KUCHING: Sarawakians will always have a special place for the Ola Bola The Musical in their hearts.
They were blessed with three full shows from Sept 6 to 8. The musical show which was streamed live on Facebook for the first time on the second day (Sept 7) also created history.
The live stream provided by Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, which lasted almost four hours, was posted at 7.30pm and by midnight, it drew around 59,800 views, 503 comments and 344 shares.
The two-and-half-hour musical performance held at the Indoor Stadium had not only the approximately 2,000 audience singing praises about it but also the online viewers who comprised locals in the country and others who stayed outside Malaysia in countries such as Brunei and Australia.
Among the comments were Vernie Verny Vern Law who stated, “Memang bagus sekali (This is great)! (I have) been waiting for a long time to watch the show but never had the time to do so in person. Surprisingly, in my experience watching on Facebook live can be so good.”
Meanwhile, Andrew Johnson wrote, “Amazing show, amazing energy, talented people and inspiring story” followed by Raiman Mon who wrote, “Watching from Brunei! We watched this in FB!! Exciting!”
Gracing the second day show was Head of State’s wife Toh Puan Ragad Waleed Alkurdi Taib.
Kuching was the second stop of the Ola Bola Merdeka Tour which kicked off in Penang on Aug 31 and will continue to be held in Sabah (Sept 11) and Pahang (Sept 21).
The musical performance was directed by Malaysian award-winning actress, film producer and musical theatre producer Puan Sri Tiara Jacquelina.
The performance was adapted from the film Ola Bola which tells a story about a national football team that works hard for their dream to qualify for the Olympics 1980.
The Ola Bola Merdeka Tour in Kuching is supported by the Sarawak government through the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry (Motac), AirAsia, Bintulu Port, Sarawak Energy, Petronas, Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia, Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission, Cahya Mata Sarawak, Pos Malaysia, Maybank, Digi, Celcom and RHB among others.
