A R Rahman had the 60,000 strong crowd at the glitzyCommonwealth Games opening ceremony up and dancing here on Sunday with his rendition of the theme song 'Jeeyo Utho Badho Jeeto', which had received brickbats when it was first unveiled in August.
The Academy Award winning musician had promised to go beyond Shakira's soccer anthem 'Waka Waka' with the composition and he delivered a powerful performance, backed by a spectacle of dancers.
Amidst a colourful play of fire works and 500,000 watts of music, the crowd cheered as the aerostat came alive with vivid imagery.
Dressed casually in a white jacket-and-denims combination, the hitmaker was welcomed by loud cheering as he stepped on to the stage to perform the theme song.
Flanked by dancers in red and white, Rahman also performed his international hit 'Jai Ho' which won him an Oscar last year.
The theme song which is based on the motto of the Games, "Come out and play", was the grand finale to the cultural extravaganza which was put together by some 7000 artistes.
Adding to the special effects were the hundreds of light beams that crisscrossed each other. During the entire song, fire crackers went up in the air illuminating an otherwise dark sky.
The audience included Prince Charles, his wife Camilla Parker Bowles, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Pratibha Patil and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and an estimated 2 billion people who watched the ceremony on live television around the world.
The original version of the song had got a lukewarm response and was then tweaked and turned into a peppy sports anthem.
The 44-year-old musician had won two coveted Oscar trophies in 2009 for his compositions in the Mumbai based potboiler 'Slumdog Millionaire'
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