Just So You Know: Jesse McCartney finally ended local fans’ long wait and held his first concert in Singapore
SINGAPORE — Though his number one hit ‘Beautiful Soul’ was released 15 years ago, this is Jesse McCartney’s first time in Singapore. Feel old yet?
The soulful crooner was in town to perform at the Gateway Theatre on 14th July for the Singapore leg of his Resolution World Tour. Before his Singapore stop, he was in Vietnam and the Philippines where he played to sold-out crowds.
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Many people know him as that ‘Beautiful Soul’ singer, the heartfelt ballad that catapulted him to fame back in 2004. He had garnered a massive following of mostly teenage fangirls back then. These fans have since grown up with him over the years and still refer to him affectionately as the childhood sweetheart that they wanted to marry. Beyond the boyish smile and poster boy good looks, he writes his own songs, a fact which not many know about. He co-wrote ‘Bleeding Love’, the chart-topping Leona Lewis hit, with Ryan Tedder of One Republic. He also gave us catchy and head-bopping hits such as ‘Right Where You Want Me’, ‘How Do You Sleep?’, ‘Body Language’, ‘Leavin’ and ‘Shake’.
He kickstarted his hour-long concert with ‘She’s No You’, the other popular hit from the Beautiful Soul album and followed up with ‘Leavin’ and ‘How Do You Sleep?’ as well as other smashing hits from his second and third albums.
Throughout the night, he got the audience on their feet with his enthusiasm and our adrenaline pumping to the fast beats of his songs. The audience, mostly in the late 20s and early 30s, sang to every word of his songs with gusto and passion.
His guitarist, Dory Lobel, has been performing with him since he was 16 years old. Jesse then mentioned that one of the very first songs that they wrote together was ‘Just So You Know’, and he proceeded to perform an acoustic version of it.
A lucky fan was serenaded with his cover of Robin Thicke’s ‘The Stupid Things’ which was one of the songs on his first album. He also performed two unreleased singles, ‘Soul’ and ‘Selfless’, while he sang and played the electronic piano. ‘Soul’ is one of the new songs he wrote last year.
He ended the concert with the mandatory ‘Beautiful Soul’, reminding each and every one of us how far we have come along and grown on this journey with Jesse.
Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore sat down with the 32-year-old singer the day after his concert to know more about the song writing he has been doing, what we can anticipate for his next album as well as what he likes about Singapore so far.
Any diehard fan would know that he took a hiatus to rediscover himself, therefore he did not release music for a few years. On his latest songs ‘Better With You’ and ‘Wasted’ having a more mature sound to them, he said that for his next record, it would be “very personal” and he would be focusing more on storytelling and his personal experiences in the last 5 years or so.
We also chatted with him about how it feels to meet a fan who has followed him since ‘Beautiful Soul’ days.
On his favourite food in Singapore, he raved about laksa and “a dessert I just had recently it was so good but I can't remember the name of it”.
“Lots of coconut cream. It was delicious.”
We are thinking it could be chendol.
He also expressed that Singapore “might be my favourite place in South East Asia that I have been” and he “can’t wait to come back”.
We are definitely ready to welcome Jesse back to our sunny island anytime.
See more photos from his concert below.
