Pink responded to my tweet

I had to answer a question "Tell us why you HAVE to see P!nk", and so quite frankly I already knew I was going to win the competition (even before I crafted the answer) because people's answers were like "I'm the biggest P!nk fan!" and I was like, really? How many times have you tried to do the Try choreography? Or used curtains to recreate the Glitter in the Air performance? LOL 

Yep flight and hotel. I didn't manage to find anyone to go with me (I just returned from vacation) in the short time, and I also didn't really want to. I love going to P!nk's concert solo (it's a very intimate experience for me) and being around real fans.

My answer was: 

P!nk is the very embodiment of grit, her authenticity and strength shaped by a troubled childhood, the disintegration of her parents’ marriage, drug abuse, miscarriages, and a little-known fact that she was raped by a police officer. Yet she is a person who can laugh through the pain, and she transmutes her experiences into songs that save others.



Though her stage name is “P!nk”, she is the gold standard when it comes to live performances. Fact: No artists living or dead put in as much thought and work as she does in their performances. As she sings the penultimate verse in “Try”, propping Colt Prattes up with her body, belting the entire song live, not missing a beat, that is sheer talent (I mean, I can barely do a squat without huffing and puffing). And her legendary “Glitter in the Air” performance is poetry unfolding in motion (don’t think I have not tried dousing myself with glitter and water, pretending my blankets were silks).



For all her performance ability and vocal chops, she remains largely underrated, never quite as fêted as her peers. As you cheer her on, you are not just cheering on a celebrity; you are cheering on a friend.



My all-time favourite P!nk song is the eponymous “I’m Not Dead” from her 2006 offering. “I’m not scared; just changing”; and “I’m a winter flower underground, always thirsty for summer rain” are just some of the lines that resonate with me. On the Beautiful Trauma tour, she has included this song that she wrote with Billy Mann (responsible also for her best songs: “Glitter”; and the new “I Am Here”) in her setlist, after not playing it for nearly a decade. I always say I can die happy after getting to hear it live.



And if this love affair seems completely one-sided, it is not (maybe 90-10). She laughed and said that I was “awesome” back in August 2013 when she saw my poster that read: “You grabbed my right thumb in August 2009. Please grab my left thumb as it’s been feeling sad and inferior.” Both concerts were in August, and held in Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena. It seems August and Australia are like stars that align nicely where P!nk and I are concerned.



Fandom aside, why must I win this trip to attend P!nk’s concert? Quite simply, to witness and stand in awe of true artistry.