BY SHU DUAN ONG
Glow sticks glimmered on the necks and wrists of fans as they waited for their favourite YouTube celebrities to perform their last show of the Australia Boombox Tour.
The most subscribed Youtuber, Ryan Higa, and talented comedian Kevin Wu, who are also known affectionately by fans as Nigahiga and KevJumba respectively, hosted this year’s Boombox Tour.
Their charm and popularity would have accounted for the horde of girls present in Winthrop Baptist Auditorium on 17 May.
In between the delivery of jokes, they introduced young, talented Melbourne singer, Maribelle Anes.
Known for producing her own songs, 15-year-old Maribelle danced to the beat of her original upbeat track, “I got you” and also sang a cover of Tynisha Keli’s “I wish you loved me”.
She proved her talent that night as she played the guitar and sang another original song, “Honestly”.
Maribelle urged everyone to get on their feet for her next song and the audience wasted no time in pushing their way to the front of the stage.
Gearing up the audience with a cover of Katy Perry’s popular hit, “Firework”, she walked to both ends of the stage to greet her excited fans.
During a thoroughly enjoyable 30 minutes, American Idol singer Andrew Garcia strummed his guitar and sang acoustic versions of well-known hits such as Chris Brown’s “Forever”, Justin Bieber’s “Somebody to Love” and Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up”.
His amiable personality probably gained him many new fans as he interacted with the audience, taking song requests and then joking about not knowing the lyrics.
It was refreshing to hear him perform his own rendition of Bruno Mars’ “Grenade” in his deep, husky voice.
Kevin and Ryan announced, “we only dance to the best music and the best songs ever made!” As the DJ put on Justin Bieber’s “Baby”, Kevin did a hilarious yet impressive dance, with Ryan finishing it with a seamless handstand.
The next performer was Asian Canadian rap artist, D-Pryde, who hyped up the crowd with his cover of Lil Wayne’s rap song, “6 Foot 7 Foot”.
After his original song, “Just Like Me”, D-Pryde declared, “this next song is to everybody out there who has a dream”. With that said, he progressed into his next rap song, “Not Over”.
Serving up a mixture of rap and hip hop, D-Pryde and Maribelle performed a new song and had everyone singing along.
The highlight of the night for many was long-awaited Sydney twin sisters, Janice and Sonia Lee, who go by the name, Jayesslee, on YouTube.
Their sweet vocals resulted in a growing admiration for them as they sang in pitch-perfect harmony to songs like The Script’s “Breakeven” and Jessie J’s “Price Tag”.
They also dedicated their cover of Kutless’s “What Faith Can Do” to the victims of the earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, inducing a lull in the atmosphere as the crowd fell silent and listened intently.
When it felt like the sisters were going to say their goodbyes, someone in the audience shouted, “Officially missing you!” Their most popular cover of Tamia’s song, “Officially Missing You”, had gone viral and garnered more than seven million views on YouTube.
Obliging their fans, Sonia began by strumming the notes on her guitar, making the crowd explode in cheers and applause.
As a farewell present, the twins each flung an autographed t-shirt into the crowd.
They then announced they were going to perform a cover arranged with Andrew Garcia during the tour, which set off loud cheers for Andrew to make another appearance.
As a closing song, the trio sang Jonas Brothers’ “When You Look Me in the Eyes”. With that, Boombox Tour 2011 came to an end.
Concluding on a high note, all the hosts and performers reappeared on stage to thank everyone for coming, declaring that they would definitely be back.
Categories: Entertainment