Duo turn the heat on at first concert of 9-city US tour.
By Deepak Chitnis
FAIRFAX, VA: Bollywood made landfall in the United States on Friday night, as one of the industry’s budding starlets and one of India’s most popular singer launched a new concert tour series together in northern Virginia.
The “King Mika Singh and Sizzling Sunny Leone” tour got underway at the George Mason University Patriot Center on August 8, just outside of Washington, DC.
The concert event was presented by Manish K. Sood’s Intense Entertainment company.
“Show was excellent, and people were enjoying every single moment,” Sood said. “There was great chemistry between Mika and Sunny Leone. When they both were on stage, they were electrifying.”
Leone, whose recent hits Ragini MMS 2 and Jackpot have vaulted her into the Bollywood limelight, wowed the audience with her dance moves, while Mika Singh, who has been a household name since breaking into Bollywood with Jab We Met’s “Mauja hi Mauja,” sang some of his most celebrated party anthems.
Leone, a former porn star, won the audience over with her sultry moves to hit songs like “Char Botal Vodka” and “Pink Lips.” Singh made his appearance even later, but the wait proved to be worth it, as Singh immediately launched into “Duma Dum Mast Kalander” and quickly segued into some of his biggest hits, including “Tu Mere Agal Bagal Hai” (Phata Poster Nikhla Hero), “Chinta Ta Chita Chita” (Rowdy Rathore), and, of course, “Gandi Baat” (R… Rajkumar).
Singh also took some time to serenade audiences with tunes from Bollywood’s golden era, doing covers of immortal songs by Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, and the like, but the crowd clearly responded better to Singh’s own music. Leone, meanwhile, appeared periodically, keeping the crowd on its feet as they vied to get a look at Bollywood’s controversial new star.
Leone and Singh’s appearance in northern Virginia – which, despite a few hiccups, was overall quite a success – is the kick-off of a new tour that will take the duo to 9 cities by August 31. These cities include Chicago (August 9), Dallas (August 10), Houston (August 15), Los Angeles (August 17), Orlando (August 23), New York (August 24), San Francisco (August 30), and finally, Las Vegas.
Touring with the main attractions were two other beauties: Miss India Amruta, and singer Akasa, whose renditions of popular Hindi and Punjabi hits kept audiences on their feet and helped ease the pain of waiting for Singh and Leone to make their delayed first appearances. Akasa also provided background singing for Singh, and proved herself more than capable of sharing the stage with the mega-talent.