Last March 5, we were lucky to experience the incredible talent of Christina Perri Live in Manila. She’s the singer-songwriter behind one of my favorite soundtracks of all time, “A Thousand Years”, but I had no idea how powerful her voice was until I saw her live in concert at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The lights dimmed as Christina walked on stage. The 28 year old singer has been on the music scene internationally since premiering her breakthrough hit, “Jar of Hearts” on So You Think You Can Dance. She greeted the audience with her big smile before singing “Trust” and then immediately followed by “Shot Me in the Heart”. She was very entertaining not only with her amazing voice, but by her inspiring stories and perky dance moves around on stage.

She took the time to actually have conversations with her audience and even said “My heart is exploding right now… salamat”.

She continued with fan-favorite pop songs and some ballads from her debut album, Lovestrong and from her latest release, Head or Heart. Perri performed “Distance”, “Burning Gold” and also “The Words”. She sat at her piano for a strong and powerful song “Human”. Another area that I like from Christina is she loves to share meanings and origins of the songs, it’s so obvious that she wants to make her fans feel like friends and that she’s an open book and you just need to feel the meaning of her songs.

When her guitarist played the first few chords we knew that it would be the soundtrack from Twilight saga. She really put up a flawless delivery for this song. Everyone was on their feet and singing along. I can say that was the best moment of the night.

We saw an energetic and fun Christina in Manila. Her performance displayed throughout the 90-minute show was very heartfelt. Utilizing every free minute in between songs to interact with her fans, she seemed genuinely excited to play for us. She was so engaging with the audience, I feel like I know her now!

The surprising moment of the show was when she played Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud”, of course as one of the most popular songs today everyone cheered up and joined Christina.

As the band wrapped up and began to leave the stage, Christina included, the audience asked for more. It continued until the band came up for an encore, where Perri and the fans sang together one of her biggest hit, “Jar of Hearts” and finally closed the show with “I Don’t Wanna Break”.

Overall, it was an amazing concert experience to see one of the best international female vocalists in Manila. Her down to earth personality and honest performance proved that she can go far in this industry and I look forward that she will put up more heartfelt songs like no other.

Special Thanks to Midas Promotions

By Gail Sabas

Christina Perri Live in Manila Setlist
Trust
Shot Me in the Heart
Run
Distance
Burning Gold
The Words
Butterfly
Arms
Lonely Child
A Thousand Years
A Sky Full of Stars
One Night
Be My Forever
I Believe
Thinking Out Loud
Penguin
Jar of Hearts
I Don't Wanna Break