Michael Bolton
Update: May 2010

Two Grammy Awards, 18 studio albums, and thousands of fans throughout the world, Michael Bolton has not yet called it a quit when it comes to making hits in the music industry. Last year saw the 56-year-old singer-songwriter gathered all his expressions of love to produce a new album entitled “One World One Love”. His recent tour in celebrating the album has then not only revoked good memories of the 1990s—for the fans who enjoyed eye-candy Bolton as a sex symbol—but also proved how this talented musician still knows how to work his vocal charms. His solo concert in Jakarta on May 17 was a real testament to these.

On the press conference earlier that day, Michael Bolton had to call it absent. Tommy Pratama, Managing Director of Original Production, mentioned that the singer was preparing his stamina to wow the concert audience later that evening. Having brought in international legends to perform in the country before—including Toto, Air Supply, and Bee Gees—Pratama was optimistic that Bolton could surely manage to attract myriads of fans. Despite the tickets were priced slightly over the usual rate, each at minimally IDR750,000 to VVIP class of IDR5,000,000, a total close to 2,000 fans were anxious to see Bolton performing live.

Pratama had also picked the right partner to ensure the concert sounded nothing less than excellence. Jakarta-based Sumber Ria was chosen due to both exhaustive pro audio sets and recommendable service. On this Eko Edi Suiato, Sound Supervisor of Sumber Ria, shared a comment, “We used to work together in the past for previous performances, and now we are happy to collaborate again!” The setups on the concert venue of Ritz-Carlton Hotel’s Ballroom enlisted the main PA of six EAW KF760s and a pair of KF761s per side. With mixing console Yamaha PM5D, Sumber Ria was confident that the concert would sound flawless. Several Meyersound MJF 212 monitor speakers were also visible on the stage.

A total of 20 songs were sung by Michael Bolton during the two-hour concert. His greatest hits like “To Love Somebody”, “When a Man Loves a Woman”, and “Said I Love You but I Lied” seemed to hypnotize the audience completely that night. Despite that it was his first time performing in the country, Bolton had no problems in showing it all off. His voice sounded magnificent, nothing much changed from his glorious era of the 1990s. Such strong and solid vocal quality was transparently audible through the FOH speakers. Additionally, Bolton was looking very energetic, actively interacting with the audience and even sometimes prancing onstage while voicing the lyrics. The song “Georgia on My Mind” summed up Bolton’s solo performance. And the audience was looking very pleased to have some of the most wonderful ballads of all time delivered by the real legend himself.

All in all, the performance was a major success. No glitch disrupt any songs, and the fans admitted that the ticket price was worth the show. After Jakarta, Michael Bolton’s “One World One Love” tour continued to Australia, Japan, and China.

www.sumber-ria.com