After weeks of anxious waiting in lines and searching for tickets, hundreds of teenagers and young adults broke down in tears when they finally got to meet YouTube sensation Lily Singh aka Superwoman last Saturday. Promoters Wunderlust Productions hosted two meet-and-greet sessions at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya.
Singh, 27, a Canadian of Indian heritage, brought her Unicorn Island World tour to a close with her T&T performance, telling the enthusiastic audience it was her dream to perform here. She boasted that this show saw the largest turnout, with twice as many people as any of her other 30 shows thus far.
She teamed up with local soca star, Machel Montano, to perform his Road March hits, Like Ah Boss and Ministry of Road. Singh fit right in as she jumped, wined and sang along with her 5,000 fans.
In addition to her musical performances, Singh proved why she was named one of YouTube’s most successful video bloggers (vloggers) as she took to the stage to perform three different sketches. In the first, she appeared as herself, speaking to her audience about depression and finding happiness within themselves.
Singh told them she had suffered from a deep depression five years ago and had battled with dark thoughts before being able to pick herself up again. She explained that she came up with the phrase Unicorn Island by creating her own happy place in her mind, where only positive and good thoughts are allowed.
For her second act, Singh took to the stage as her YouTube personality, Paramjeet. On her YouTube channel, Paramjeet is her mother and Singh makes light stereotypes about Indian mothers. The Paramjeet character dismissed Singh’s suggestions about finding happiness, telling the youngsters they need to listen to their parents to be happy.
She invited several youngsters onstage for an interactive performance that left the crowd in stitches as she advised one young woman to become a doctor, so she would be a better mother when she gets married. Paramjeet also told the audience she had been contacted by pop singer Taylor Swift to have a filter (for pictures) named after her on Instagram.
Manjeet—a character meant to be a parody of Singh’s father—was the focus of act three. Manjeet also claimed to know the key to happiness, which he said was “the cool factor.” He invited several dancers onstage and used various pick-up lines to prove his coolness and urged the youngsters to follow him on Twitter.
The Superwoman show also featured Humble the Poet, who performs alongside Singh on her YouTube channel. There were also well-received performances by local chutney performers KI Persad and Ravi B as well as singer Neval Chatelal. Singh ended the show quite simply, by sitting on a stool and speaking to her young fans. She urged them to work for their dreams, regardless of their circumstances.
“If you want your dreams to come through, you have to work your butts off,” she said. “The hardest thing you will ever have to do is pick yourself up when you are at your lowest.” Singh told them they would only find true happiness inside themselves and made them “pinky swear” to love themselves first.
As their hands shot into the air, tears could be seen on many faces as the youngsters readily agreed with Singh’s philosophy.