It was so easy for her. Just keep the fans waiting for a little while and then let THEM sing. In what many saw as part of her comeback exercise, Rock Queen Ella, brought the house down in an almost one hour showcase performance at the Hard Rock Cafe in Kuala Lumpur, late last month. Despite the lack of publicity, the event seemed anticipated as little crowds of non-regulars gathered in and around the Concorde Hotel outlet. A group of young-ish girls fussed over a bouquet of flowers – to be eventually given to their favourite singer. Once the club was well-filled, the lights were lowered even more than it already was. The DJ spoke out his own improvised drum roll announcing Ella’s appearance. Heads turned every which way around the stage to guess where the rocker was going to enter from. Back from a four-year absentia peppered with tattle of drug addiction and broken-hearted despondency, Ella stormed onto stage and sharply assumed pole position. Prancing still to a frenzied audience, she belted out Permata Pemotong Permata. Ella herself might have been surprised by how familiar everyone was with that song. Who would have thought a Hard Rock Cafe crowd would know her songs – word for word. No one seems to have forgotten her songs, let alone her, as the crowd sang along – more like THEY sang her songs – to an overwhelmed Ella. Awed into silence, Ella returns the affection after the crowds singing with an expected: “I love you so much.” But that wasn’t all. “Thank you so much for your support,” she continued, in full correct sentence. Suddenly the joke about: “Are you enjoys” didn’t seem so funny anymore. The propagator of that tease, funnyman Harith Iskandar, was in the audience with a fixed smile. Gotta think of something else now eh, Harith? Given, she is still a long way from standing in front of a crowd making fun of Harith, but, she was well-loved all the same and her attempts to communicate with the audience came through successfully. For a third song, Ella sang Creep just when no one expected her to – sing an English song, that is. One wonders if she took English lessons during the four reclusive years she was away from the public eye. Then she asked for song requests but the shouts came all roars and could not be deciphered. So she came up with a surprise guest, rap group Da’ Joint. It’s no secret that one of the lads in the group is her current boyfriend, so if there was cynicism at first on the part of the audience, it was forgivable. But unnecessary. Da’ Joint played safe by giving the thoroughly warmed up crowd their perfect imitation of a Linkin Park hit, In the End. How could they go wrong when Linkin Park is the flavour of the moment. In fact, their second appearance on stage with Ella was to sing another Linkin number, One Step Closer. The all-round head banging was obvious testament to crowd approval. But a deeper look into the matter tells us it was Ella they were endorsing. Basically, they came to watch Ella and if Ella wants to sing with Da’ Joint, they’ll love her anyway. Awed was a mild description of Ella’s look afterwards. When she started singing her seventh number, Layar Impian, she was struck. Stunned. Flabbergasted, obviously. The audience might as well have just taken over the microphone. One or two attempts to slide back into the singing were thwarted, literally. Ever heard a crowd out-sing the show’s star? Well, it happened that night. They wouldn’t let her get one word in. So what does our cutesy pie singer do? She acted out the words. Sways, wiggles, hand gestures, facial expressions – all went in sync with what was being sung. At the part where the song says something about kesyukuran, Ella raised both hands heavenwards. How the peasants lapped up that one from their princess. The younger women screamed, the younger men wanted to do something else but instead they screamed anyway. Did she just know the emotion-packed song would move hard-rocking hearts? My, my, my Ella – how you have matured. If her presentation seemed unstructured and haphazard because of her nervousness, IT IS NOT! In a retrospective test of Ella’s preparedness, it was thought sister/manager Jojie would flounder the next day were she to be asked for a song list. Wrong again. Her list matched one taken down by a member of the press. Her second siege of the same venue the following week reaffirmed her cult status and showed she was doing this comeback thing right. Subsequent appearances, such as the acoustic performance at Saloma Theatre Restaurant earlier this month, were just further steps of progression in her return. Rising from the ashes of purported ruin and having overcome the scruples of a stardom fazed, Ella is sure to cast her name is stone this time.Not many Malaysian artistes, more than 15 years into a recording career, can still command RM40 at the door and pack them in at the mother of rock clubs, questionable grammar and all. Even the jaga kereta operating behind Concorde took the opportunity to raise parking “fees” to RM5. For a weekday? “Malam ni ada Ella,” was the confounding matter-of-fact reply.