Sungha Jung in Kota Kinabalu for Christmas

KOTA KINABALU:Youtube sensation fingerstyle guitarist Sungha Jung presented early Christmas gift to about 600 fans from local and international during his debut live concert in here on Dec 15.  

The 16-year-old Korean teenager, who has started playing guitar and posting himself on Youtube since eight years ago, has 17 mil views and a mil subscribers for his channel as of this month (December).

For those who are familiar with him, they would surely know that there were not much difference on seeing him performing live or in his videos. 

Wearing blue and white checkered shirt matching with light brown tight khaki pants, Jung crossed his legs and positioned the body towards the guitar frets while fingering the instrument. 

Most of the time, he would move his shoulders, head  and facial expression according to the rhythm of the songs he played. There will be time where the audience will be wondering whether the music was hummed by him or the sound was produced from the guitar. 

During that approximately two-hour concert, Jung played Payphone by Maroon 5, That XX by G-Dragon,Creep by Radiohead, Oppa Gangnam style by PSY,  Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye, few Christmas medley songs, Super Mario theme song, Irony by himself. The instrumentalist also presented two Malaysian songs namely the "Sejahtera" and also "Rasa Sayang". 

The concert divided into two sets allowing the young guitarist to play his acoustic guitar and ukulele. 

Since young, Jung had the opportunity to appear on stage including playing guitar with established guitarists including Australian Tommy Emmanuel, US-American Trace Bundy, American Andy McKee and others. However, he was surprised and turned his head to the back for few times when the stage fog was emitted. 

 

"I wasn't really uncomfortable with the fog, but my response seemed to make the audience laugh. 

"Whenever I perform, I hope I could entertain those who come to my concert," he told New Straits Times after the concert.

Jung also revealed during interview that his third solo album that will be released next year comprising of his arranged music and original songs with all kinds of genres. 

"The title for the album is not finalised yet, and among the songs are 'Sorry' and 'Nostalgia," he added. 

The organiser Borneo TRUevents also donated RM5,000 from the proceed of the concert to "Bukit Harapan" a charity home for special need people in Sabah.