ABBA’s Music By Arrival From Sweden: A Sell Out @ Resort World Genting

By Anthony Tan

The ARRIVAL from Sweden

What a treat for ABBA’s fans to relive the ageless music of ABBA, which was performed by tribute band Arrival from Sweden to a packed house at the Arena of Stars in Genting Highlands on 25 and 26 December 2010. As the saying goes, nothing beats the original but if you can’t get the original, the second best will do. Arrival just proved that point.

The ageless music of ABBA cuts the generation gap

Although the ABBA stopped performing after the group split up in 1982, its music was able to break the generation gap as can be seen by the crowd who had enjoyed its music at their height in the 70s and 80s with today’s younger music lovers of the like of Lady Gaga.

I was there for the 26 December show. Being a long holiday weekend, Genting was very crowded, especially the family crowd since the year-end long school holidays are still on.
I was told by a Resort World Genting (RWG) staff that the previous night’s show was full house and some of the die-hard ABBA fans had return for another dosage of its music on the second night.

The second copy of ABBA's Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad

There are many like me who do not get tired of listening to ABBA’s songs like Eagle, Knowing Me Knowing You, Dancing Queen, Fernando and The Name of The Game. The more you listen to it, the more you get addicted to the magic of ABBA’s music, which had rocked the world since 1971. The Arena of Stars was filled up by both the young and older crowd by 8 pm. For the next 90 minutes or so, over 5,000 ABBA music fans were brought back to the nostalgia of the 70s and 80s.

Full house at the Arena of Stars the two performances

At 8.15 pm inside the amphitheatre, the crowd gave a screaming ovation when The Arrival from Sweden came on stage to perform almost non-stop, giving Tiger as the first number for the night followed by Voulez-Vous, Does Your Mother Know, Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight), Super Trouper and a medley of Kisses/Angel/Lay All, Money Money, SOS, When I Kissed The Teacher.

The opening act with "Tiger"

There was another medley of I’ve Been/ Honey Honey/ He Is Yours, the ever popular Knowing Me Knowing You, The Winner Takes It All, Happy New Year, Chiquitita, Mamma Mia, Waterloo and Take A Chance On Me before the group left the stage for a short while.

Arrival returned to give us bonus songs like The Summer Night and Thank You For The Music. The group ended the night with a very popular top of chart number, Dancing Queen, with crowd standing up, clamping their hands and swinging to the music’s tempo.

"Thank you for The Music"

I was wondering if it was the signature of their act to have Dancing Queen as the last song and to invite one of the young audiences to join them on stage. Having tracked their past performances, I noticed that they have done this lately in all their concerts.

It was a worthwhile show, especially when the tickets were affordably priced at RM100, RM70 and RM50 for an international concert in Genting, this is quite rare.

The founder of ARRIVAL from Sweden - Vicky Zetterberg

Founded in 1995 by Vicky Zetterberg (the dark hair lady performer) from Gothenburg, Arrival is the only ABBA tribute band that has the exclusive rights to the ABBA’s name, costumes and original music score from all of ABBA’s greatest hits.

This Swedish group has since toured over 40 countries and appeared in several television and radio shows worldwide. Arrival’s tribute band production, the closest you will ever get to see ABBA, is touted as the next best to the real ABBA.

A familiar pose of ABBA done by ARRIVAL

The band’s success can be attributed to its musical superiority and sheer authenticity that even the original ABBA members acknowledged their skills. It is the only group who has got unreleased ABBA songs directly from ABBA. The three songs in Spanish were released worldwide in 2009.

Arrival has the exclusive right to copy ABBA's original outfits as can be seen in all their concerts. Having enjoyed their performance, as one of the millions of ABBA fans who treasured its collection of LP records, cassette tapes, videotapes, I could not help picking up an ABBA DVD - "ABBA The Definitive Collection' that night for RM30 which was on sale.

"Wishing you all HAPPY NEW YEAR & Prosperous 2011"

ABBA’s tribute band Arrival @ Resort World Genting

By Anthony Tan

Celebrate Christmas with ABBA’s tribute band Arrival @ Resort World Genting

Resort World Genting gets ready for the Christmas and New Year season

Do you have any plans for your year-end holidays with your love ones during the Christmas and New Year season?

If you have not made any plans yet or are leaving it to the last minute, why not head for Resorts World Genting this festive season.

In conjunction with Christmas and New Year, a wide range of activities and celebrations have been lined up. They include performances by Arrival from Sweden (an ABBA tribute band), the international Diablo championship, The Glitz and Doraemon at First World Plaza (FWP).

From 19 December until 1 January, FWP’s shopping hours will be extended on Fridays, Saturdays and the eve of public holidays until 1am.

To top the list of the activities, Abba’s tribute band, Arrival from Sweden will be performing to relive the hits of ABBA this Christmas at the Arena of the Stars on 25-26 December at 8 pm.

ABBA, the Swedish pop group that took the world by storm in the 70s, continues to lure millions of young and old fans to their infectious feel-good songs through films (Muriel's Wedding, Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) and the Broadway musical and recent film hit Mama Mia!

In an interview with the Associated Press, songwriter Bjorn Ulvaeus had said that ABBA would never do a reunion tour. "Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were. That’s when we were young, exuberant, full of energy and ambitious."

ABBA's music is able to close the generation gap between the young and old as ABBA records, tapes, CDs, VCDs and DVD have sold over 350million copies to date and still keep growing.

Well, ABBA fans, that is the closest you can get. Here is your opportunity to relive the ABBA phenomenon! The Concert Arrival from Sweden is the world's foremost ABBA tribute show.

Arrival started its performances in 1995 and quickly became one of the most popular and top-selling show bands doing the ABBA gigs. Arrival has also been praised for its similarity to ABBA in terms of looks and live energy.

Be prepared to be transported back to the 70s as they recreate the appearance of the original stars who defined pop music. Authentic costumes, captivating dance numbers, impeccable harmonies all come together to create the ABBA experience live on stage.

The Concert Arrival from Sweden will be performing the chart-topping hits of ABBA, including Dancing Queen, Waterloo, Fernando, S.O.S., Mama Mia, Take a Chance on Me, The Winner Takes It All, Knowing Me, Knowing You, Ring Ring, The Name of the Game, Money Money Money and many more.

Try a sample performance of the Arrival from Sweden, tribute to ABBA band.

Tickets are priced at RM100, RM70 and RM50. Call 03-2718 1118 or log on to http://www.rwgenting.com/

It is expected to be a sold out show, get you tickets early. See you there.

George Benson to perform in Malaysia for the third time

George Benson is one of the greatest Jazz guitarist

George Benson one night performance not to be missed, heard that even the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong maybe attending the performance

Enjoy some sample selections of George Benson beautiful music

For those who know songs like “This Masquerade, 20/20, Give Me The Night, Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You, Greatest Love of All, Breezin” and “Take Five”, you are in for a treat. The 10-time Grammy Award winner George Benson will be performing a concert to be held at the Area of Stars at Genting Highland on 31 October.

Benson, one of the greatest jazz guitarists, is also an amazingly versatile musician. He can play from funky, swing, R&B to pop. He is good in the vocal as well with his career in music spinning off from 1964.

He was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, United States in 1943. From a humble beginning by age seven, Benson played the ukulele in a corner drug store for which he was paid a few dollars.

At the age of eight, he was playing guitar in an unlicensed nightclub during Friday and Saturday nights. This was short lived due to action taken against the club.

Young Benson recorded his first single record with RCA-Victor in New York called “She Makes Me Mad” at age10 and like the saying goes, “The rest is history”.

In 1976, Benson won three Grammy Awards with “This Masquerade” for record of the year, “Breezin” for Best Pop Instrumental performance and “Theme from Good King Bad” for the Best R&B Instrumental performance.

Two years later, Benson was again on the Grammy podium to receive an award for the Best Male R&B Vocal performance for “On Broadway”.

Benson scored his second hat trick at the 1980 Grammy Award by winning Best Male R&B Vocal performance with the number, “Give me the night”, which he worked closely with another music great, Quincy Jones.

He also won the Best R&B Instrumental performance for “Off Broadway” and the Best Male Jazz Vocal performance with “Moody’s Mood”.

The 1983 Grammy Award for the Best Pop Instrumental performance was won by Benson for “Being with you”.

In 2006, he clinched two more Grammy awards in the Best Pop Instrumental performance category for “Mornin’” and “God Bless the Child” in the Best Traditional R&B Vocal performance category.

At the recent teleconference interview for the media organised by Resort World Genting with him from Phoenix, Arizona, Benson took many of the questions with enthusiasm.

As this was not his first time appearing in Malaysia, he spoke of the good times he had with the Malaysian audiences and fans during his previous performances. During the short teleconference with the man himself, he spoke freely about what we can expect from the concert.

Touching base with him on a more per¬sonal level, Benson told us that his father was a singer who played several instruments while his mother was a singer who played the piano but they never did it professionally. Both his parent did not make it big but their dreams were realised through their son.

Something that not a lot of people know is that “The Greatest Love of All” was originally sung by Benson and not Whitney Houston.

“The song was recorded for the 1977 biographical film on Muhammad Ali (the greatest boxer of the 20th century), My Own Story.

“Muhammad Ali loved the song and not long after I met little Houston when she was a teen¬ager. She came up to me on the streets of New York and said, 'Mr Benson, you are my favou¬rite artiste and my favourite song is the “Greatest Love Of All” and I'm going to record that song one day' and I didn't believe her!"

"When I heard it for the first time I wondered if it was the same kid that I met downtown and it was, she did a great job. She sang it beautifully,” Benson commented.

Houston came up with her own interpretation of the song which became a top of the chart hit in the 1980s.

When asked how he felt about returning to perform in Malaysia for the two performances, he replied, “I love coming to Malaysia because the fans here love great tunes and are easy to please.”

For his concerts at the Area of Stars, Benson will be joined by five other musicians on stage, with one of them providing back-up vocals as well.

On what is in store for his performance at Genting, he said, “I will try to fit my repertoire in accordance with the mood I get from my audience. Every concert is different when I go out there and feel what the people want. As for the band, they don’t know what I want to sing because I don’t know what I want to do until I get out there on the stage.

“The classic songs will still be there because people request them all the time. But we will do a few new things we did not do the last time.”

For tickets to his concert at 8pm at the Arena of Stars, visit www.rwgenting.com or call 03-2070 492 and 09-5676997. The tickets are priced RM60, RM90, RM140, RM190 and RM250.

Engelbert Humperdinck Legacy of Love World Tour comes to Resorts World Genting, Malaysia

Pixs of Engelbert's performance @ Arena of Stars, Genting in 2005

By Anthony Tan

Evergreen ballad entertainer Engelbert Humperdinck, who recently celebrated his 74th birthday on 2 May, has made a date with Malaysians to perform at Resorts World Genting on 18-19 June as part of his of "Legacy of Love" world tour.

Born Arnold George Dorsey in 1936, Enge picked up music by playing the saxophone when he was 11 years old but gave up this musical instrument at 17.

Enge bought the first record of his idol Nat King Cole and had attributed to this great singer some influence in his singing in his early days with songs like “Too Young”.

Enge, who began his singing career in the early 1960s, has Tom Jones' manager Gordon Mills to thank for the man requested that he change his name to Englebert Humperdinck.

Enge shot to fame as a last minute replacement for Dicky Valentine when he got the chance of the life time to debut his new single on the Sunday night at Palladium in the United Kingdom (UK), the same English TV show that helped launch the Beatles in 1963.

Enge, with his distinctive side-burn, became an overnight sensation. The superstar and global sex symbol’s signature biggest ever hit, Release Me, spent 56 weeks in the Top 50 chart.

The Beatles' hit, Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane, was famously kept off as number one on the chart when Enge’s song, Release Me was heard worldwide on the radio channels.

Gordon signed Enge with Decca Records in 1967 with hits like Release Me, A Man Without Love, The Last Waltz, There Goes My Everything, Quando Quando, Spanish Eyes, A Place in The Sun, Am I That Easy To Forget, The Way It Used To Be and Take My Heart to name a few.

Enge parted with Gordon in 1976 when he felt Gordon was giving Tom Jones priority over the selection of songs and they were competing.

His many wonderful hits that took the world by storm for the past four decades, resulting in 24 Platinum and 64 Gold albums added to his achievement.

Also known as the “King of Romance”, Enge now lives in Los Angeles but still maintains a house in Leicester, England when he goes back to the UK annually.

Enge, who last performed at the Arena of Stars, Resorts World Genting in June 2005, serenaded to about 5,000 fans who kept asking for more at the finale.

He had also performed “An Evening with Engelbert Humperdinck” at Shangri-La Hotel Kuala Lumpur in December 2004.

Now at 74, his voice is still power packed as when he started some four decades ago. He keeps himself fit with a lot exercise.

“I don’t act my age on stage. I’m very agile and athletic and I dance on stage. I will keep performing as long as I can. I still need to be on stage, it is my life blood." Enge said during a tele-interviewed at Wisma Genting recently with the press.

At this year’s performance at the Arena of Stars, he will be accompanied by a 10-piece band on stage. He said he will belt out with a mixed of his evergreen numbers and lot of good and fast moving songs that will appeal to his fans of all ages.

With millions of fans all over the world and having sold over 150 million albums since the start of his career, it is of no surprise that every performance of his latest world tour is a sell-out even in Moscow early this year.

Enge’s performances are not to be missed, especially for Malaysians who will have the chance to catch an international class act at their door step.

I grew up listening to his songs as my uncles and aunties used to play his records over and over again when I was a kid. After such bombardment almost daily with so many of Enge’s hits, I could sing most of his original songs with ease.

I attended his 2005 performance and I am not going to miss this one. If you are an avid Enge’s fan, I don’t think you are going to give it a miss either.

If you have not made your reservation for Engelbert Humperdinck’s 2010 Legacy of Love World Tour, you can do so online at www.genting.com.my

Meanwhile, I recommend that you visit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ben5-pLiqeE&feature=related
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxF9NFLzCLo&NR=1
before he returns to Malaysia for his concert in 10 day’s time.

Resort World Genting kicks off FIFA World Cup 2010

Maxim Genting Hotel the icon of Resort World Genting (RWG)

The "Red" Legend Liverpool FC Ian Rush will be at RWG boost up the football fever

The official launch of Game On At Genting 2010 on 16 March at RWG

From left to right: The Mascot, Angel, Kevin Sim, Dato' Lee Choong Yan, Ian Rush

2 KIA Forte to be won!

By Anthony Tan

With THREE MORE DAYS TO GO-AL, Genting, the city of entertainment is all geared for the football fever.

The buzz word for many people for the next one month will be all about the FIFA World Cup.

People are going to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner and talk all about football and sleep (talk) about football.

Ladies and Gentleman, It’s Showtime! the football fever has returns after four years, many football fans are going to have sleepy eyes in their work place and some may even take the easy way out by taking medical leave.

As many of us will not be able to make it to South Africa to watch the game live, the next best place to be for Malaysians to be near to the FIFA World Cup festivities is the Football Fever - Game On at Genting 2010.

Resorts World Genting (RWG) is organising a host of activities and promotions to make its venue the next best place to be after South Africa.

Besides slot machines and the usual casino card games like Blackjack, football-theme games for the whole family will be taking over.

At Universal Walk, First World Plaza, a newly set up Football World is hosting interactive games from 1 June to July 11. Other activities on the card include target football, test your skills on the Football Bungee Run, Power Save and Radar Speed Cage.

To add more kicks out of the Football World, RWG has engaged Ian Rush of the “Reds” Liverpool English football club legend and commentator Angel Wong Chui Ling.

They will run live commentary and discussions to spice up on the match being played via live telecast with large plasma screen TVs placed all around the resort to ensure that you will not miss a single moment of the exciting football matches while up the Resort.

There is chance for those up at Genting to team up with Ian Rush in the special football sessions and lay claim to having played football with an English Reds Liverpool football legend.

If you are not a Genting WorldCard member yet, this is the right time to sign up as one. The registration is a simple process. What more, it’s FREE!

One of the highlights for Genting WorldCard members is the Genting Viewing Parties for all the 64 matches, which will be held at Genting International Showroom.

Other Genting-owned outlets such as All Sports Bar, Pizza Factory and The Patio Bar & Lounge will also have football fever promotions with games where you and your football buddies can enjoy a drink or two at promotional prices while you watch the live telecast match.

As the excitement builds up for the football fever, RWG’s preparations include Genting Viewing Parties’ gathering for fourth and third placing matches as well as the final match where you can watch the live telecast on the biggest screen ever in order to give you the football stadium feel and experience. All this is happening at the Arena of Stars Amphitheatre.

Among the line-ups to support for the last two matches, stage performances and games with prizes will be add-ons to make this football season a more exciting one.