Speak Now Tour. Feb. 19, 2011. Araneta Coliseum

I woke up yesterday morning still feeling groggy from the previous night's mall show with three awesome bands: never shout never, The Maine and WEtheKings at Greenbelt 5. With my voice still not fully recovered from all the shouting and with both my knees still painful from the long hours of standing up, I told myself there is no way I will back out now.

So I woke up and went on the computer, still hesitant if I should start doing my show chores and decided to watch Smallville's latest episode. Simultaneously, I was checking updates on online forums and on twitter for tonight's event. My hopes were dampened when I found out a long line was already formed at the entrance of Araneta even before I woke up so I decided that there's no use in rushing since I'll basically have bad seats anyway.

I went with my mom to Makati and rode the MRT going to Araneta. I arrived at around 3PM. As expected, the lines were already in a twisted snake like formation and I decided I'll go eat at Gateway first and hang out cause I can't compete with the other die hard fans and sit for hours.

I grabbed some snacks at Wendy's, tried to find people I know but was unfortunate, had a hard time looking for free toilets( I wonder why there's a lot of pay toilets even in Farmer's Plaza!), strolled at different stores repeatedly until I decided to fall in line at around 5:15PM. The line got even longer and it was up to the streets so I had to line up. The gates opened earlier than usual and it took me at least 45 minutes before I got to enter because of the rowdy crowd and a bunch of people cutting lines which the security didn't handle well.

I rushed as soon as I entered the place and got disappointed when most of the seats were already taken. I settled for a seat at the extreme left of the stage,almost at the back, but good enough to see the performer, the only minus factor is the fact that we can see what's going on behind the curtains so there is no surprise factor and we can't see what actually is on the screen so we have to look at the hanging small screens at the middle.

There was abouit an hour or 2 to kill. Good thing I brought my iPod so I listened to music,watched some videos and played some games as the place slowly got congested with loud and wild Taylor fans. My uncle texted me and informed me they were in the general admission area and offered to give me a ride home which made me glad that I don't have to face the fear of riding the bus home. As 8PM struck, the lights went out and the lights from the lightsticks glowed heavily and deafening sounds of screams and flashes of the cameras filled the stadium.

Sam Concepcion emerged from the curtain and started the show with a cover of Chris Brown's Yeah3X. He was joined with dancers in most of the numbers. He also performed Kung Fu Fighting, Even If and Katy Perry's Firework. I have to admit, that even though I'm not a fan, he was quite good and had good dancing skills. Not to mention he was wearing cool shoes.

The crowd was very energetic and continued chanting Taylor's name even after he left. Everybody was expecting that Taylor will come out soon after Sam's performance but we had to wait approximately 45 minutes before she started. During the break, several celebrities such as Kris Aquino, Vice Ganda, Raymond Gutierrez, Solenn Heussaff, Sam Milby,Kim Chiu,Ruffa Gutierrez among others, started to appear and the crowd goes wild, leaving some fans believe Taylor has already appeared. The crowd was still noisy, as if they weren't tired from waiting outside the stadium.

Finally, the time has come. A short introduction appeared on stage as I prepared my camera ready to take some pictures.

The curtains started to raise as the tune of Sparks Fly blasted on the speakers and wails and screams got louder! Taylor appeared standing on top of the stage which was designed to have two floors and the bottom stage has a T-shaped mini stage extended in front to go nearer to the fans, with a moshpit beside it. She wore a shiny gold dress which she loves to wear.

The crowd knew every word and sang along as Taylor continued to perform and continue doing her trademark hair whipping and waist gyrating, if that's the right term. After the opening song, she stood there in front just looking at the audience. She just stared at the crowd for a minute or two and looked like she was going to cry of happiness from the scene right in front of her. She then joined her band and continued with her lead single from her album, Mine. The crowd sang along with her all throughout the show.

She talked about a lot of stuff in the middle of her performances like how she writes about love and heartbreak, and even squeezed in some tagalog words like Kamusta ka, Mahal ko kayo, Salamat and Magandang Gabi which won the hearts of everybody watching. She proceeded to sing The Story Of Us before heading to the piano to sing Back To December with a mash-up of Apologize and ended it with You're Not Sorry. A buzzing telephone at the background was heard in the audio as Taylor proceeded to sing the second song presumed to be about Joe Jonas and Camilla Belle, Better Than Revenge and the crowd just got intense.

She went to the back of the stage and appeared once again in a new costume, a blue dress as two of her female band members wore matching pink dresses and sang Speak Now in a cute routine.

After that song, her band members have gone off the stage as Taylor just sat there with a microphone and a staff handed her a ukulele. There was a problem with the mic stand so she continued to talk to the audience as it was being fixed quickly. She finally started strumming the guitar as she sang Fearless with the ukulele, in between the verses, during the breaks, she strummed along to the une of Hey Soul Sister with the matching He-hey,He-he-he-he-hey. She broke out to singing a verse of Jason Mraz' I'm Yours which was another crowd favorite before closing out the song.

She switched guitars,gave a little spiel and started to sing Fifteen which was reminiscent of her performance at a past Country Award show in the US. I just forgot which show it was.

For the next song, Taylor asked the crowd to sang with her as she started singing the chorus of the worldwide hit, You Belong With Me as the crowd's screams did not die down and even got a notch higher. In the middle of the song, Taylor went down the stage and shook hands of the fans and even took a bouquet of flowers given by the fans. How I wished I was in the VIP section.

The aura suddenly went down as Taylor sat on the stairs on the stage and a beautiful backdraft appeared on screen. At that moment, everybody felt Taylor's sincerity as she sang Dear John. At the end of the song, she belted out some notes which was quite impressive and should shut up the haters' mouths.

She has gone off backstage again as one of the female band members entertained the crowd while playing the violin to the tune of Enchanted. Once the crowd picked up the song she was playing, they started to sing the song. The band member was quite surprised with the reaction as evident with a smile she was not able to keep. She was given an applause by the crowd as smoke started to come out of the stage, creating a fog effect and Taylor comes out in a beautiful gown and started to sing Enchanted, a favorite, not only by the crowd but her entire fanbase in general. She gave a very emotional performance and hit all the right notes perfectly before ending it and revealing a shorter sparkling silver dress beneath it and gave a closing speech and introduced the band members and told the crowd how much they love Manila. She dedicated the next song to us fans and in the next minutes, cheers for Long Live was heard. She and the band members quickly made an exit from the stage leaving chants of We Want More! from the enormous crowd that filled up most of the coliseum. The band started to appear once again as the tune of Love Story suddenly made fans spring up from their seats eagerly anticipating Taylor's return. After she finishes the song, she made one last round of greeting the fans at every corner before dropping off from the stage to the back, catched by the crew with a blanket.

Though it was short and she did not sing a lot of my favorite songs, I still got my money's worth seeing Taylor live in person. Even her speaking voice sounds different even though I've heard it a lot on tv/internet. I really cannot wait until she comes back. I hope there was no T-Party( a party with Taylor, her crew and some selected fans held after shows) because I was not there.Heehee.

I finally met up with my cousins as I got out of the long lines to the exit and got home an hour before midnight and started uploading pictures and watched the latest Supernatural epiosde which I could not focus on with my head still high, and forever will be after seeing the one and only.

Oh Taylor Swift, it was enchanting to meet you.