Then We Grew Up
We were kids in love, and then we grew up.
So goes Kygo’s song, Kids In Love. Having recently received my ElderShield insurance documents in the mail, I was feeling rather cantankerous. Although it’s a rite of passage for all Singaporeans in the twilight of their thirties, it’s a rude shock nonetheless. I mean, do I need to be shielded from being elderly? Really? Old Mama Jade here feels the government should either rename this national scheme or include a birthday card & bottle of whisky to be polite. Or tickets to Kygo to prove we can rock a concert, not just a chair, as we get older.
Pearls of wisdom
Yesterday I was super excited to catch the last leg of Kygo’s Kids In Love Tour. The Norwegian DJ had been all over Asia and this would be the grand finale. Unfortunately, although I had a cool outfit all lined up, I had too many Mama duties and ran out of time. Consequently, I showed up in the same comfy clothes I had worn since the morning school drop-offs, including pearls & flat Tod’s. Oh, I even bought a souvenir sweater in case I got arthritic inside the cold stadium. There you go, older & wiser. Try to picture me saying that with an Eeyore voice.
Cool cats & early birds
Thankfully my friends are quite cool so hopefully some’ll rub off on me. I ran into said cool friends outside the Singapore Indoor Stadium. They opted to stay out a bit as Kygo was only coming on a couple of hours later. However, this old Mama figured, it would be such great value to go in for the opening act too! And so my date, a fellow mama whose daughter goes to kindergarten with mine, and I flew in super early.
As it turns out, we got lucky because we managed to get all the way to the front for an unobstructed view. Furthermore, the opening act was the excellent Frank Walker.
Kids In Love Tour
Kygo
By the time Kygo came onstage, thousands & thousands of fans had packed the indoor stadium. Fortunately these two sensible mamas had secured our positions, happily smooshed up against the front railing. We were quite pleased when Kygo played remakes of songs like Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody, mainly because, these were songs from our era and we knew the lyrics by heart. Now, the teenagers around us were quite delighted by tunes from other DJ’s like Khalid’s Young Dumb & Broke. Thankfully I remembered that from my 19 year old’s playlist so I wasn’t completely left out.
But my favorite Kygo moments were when he played his own tropical house tunes including Kids In Love.
Sandro Cavazzo
I wasn’t expecting Sandro Cavazzo, who wrote Happy Now with Kygo, to be here for a live performance but here he was. The boys did so well! I feel like writing their Mamas a note to congratulate them!
Subsequently Sandro came back during the encore to pay tribute to Tim Bergling, known to us as DJ Avicii, who had committed suicide in April. Melancholy & The Infinite Sadness fill more people around us than we realise. Last night was the memorial in Stockholm and he was sad he couldn’t be home for it. He asked us if we could pay tribute from Singapore and the crowd roared our support. We sang along as he performed Without You, which they had co-written, our voices swelling when his ebbed with emotion.
Justin Jesso
Also sharing the stage was Justin Jesso, from Chicago, featured vocalist on Kygo’s platinum record Stargazing. At the finale, he performed an extended version of Kygo’s Firestone, showing amazing range from nuanced to powerhouse.
As Justin Jesso varied his vocal style, so did Kygo, from lyrical pianist to full blast tropical house. What a team! Once again, I felt an inexplicable maternal urge to give them Great Job stickers and compliment their mamas.
Sorry, Mama’s Gotta Go To Work
After the concert within the LivMo Private area, my Ultimate Kygo Experience package included a private end-of-tour party at Lavo that would last until 4am. The photos my friend sent of Kygo & Sandro spoke of an incredible LivMo experience http://www.GoLivMo.com. Unfortunately, my Kids In Love tour had ended too. You see, I had my own party that would last until 9am: night shift at the paediatric emergency department. Well, at least I had a cool accessory for the night, my Kygo concert wristband! Not to mention, awesome memories of a pyrotechnic & confetti-filled show with such strong performers. Kygo, Sandro & Justin, it ain’t just the kids in love with your music, you’ve got at least two more mamas as fans now.
