Tan Yng Jich | Aug 2000

Even though her showcase started only at 8pm, throngs of Mandy Moore's fans were gathered in front of the stage at Sparks. Majority of the male population in Singapore was there to watch Mandy perform tracks from her album; "I Wanna Be With You".

After a pretty short wait, at 8pm, the teenage songstress appeared, (looking like a certain teenage diva's cover album) with her curled-up hair and tight fitting, "rock-chick" inspired clothes coupled with (what else?) a pair of strappy heels. Mandy began her performance with the crowd's favourite, "I Wanna Be With You". Looking into the crowd with a "come-hither" look, Mandy's breathy rendition of the track had many of the 15-20 year-old crowd drooling, especially more so when she ran her fingers through her hair (which I realized, was one of her favourite moves for the night) and pouted.

Four male dancers (looking uncannily like N'Sync, with curly hair and dyed red hair) appeared next and danced together with Mandy while she sang "So Real", taken off her debut album of the same name. Working her way through her dancers as well as the microphone stand, Mandy rose screams amongst the crowd as she displayed well-rehearsed dance moves that had her sitting on her dancers at one point.

Taking a break from all the vigorous dancing, Mandy had the chance to introduce the N'Sync lookalike dancers of hers. Launching into "Let Me Be The One Tonight", Mandy had the chance to do more pouting as well as fingering of her nicely curled hair, resulting in a windswept look. Though she rarely interacted with the crowd, Mandy had the occasional smile or grin for them. Of course the fans lapped it up willingly, after all, it was her that they were there to see!

Then, it was on to her last song for the night, as Mandy sang another crowd fave, "Candy". A remix version of the original hit, Mandy sang and danced to the cheers of the predominately male crowd. More pouts and more tousling of her hair later, Mandy ended her showcase at Sparks. Despite the valiant shouts of "Encore" from the audience, Mandy could only stand at the side of the stage and sweetly tell everyone that even though she would love to perform more, she is not able to. Mandy promised that she would definitely be back again for sure. Let's hope that she does include Singapore in her next trip to Asia!