In a rare encore show of an already successful world tour, Jacky Cheung (张学友) proved that after 23 years of leading Cantonpop, he was still, above all, a great singer.
His 2007 tour, dubbed "The Year of Jacky Cheung", was largely an attempt to reclaim his popularity. We know how fickle the taste of pop music fans' can be; let alone the somewhat naÏve taste of Cantonpop fans', no offense. In fact, Jacky Cheung himself was the outcome of a successful J-pop invasion, or more precisely, J-pop localization, in late 80s and early 90s. His first hit, "Loving You A Little More Every Day"（《每天爱你多一些》），was a not-so-successful J-pop song with a brand new Cantonese lyrics. (BTW, the latest invasion came from "K-pop", or Korean pop music.) This winning formula was later copied by dozens of other Cantonpop stars, until the people of Hong Kong finally got tired.
In this concert, he tried to emphasize his later songs. Although he showed that he could tap into the new generation's territory, e.g., R&B and rap, and do a great job, he was still best remembered for his older ballads, which suited his vocal style much better. For example, he did a lengthy excerpt from his one-man musical, "Snow.Wolf.Lake"（《雪狼湖》）, which was a fantasy love-triangle story preaching, well, true love. However, the story was no more sophisticated than a TVB soap opera. Despite my personal criticism to his later work, they were all quite successful commercially.
He was a very candid person on stage and smiled a lot, which reminded me his unexpectedly successful movie career as a comedian. Turned out it was actually in his personality to be funny. His dancing skill improved very much after, I guess, working on the musical.
When I found out he was going to give two encore shows of his world tour in Atlantic City, I immediately started to ask if anyone would like to go with me. But my friends were mostly younger than me and by the time they started to listen to pop music, Jacky Cheung wasn't the hottest potato. So I decided to let it go. But five days before the event, someone was selling one ticket. Not two, but one. I took it as a message that I should go alone. And I did, happily.
It was my first time seeing him on stage and he lived up to his reputation (and ticket price). To me, he was a symbol of my teenage years. I could remember his lyrics even though I hadn't heard or sung them for years. I felt like saying goodbye to my childhood when I waved him goodbye.
I'll put up some pictures later.
His 2007 tour, dubbed "The Year of Jacky Cheung", was largely an attempt to reclaim his popularity. We know how fickle the taste of pop music fans' can be; let alone the somewhat naÏve taste of Cantonpop fans', no offense. In fact, Jacky Cheung himself was the outcome of a successful J-pop invasion, or more precisely, J-pop localization, in late 80s and early 90s. His first hit, "Loving You A Little More Every Day"（《每天爱你多一些》），was a not-so-successful J-pop song with a brand new Cantonese lyrics. (BTW, the latest invasion came from "K-pop", or Korean pop music.) This winning formula was later copied by dozens of other Cantonpop stars, until the people of Hong Kong finally got tired.
In this concert, he tried to emphasize his later songs. Although he showed that he could tap into the new generation's territory, e.g., R&B and rap, and do a great job, he was still best remembered for his older ballads, which suited his vocal style much better. For example, he did a lengthy excerpt from his one-man musical, "Snow.Wolf.Lake"（《雪狼湖》）, which was a fantasy love-triangle story preaching, well, true love. However, the story was no more sophisticated than a TVB soap opera. Despite my personal criticism to his later work, they were all quite successful commercially.
He was a very candid person on stage and smiled a lot, which reminded me his unexpectedly successful movie career as a comedian. Turned out it was actually in his personality to be funny. His dancing skill improved very much after, I guess, working on the musical.
When I found out he was going to give two encore shows of his world tour in Atlantic City, I immediately started to ask if anyone would like to go with me. But my friends were mostly younger than me and by the time they started to listen to pop music, Jacky Cheung wasn't the hottest potato. So I decided to let it go. But five days before the event, someone was selling one ticket. Not two, but one. I took it as a message that I should go alone. And I did, happily.
It was my first time seeing him on stage and he lived up to his reputation (and ticket price). To me, he was a symbol of my teenage years. I could remember his lyrics even though I hadn't heard or sung them for years. I felt like saying goodbye to my childhood when I waved him goodbye.
I'll put up some pictures later.
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