Pinoy Twitter fans made Avicii come to Manila

It ranked one notch lower than “Merry Christmas,” but higher than our very own President PNoy. I’m talking about trending on Twitter.  These days, who or what is trending on the social media site has become the scene’s de facto buzz barometer.

The day Avicii was set to come to Manila, dance music lovers all over our 7,107 islands rejoiced like there was no tomorrow. Yes, to borrow Avicii’s hit, it was another “level” indeed. And so when word broke out that he was experiencing severe fever and could not make it to his Manila gig, a lot of people hoping to see their music god were crushed. I personally know of people who flew in from the other side of the world just to see him spin on our shores. 

I never knew the scope of Tim Bergling aka Avicii’s influence until I saw people changing their BBM and Facebook statuses in reaction to his Manila gig’s postponement. After I told her that the gig was not pushing that night, designer Charina Sarte, one of his biggest fans, told me, “Don’t joke like that. This is no laughing matter.” But I was serious. He was bed-ridden and was advised by his doctors not to travel.

A force on Twitter tweeted, “Let’s show Avicii some love. Let’s all tell him to get well soon, so he can come here soon!” While people were tweeting, the folks at Republiq, led by Kimberly Yao, were frantically making phone calls, discussing new dates, booking new flights, talking to hotels, and liaising with Avicii’s team. They had an entire tour to finish. Manila was just one leg within their tour. The following day, Avicii woke up and said, “I still don’t think I can make it.” Despite the night’s rest, he still felt sick.

And then a miracle happened. Avicii logged onto Twitter and saw hundreds of messages from Filipino fans urging him to get well so he could play his music in our side of the world. “I was deeply touched. I rarely cancel out on gigs, but I had no choice but to rest. But when I saw all the messages on Twitter, I melted.” He and his team then booked a flight to Manila, got here that same night and made local dance music history.

The Good News

There was a frenzy among the folks here upon hearing the good news that Avicii aka Tim Bergling was flying in. Not one hour passed without lines going off the hook and Republiq was booked solid, from tables to tickets, the venue was fully sold out.

Avicii more than made up for initially cancelling the Manila leg of his tour by playing a two-hour encore at Republiq!

He felt the love immediately when he went up onstage. If there is one thing Filipinos can do well, it’s in showing how much we love our artists. “Second to Zouk, this is the best in our tour,” said Rob, Avicii’s manager, who was right beside him all throughout the set. After a few minutes, he looks at me and says, “Okay, I have to admit: the energy of Manila is even way better than Zouk Out!”  

Another 30 or so minutes, Rob comes up and tells me, “Second to Sydney, this place has the best energy ever! Then again, that was 65,000 people.” And then another few minutes passed and Team Avicii exclaimed, “We have to admit, this is the best leg of our tour!” Avicii was having so much fun that he even extended his set to two more hours! Imagine having a two-hour encore. It was that much fun for him as it was for the punters present at the club, a mishmash of clubbers, mostly young, some even younger than Tim Bergling himself, who, at 22 is already acclaimed as one of the best in the world.

Despite his superstar status, Tim remains humble and unaffected. His passion oozes from his aura. You can see that he really loves what he’s doing and where he’s at. “Looking forward to coming back,” said Avicii. And so are we.

Before we bid him goodbye (he was off to New Delhi for the next leg of his Asian tour), I was intrigued by a cliffhanger I got from Team Avicii. It was something about the fact that what made Tiesto big was his participation in the Olympics.

Apparently, Avicii is doing something that is even bigger. What it is, we can only guess. But right now, you’re sure it is set to take him to higher... levels.

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Let me know what you think of Avicii and the night he played Manila! Tweet your thoughts to me at twitter.com/officialTIMYAP.