United they rock
THEY were united and show-ed that they were not afraid to ‘Gegar’ (rock) the Penang International Sports Arena (PISA) with their enthusiastic songs.
More than 5,000 students from 14 universities turned up for the star-studded concert during the finale of the Gegar U! Colours of Our Nation – A Symbol of Unity programme – held on Saturday night.
The event, which was telecast live in Brunei and Malaysia via ASTRO, had an impressive line up of stars to thrill the audience.
Even before the start of the concert, the students were enthusiastically beating their blue Celcom cylinder balloons and performing Mexican waves while cheering their teams.
The students dressed in black Gegar U! T-shirts, proved to be a ‘sporting’ audience.
 |
|
Building up unity:Varsity students turn up at Penang International Sports Arena for Gegar U!programme. |
 |
|
Keep it up:Abdullah presenting a mock cheque for RM5,000 to a representative of Universiti Utara Malaysia for winning the ‘Pictures of Unity’ competition.With them are Jeanne(third right),Nori(right),Dr Koh and Jahara. |
 |
|
Star of the night:Siti Nurhaliza and her backup singers entertaining the crowd. |
The event, which was mainly hosted by Linda Onn and Aznil Nawawi, had the crowd screaming and cheering at their favourite stars.
The concert had pop, rock, ballads, traditional songs, nasyid and even a monologue. Songs in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese and Tamil were sung to reflect the message of the programme, which is ‘A symbol of Unity’.
Akademi Fantasia 2 winner Zahid thrilled the crowd with his nifty moves when he belted out Justin Timberlake’s ‘My Love’ and ‘Sexy Back’.
Audience were brought back to the a-go-go era by Akademi Fantasia 5 student Shawal when he sang ‘Kenangku’ and ‘Oh Fatima’.
Male dancers in chequered pants and sweater and female dancers with bee hive hair-dos provided the nostalgic feel during his performance.
Newly crowned Astro Talent Quest 07 winner Zax performed a Mandarin song ‘I understand’ while Vimal sang a Tamil song.
During Fauziah Nawi’s monologue, the concert veered to a different mood. Nevertheless, she earned a thunderous applause from the audience when she capped the end of the performance with a soulful rendition of a song with Lia.
Meanwhile, local band Estrange had the crowd singing along with them during the rendition of their hit ‘Itu Kamu’.
But the star that stole the show that night was Datuk Siti Nurhaliza who was dressed smartly in a dark grey pantsuit and scarf.
She sang ‘Hidup Penuh Bicara’ and briefly disappeared before coming back to stage to sing the finale ‘Warna-warna Malaysiaku’ with all the artistes who performed that night.
The finale had everyone on their feet and waving a mini Jalur Ge-milang.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who closed the event, his wife Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah, Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, Yayasan Budi Penyayang Malaysia chairman Nori Abdullah, Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed, Minister in the Prime Minister’s department Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili and Penang executive councillor Datuk Jahara Hamid, who was the chairman of the coordinating committee, also stood up and waved their mini Jalur Gemilang to beat of the song.
Winners of the Gegar U! Unity in Music band competition also performed during the concert.
The two-week-old band from Universiti Sabah Malaysia (UMS) won RM16,000 for their first time effort.
Band leader Moses De Silva, 24, said they did not expect to win as they were only set up two weeks before the competition.
“We came, we played, we won and we don’t know what we are going do (after this),” jested Moses.
He said half the money would go to the university while the remaining RM8,000 will be split among the five members.
The event was organised by Yayasan Budi Penyayang and the Higher Education Ministry, and sponsored by International College of Music (ICOM).
It was held in conjunction with the country’s 50 years of nationhood.
The Star, RTM and Utusan Malaysia were among the official media partners for the three-day event.
source: The Star online
