Music concert events gateway to revive Malaysian tourism industry

KUALA LUMPUR: Music tourism has now become a massive phenomenon around the world and Malaysia is slowly resuming this tourism product to revive the industry as the country moves to the endemic phase.

Downtown of Kuala Lumpur is the hub for many international music concerts this year especially from India, which include famous South Indian singer and music composer Anirudh Ravichander; Tamil music's prolific singer, songwriter and composer Yuvanshankar Raja; Indian playback singer Sid Sriram and the sensational singer Pradeep Rangaswamy Kumar.

Tourism Malaysia senior director (Strategic Planning Division) Syed Yahya Syed Othman said entertainment especially concerts are among the elements to promote Malaysia's tourism after two years hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020.

"Thus, Tourism Malaysia is supporting all concerts, local and foreign, being held here because the artistes will bring along their followers to Malaysia. So far we have four artistes from India.

"For example, for the upcoming 'Anirudh's Once Upon A Time' music tour, on Sept 17 itself, we will receive three to four charter flights from India and Singapore. We have received concert applications from Indonesian and Korean artistes too," he told Bernama recently.

Anirudh's concert will be the first 'glow in the dark' concert ever done by an Indian artiste in Malaysia where all attendees will be given programmable LED wristbands designed to create a stunning light show during the event to further enhance the concert experience.

Anirudh said the concert to be held at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil has been themed such, taking inspiration from British rock band Coldplay's previous performances.

"It is not very viable for Indian concerts but I want to give the Tamil music scene a try and my thanks to Tourism Malaysia and MC Entertainment for helping to make it happen now," the 31-year-old music composer said.

Meanwhile, the organiser for 'Naan Pradeep Kumar' concert, Aakar Foundation's Trustee Mathavan Muniandy, said around 6,000 tickets were sold for the two-day concert on July 23 and 24 at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) Plenary Hall.

He said the response to the concert by the 36-year-old singer had been overwhelming which pushed the organiser to extend the concert for another day as initially it was planned to be a one-day show.

"This concert is to revive the local tourism and also to provide opportunities to people in the local entertainment sector to bounce back after pandemic. Thanks to Tourism Malaysia for supporting, " he added.

Pradeep's first step into singing was through the 2010 Tamil movie 'Enthiran' in which he sang the tunes of the soundtrack composed by A R Rahman. He also collaborated with music composer Santhosh Narayaan in the movies Attakathi and Pizza in 2013.

On the other hand, Yuvanshankar Raja, the younger son of musician Ilaiyaraaja was delighted with the response to the two-day concert held last weekend (July 16 and 17) at the Axiata Arena and thanked all Malaysian fans.

"I was overwhelmed. #Yuvan25 KL will forever be special.Thank you for the love. You guys are awesome! I love you all," the composer tweeted in acknowledging the warm response he received from fans during the concert.

It was reported that tickets for veteran Indonesian rock band Dewa concert, which will be held on Sept 9 and 10 at Axiata Arena were also sold out within an hour of release, while Sid Sriram Live in KL 2022 's tickets were sold out for the first day (Aug 20) and after the organiser pushed for a second show (Aug 21) that too was a sell-out.

Tamil veteran music director who has composed over 8,500 songs, Maestro Ilaiyaraaja; Academy Award winning singer AR Rahman and Bollywood superstar Salman Khan are also scheduled to perform in Malaysia this year.

-- BERNAMA