Simone shows her love

Austrian jazz singer Simone Kopmajer charmed her audience at the Millennium Hilton Bangkok last Sunday night with her sweet vocals and lively performance.

She impressed the mainly Thai crowd by greeting them with a beautiful wai and saying sawasdi kha. She also thanked the audience in Thai in response to their applause, a touch that all appreciated.

Kopmajer, 30, first wowed music lovers in Thailand three years ago, performing a concert in Bangkok and joining the 2009 edition of the Samui Jazz Festival. She has just completed a weeklong concert tour of the country, with four shows in Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Bangkok.

Most of the 16 songs she performed during the “Romantic Jazz Night with Simone Kopmajer” concert at the Hilton’s Grand Ballroom were off her latest album “Nothing’s Gonna Change” and included covers of many hits from the past.

Among the songs were “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You”, “Can’t Take My Eyes off You”, “Home”, Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are”, the Bee Gee’s “How Deep Is Your Love”, the Eagle’s “Love Will Keep Us Alive”, John Lennon’s “Imagine”, and The Carpenters’ “Top of The World”.

She also sang a few songs from her previous album “Didn’t You Say”, including the title song that she composed, as well as “Come Fly With Me” and “Everything Must Change”.

The 500-seat ballroom was a little over half full but, judging from their applause and reaction, many members of the audience were impressed by the Austrian’s performance. She was well supported by a four-man band – Austrian Reinhardt Winkler on drums, and Thai musicians Passakorn Morasilpin on tenor saxophone, Warin Thatan on bass guitar and Kengchakaj Kengkarnka on piano.

Influenced by American jazz singers with Ella Fitzgerald her “biggest inspiration in jazz”, Kopmajer entertained the audience with a variety of singing techniques – crooning smoothly, making sounds, and impersonating different instruments.

She pleased on both slow and fast songs alike, as well as ones that required powerful singing and high pitch. Her English accent was almost perfect and there were only occasional hints of her native Austrian accent during the show.

Towards the end of the concert, which lasted slightly over 90 minutes, Kopmajer took a seat at the piano, accompanying herself on “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You”. She was supported during the performance by the drummer.

The applause was loud when Kopmajer sang as her encore “Love at Sundown” – the English version of “Yam Yen”, a song composed by His Majesty the King.