MANILA -- Russ makes a triumphant return to Manila last November 5 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena. The rapper opened his packed show with his crowd rousing song "Bet," which had the crowd singing and dancing from the get-go, and had a show liberally peppered with his anthemic songs like "Do it Myself," "Aint Going Back," and "The Flute Song," among others.

All alone on the big stage, and occasionally shadowed by a videographer, Russ held his own easily against an arena full of fans in his pastel-hued outfit against song appropriate visuals on the giant LED screen. Russ looked happy to be back and was very vocal about his love for the Philippines.

‘There’s a difference between the Philippines and the rest of the world. The Philippines is crazy for me!” he exclaimed at the start of the almost two-hour non-stop show to the delight of the crowd.

This difference was something that he exploited successfully throughout the show. He had the crowd at the palm of his hands, with the arena following his lead from raising certain fingers up, waving their hands, lighting cellphones, jumping and dancing, to the crowd singing along to the choice bits of "Civil War," "Psycho, Pt. 2," "Some Time," "Ride Slow," and "Ain’t Nobody Takin My Baby," to name some numbers.

“Thank you for making this song a big song,” he crooned before launching into "Nobody Knows." This was my favorite sing-along portion of the evening, and one could see that Russ was digging it too. Manila loves love songs, especially sad songs. It was a cathartic moment for many, for sure.

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Speaking of moments, someone had their moment during the concert in the stands during the aptly timed portion of "Wife You Up" by getting engaged. Russ even gave them a shoutout after the song and that’s what I call knowing how to read an arena 101 while performing.

At the latter bit of the show, he did a series of songs one after the other including "What They Want," "Handsomer," and "Are You Entertained" (featuring Ed Sheeran on track and on the LED visuals) that nicely culminated to his last song, "Missin You Crazy," which ended the concert with confetti canons aplenty. He came back for a quick encore with a re-do of "Do It Myself."

Russ’ Manila stop to his The Journey Is Everything world tour was a party from start to finish, with the crowd hyped up pre-show thanks to DJ Calvin da Coordinator, and the show, of course, was brought to our shores by Karpos Multimedia.