Avril makes a lasting impression

KUALA LUMPUR: All the fuss over Canadian teen pop-rock star Avril Lavigne's concert proved com- pletely unfounded as she belted out a measured performance at Stadium Merdeka last night.
It was a pop concert all right, with no element of a rowdy punk-rock performance as feared by some quarters who had objected to her coming here.
PAS Youth leaders had criticised the timing of the concert, claiming that the culture Lavigne promoted was not appropriate especially so close to Merdeka Day.
But all that steam was lost in the night as Lavigne entertained the estimated 15,000 crowd with songs from her three albums, bursting into life in typical fashion for several hit numbers.
There were many who stood in raincoats to watch the star do her thing. Among those who turned up was Kelana Jaya MP Loh Gwo Burne who is from Parti Keadilan Rakyat.
Lavigne was dressed casually in jeans and a black T-shirt as she took to the stage with her first song Girlfriend, and only had one costume change, into a grey T-shirt, in the one-and-a-half-hour show. -- THE STAR
The crowd remained excited throughout, singing and dancing along to Lavigne's entire 17-song set.

Avril too sexy for Malaysians?

TWO LOVELY FINGERS FOR THOSE WHO FEEL SO ......
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s Islamic opposition party has urged the government to cancel a planned concert by Avril Lavigne, saying the Canadian singer’s on-stage moves are “too sexy” for this Muslim-majority country, an official said Monday.
Lavigne, a Grammy-nominated rock singer who burst to fame with her 2002 debut album “Let’s Go,” plans to start her monthlong Asia tour with a performance in Kuala Lumpur on Aug. 29.
The youth wing of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party said Lavigne’s concert would promote wrong values ahead of Malaysia’s Aug. 31 independence day.
“It is considered too sexy for us. ... It’s not good for viewers in Malaysia,” said Kamarulzaman Mohamed, a party official. “We don’t want our people, our teenagers, influenced by their performance. We want clean artists, artists that are good role models.”