals of all time is Wicked. I watched it twice (once in Singapore and the other time in Manila). Seeing Idina sing "Defying Gravity" live made me feel happy. It also brought back memories as to how she has become a known celebrity because of her excellent performance in the Broadway musical  show Wicked.

One of my favourite scenes from the musical Wicked. Hearing
Idina sing Defying Gravity just made me remember this scene.

Her powerful voice and great sense of humor simply impressed and charmed the audience. She showed how she can sing various songs from different genres in an effortless manner. My friend who loves watching Broadway musicals even said that it seems that she is simply just having fun on stage and is just singing like she's in a karaoke session with friends. 

This is a photo that I took while watching Idina Menzel perform
live in Manila last night (7th June 2015).
She is  amazing and simply sings from the heart.

Her spontaneity and sense of humor certainly made the audience feel at ease and even encouraged the audience to sing along with her.

Idina started the concert by singing one of my favourite songs from Wicked, "Defying Gravity". But one of the highlights of her show is when she sang "For Good" from Wicked the musical in acapella. This simply showed that she has such a powerful voice since her voice filled the whole arena even if she did not use her microphone.

One of the fun and interactive moments during the show that the audience truly enjoyed was when she randomly got three people from the audience to sing with her a song from the musical Rent entitled "Take me or leave me". It was cool seeing her sing with them on stage.

Idina had fun singing on stage with three people from
the audience.

Source: Photo taken from Rappler.com feature on Idina Menzel

One of the guys she picked from the audience was a semi-finalist from The Voice
 of the Philippines show named Timmy Pavino. He was mentored by Lea Salonga
and he did a good job singing live during the concert.

Source: Photo from Rappler.com feature on Idina Menzel's
 concert in Manila

For me, Idina Menzel is such an amazing and grounded performer. You can see with the way she interacts with her audience that she is one celebrity who does not let fame get into her head. It is nice to see her just go down the stage and shake hands with her fans and even hug some of them. She even carried a young girl wearing an Elsa costume from the audience and even said "What was I thinking... I'm 44 years old ... my back hurts... I just carried her since she was wearing an Elsa costume". 

She is also a good actress both on stage and on television. She played the role of Lea Michelle's mom in the TV show called Glee.

Idina with Glee's Lea Michelle 

Idina Menzel's concert is simply one of the coolest events I have attended with friends. 

The simple stage set-up only showed that a great performer does not need too many visual effects and props in order to impress her audience. What is more endearing is that she is not afraid to be herself, take risks and just show her vulnerability with her heartfelt rendition of the songs that she performed on stage.

Idina had the ABS-CBN Philharmonic perform with her during

her Manila concert. This is a photo I took of her when she

was still wearing her shoes. After a few songs she just took off her

shoes(she said her legs were killing her) and casually sang

barefoot on stage.

 I feel grateful and blessed that I was able to watch her show in Manila and I look forward to seeing her perform live again in the future.  Cheers!