Shahidah SayadiThe night really began at 2am, when Pakistani American songstress Nadia Ali made her debut appearance in a 30-minute showcase at Zouk Singapore on Oct 26.
We were the first Asian stop of her Queen of Clubs tour, as the 32-year old had earlier stopped by various clubs and bars in Las Vegas, Switzerland, New York and California.
It was a wonder she could squeeze a performance in at Zouk into her already tight schedule: she headed to Taipei right after her set at Zouk.
Nadia Ali’s tour got its name from her Queen of Clubstrilogy, which boasted remixes by renowned DJs and music producers in the Electronic, Club/Dance and Progressive House music scene like Sultan and Ned Sheppard, Tocadisco, Starkillers and Chris Reece.
What started off like a typical Friday night with resident DJs Formative and Hong turned out to be so much more. When Nadia Ali finally appeared onstage after four hours since the party started, dressed in a silver glittery strapless bodice asymmetric ball gown, the crowd of about 100 went wild, ready to kick the party up a notch.
She shared her excitement with the audience saying how it was still early, albeit it already being 2 am, and that the night was just about to begin.
True to her words, Nadia Ali worked the stage and was completely in her element as she sang, danced and pranced with her 2 male dancers, commanding every inch of the stage. She kicked off her set with her melodious vocals crooning “Crash and Burn”, the first single off her first solo album, Embers.
The audience’s response to her performance was electric: the fist-pumping, boogeying and enthused singing along were proof enough of this.
At one point, she pointed her microphone at the audience and urged them to sing with her and put their hands in the air.
Nadia Ali’s performance certainly converted at least a few, including 21-year-old Evelyn Yap, student, who’d never heard of the singer until the showcase itself.
“I was here as part of my TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday) ritual and was pleasantly surprised by how amazing Nadia Ali’s performance was! Her vocals are amazing, and paired with the Electronic beat, it sends you over the edge,” Yap said.
Nadia Ali performed more numbers from her Queen of Clubs Trilogy including the body-swaying “Kiss You” and “Feels So Good”, the latter a collaboration with Armin van Buuren in 2010 and also a hot dance track that’s widely played in the “Armin-Only” tour which sees tens of thousands of fans gather on a nightly basis.
In her decade-long career, Nadia Ali has had a long list of chart toppers to her name, including “At The End”, “Fantasy” and the hit single that jumpstarted her career back in 2001, “Rapture”.
In December 2010, Nadia Ali was nominated for her first Grammy in the Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical category for “Fantasy (Morgan Page Remix)”, one of the tracks of her Queen of Clubs Trilogy:Ruby edition.
What her performance lacked in length – seeing as it was only a half-hour showcase – was made up for by the energy of the crowd and singer herself.
Izuanto Misdi, 23, a fan since Nadia Ali first released her solo album, had his dream realised when he finally watched her ‘live’.
“The performance was a little short, but I hope she’ll perform in Singapore again, maybe even for a longer duration,” he said.