Any guesses? Come on, take a guess!! What's that?? The title of this post is from a well-known song? Wait, isn't that a Katy Perry song?!! And if you said 'Eye of the Tiger' right away, you've just won - well, nothing! - except, of course, the chance to read about a first-hand account of Katy Perry LIVE IN SHANGHAI!!!
The whole thing started a couple of months ago - when all of all things, Facebook suggested that the Katy Perry Prismatic tour would be an event I would be interested in. Made the mistake of mentioning it to Manasi - and her reaction was astounding - she really, really, really wanted to go. I decided to look it up - and our concert going dreams had a rude shock - the tickets were 2400rmb, over $400, per person!! I though that was that - no way I'm paying that much money for a concert - how about a CD instead, Manasi??
And then suddenly - again, thank you Facebook! - one more day in Shanghai was added to the tour - and cheaper tickets for the 2nd day seemed to be available. This was right before Spring break, and I mentioned it to a couple of friends - it would be fun to take our girls - and then we all left for vacation. So here we were in Boracay, and I get a FaceTime call from MW, who is in Thailand, with some other friends - did Manasi and I really want to go to the concert, tickets were available!! Of course, Manasi was completely over the moon!! I did say yes - as long as the price was less than 1000rmb!
1000rmb - $200!!! Still a fairly large amount, wouldn't you say? So I think I was completely justified when I almost cancelled the plan when Manasi had a hissy fit about the 1000rmb restriction. None of the other moms think so much about the money (so not true!), everyone else would get to go, and it's not fair - more in that vein!! And I'm thinking, we're in BORACAY, and I'm discussing whether or not to pay $200 to go to a concert with my sulking 10 year old daughter - talk of being spoiled, privileged, entitled??!! So even though I had already agreed to pay for the tickets - I told her we weren't going - and kept her in the dark till a night before the concert. The expression on her face when I told her we were going after all - priceless!!
We picked up the girls straight after school - TW, MW, me and 4 girls - in a van headed to the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai!! The concert didn't start till 8pm, so we were planning to get dinner before the concert. GPS showed a whole bunch of restaurants close to the arena, so made more sense to head to the venue, and then find a place to eat. Didn't quite work as smoothly - true, there are quite a few restaurants, but nothing really where we could eat with kids. We did find an Italian restaurant - a really fancy place - but the service was so sloooow - we didn't stay too long!!
Meanwhile, as we were walking - the girls were noticing all the vendors selling a ton of Katy Perry merchandise - T-shirts, hats, posters, bags, you name it! - my little one totally redeemed herself by not asking for a single souvenir, so of course, I relented and bought her a T-shirt and a hat! We still needed to find something to eat - it was finally at Paulaner's that we found french-fries, popcorn chicken, and some other finger food. By this time, we were running late, so we got the food to go and headed to the entrance - where all of it was promptly confiscated by security!! No food inside!!!
Luckily, there was a food counter inside - and although, the only food available was chicken nuggets and pepperoni pizza - at that point, anything would have been good!! We were expecting the concert to start at sharp 8pm - and it did - but it wasn't Katy Perry. The opening act was brief, just about 30 minutes - and then there was a break, a long one!! We could have had another hour to find some real food - or even eat the food we had bought from Paulaner's - if we hadn't been hurrying to get to our seats by 8! Oh well! The good thing was that the girls were in such a fever of anticipation, that they didn't even notice the crappy food!!
Finally, finally, there she was - in a blinding blaze of light - Katy Perry, and much to my delight, she launched straight into Roar - my favorite KP song (at the risk of being labelled totally uncool, I have to admit that Roar and Firework are the only KP songs I know!)! It was quite electric - and it was totally fun to see the girls singing along - Roar has been the unofficial theme song for our Dulwich Tigers team, and is special of all of us!! Our seats were actually quite decent - we would see the stage quite clearly, but my little red camera wasn't strong enough for the pictures - I really wish I had taken my Canon with the long distance lens!!
It was non-stop entertainment after that - she really is an incredible performer!! There was one awkward moment - kind of funny too - when she sang the song "I kissed a girl - and I liked it!" Our 10 year olds were bemused - fortunately, they didn't really get it, and there were no weird questions!! It wasn't all fast songs - Katy Perry also sang a couple of slow ballads, what a lovely voice!! The last song was my 2nd favorite (haha!) song - Firework - and the audience was requested to put on the special prismatic glasses - actually, not as special as they sound!! It made for some cool pictures, though!!
Manasi absolutely loved it!! She was on her feet for most of the concert - singing along, or shouting "We love you, Katy!". With her friend, AW, she had made a couple of posters, and they both tried so hard to be noticed by the audience-cam, waving those posters over their heads, jumping up and down - it was really a shame that their picture didn't go up on the big screen!! All good fun!! I was prepared for a night of deafening, head-ache inducing music, but, much to my surprise, I had a really good time!! Go Katy Perry!!!
It was quite a late night - it was after 1:30am when we got home! And part of the deal with going to the concert, that no matter what, school would not be missed the next day! And once again, Manasi came through - waking up on time to get to school - although I do suspect that the main reason to go to school was to brag about the concert!! What a night - a truly great memory from our time in China!!
The whole thing started a couple of months ago - when all of all things, Facebook suggested that the Katy Perry Prismatic tour would be an event I would be interested in. Made the mistake of mentioning it to Manasi - and her reaction was astounding - she really, really, really wanted to go. I decided to look it up - and our concert going dreams had a rude shock - the tickets were 2400rmb, over $400, per person!! I though that was that - no way I'm paying that much money for a concert - how about a CD instead, Manasi??
And then suddenly - again, thank you Facebook! - one more day in Shanghai was added to the tour - and cheaper tickets for the 2nd day seemed to be available. This was right before Spring break, and I mentioned it to a couple of friends - it would be fun to take our girls - and then we all left for vacation. So here we were in Boracay, and I get a FaceTime call from MW, who is in Thailand, with some other friends - did Manasi and I really want to go to the concert, tickets were available!! Of course, Manasi was completely over the moon!! I did say yes - as long as the price was less than 1000rmb!
1000rmb - $200!!! Still a fairly large amount, wouldn't you say? So I think I was completely justified when I almost cancelled the plan when Manasi had a hissy fit about the 1000rmb restriction. None of the other moms think so much about the money (so not true!), everyone else would get to go, and it's not fair - more in that vein!! And I'm thinking, we're in BORACAY, and I'm discussing whether or not to pay $200 to go to a concert with my sulking 10 year old daughter - talk of being spoiled, privileged, entitled??!! So even though I had already agreed to pay for the tickets - I told her we weren't going - and kept her in the dark till a night before the concert. The expression on her face when I told her we were going after all - priceless!!
We picked up the girls straight after school - TW, MW, me and 4 girls - in a van headed to the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai!! The concert didn't start till 8pm, so we were planning to get dinner before the concert. GPS showed a whole bunch of restaurants close to the arena, so made more sense to head to the venue, and then find a place to eat. Didn't quite work as smoothly - true, there are quite a few restaurants, but nothing really where we could eat with kids. We did find an Italian restaurant - a really fancy place - but the service was so sloooow - we didn't stay too long!!
Meanwhile, as we were walking - the girls were noticing all the vendors selling a ton of Katy Perry merchandise - T-shirts, hats, posters, bags, you name it! - my little one totally redeemed herself by not asking for a single souvenir, so of course, I relented and bought her a T-shirt and a hat! We still needed to find something to eat - it was finally at Paulaner's that we found french-fries, popcorn chicken, and some other finger food. By this time, we were running late, so we got the food to go and headed to the entrance - where all of it was promptly confiscated by security!! No food inside!!!
 |
| Modeling the T-shirts! |
Luckily, there was a food counter inside - and although, the only food available was chicken nuggets and pepperoni pizza - at that point, anything would have been good!! We were expecting the concert to start at sharp 8pm - and it did - but it wasn't Katy Perry. The opening act was brief, just about 30 minutes - and then there was a break, a long one!! We could have had another hour to find some real food - or even eat the food we had bought from Paulaner's - if we hadn't been hurrying to get to our seats by 8! Oh well! The good thing was that the girls were in such a fever of anticipation, that they didn't even notice the crappy food!!
 |
| Waiting... |
 |
| Inside the Mercedes Benz Arena |
Finally, finally, there she was - in a blinding blaze of light - Katy Perry, and much to my delight, she launched straight into Roar - my favorite KP song (at the risk of being labelled totally uncool, I have to admit that Roar and Firework are the only KP songs I know!)! It was quite electric - and it was totally fun to see the girls singing along - Roar has been the unofficial theme song for our Dulwich Tigers team, and is special of all of us!! Our seats were actually quite decent - we would see the stage quite clearly, but my little red camera wasn't strong enough for the pictures - I really wish I had taken my Canon with the long distance lens!!
It was non-stop entertainment after that - she really is an incredible performer!! There was one awkward moment - kind of funny too - when she sang the song "I kissed a girl - and I liked it!" Our 10 year olds were bemused - fortunately, they didn't really get it, and there were no weird questions!! It wasn't all fast songs - Katy Perry also sang a couple of slow ballads, what a lovely voice!! The last song was my 2nd favorite (haha!) song - Firework - and the audience was requested to put on the special prismatic glasses - actually, not as special as they sound!! It made for some cool pictures, though!!
Manasi absolutely loved it!! She was on her feet for most of the concert - singing along, or shouting "We love you, Katy!". With her friend, AW, she had made a couple of posters, and they both tried so hard to be noticed by the audience-cam, waving those posters over their heads, jumping up and down - it was really a shame that their picture didn't go up on the big screen!! All good fun!! I was prepared for a night of deafening, head-ache inducing music, but, much to my surprise, I had a really good time!! Go Katy Perry!!!
It was quite a late night - it was after 1:30am when we got home! And part of the deal with going to the concert, that no matter what, school would not be missed the next day! And once again, Manasi came through - waking up on time to get to school - although I do suspect that the main reason to go to school was to brag about the concert!! What a night - a truly great memory from our time in China!!
Beautifully Penned !
ReplyDeleteThank you for your positive feedback! :)
DeleteLovely narration that kept us entertained all through. The pictures were cool too!!
ReplyDeleteThanks much for reading, and leaving a comment! :-)
Delete