A.R. Rahman thrills 25k fans with '90s hits

Indian music maestro belts out both current and fan favourite Hindi and Tamil songs at the National Stadium

- Fatimah Mujibah

GREATEST HITS OF A.R. RAHMAN, A RAHMAN RHAPSODY LIVE IN SINGAPORE National Stadium Aug 31 Old is indeed gold. Those were the sentiments shared by the 25,000strong crowd at A.R. Rahman's Aug 31 concert as he performed his oldschool Tamil greatest hits from the '90s.

Back in Singapore for the fourth time, the prolific 57-year-old Indian music maestro brought out the big guns with a medley of both current and classic Hindi and Tamil songs at the National Stadium.

The Republic is famously the first country Rahman travelled to outside of India in the mid-1980s, and he last performed here at smaller venues Gardens by the Bay in 2014, Singapore Indoor Stadium in 2005 and Marina Bay Sands in 2011.

While waiting for the gig to start, local radio deejay Joakim Gomez and actor Jay Nesh kept the audience engaged. Former Singapore president Halimah Yacob was spotted in the front row with her husband.

Gomez and Nesh led the crowd which were divided into two teams named after Rahman's hit songs Mukkala Mukkabala (1994) and Urvasi Urvasi (1994) - in the Kallang wave, before introducing the opening act, local musician Shabir Sulthan.

Rahman's entry was then teased by a series of visuals, including of concerts held in other countries the latest being in Kuala Lumpur on July 27 before the celebrated composer-musician-singer took the stage at around 7.30pm.