Jacky Cheung’s 60+ Concert Tour is a visual treat
The set list may be shy of hits, but fans still have plenty to look forward to with the shows’ over-the-top stage design and production value
BLOCKBUSTER concert season in Singapore officially began with Jacky Cheung kicking off his 60+ Concert Tour to a full house at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Friday (Jul 14).
Over the course of 11 shows taking place on four weekends, the Cantopop legend will play to a total of 88,000 fans.
Cheung is currently the hottest ticket in town with every date sold out, and he holds the record for the most number of gigs by a solo artiste in Singapore.
The 62-year-old pop star, who just celebrated his birthday last week, is also fresh from a 12-date run in Macau where the tour officially opened in June – and it showed on Friday evening.
His vocals were in peak form – unlike in some of the fan videos of his earlier Macau performances, where he either didn’t manage to hit some of the higher notes or even forgot certain lyrics.
Similarly, his stamina was nothing short of amazing for a sexagenarian, and to prove that age is but a number, he amused the 8,000-strong crowd by performing an impressive split midway through the show.
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There were plenty of uptempo songs in the 26-song set list, and most of the numbers also involved complex choreography, which Cheung effortlessly partook in together with a dance troupe that had more than 20 members.
Straight out the gates, the God of Songs, as Cheung is affectionately nicknamed because of his strings of hits, opened the 140-minute-long show with three high-energy rockers from the early 90s: Ooh La La, Road Heroes and Can’t Help.
It gave him plenty of opportunities to flex his vocal prowess while turning back the clock for his longtime fans.
The trip down memory lane continued with the ballad I Should, before Cheung followed that up with the first big hit of the night, Waiting till My Heart Aches.
Against a backdrop of a newly-shot music video starring Taiwanese actress Shu Qi and himself as a star-crossed couple on the LED screen spanning the width of the stage, he made sure there was not a dry eye in the audience after crooning the classic KTV favourite that many have attempted but few have succeeded.
This four-song ballad segment, which also included Deep Sea and 3 Days 2 Nights, was easily the highlight of the evening because those were the songs that the crowd came to hear.
A common complaint found on some of Cheung’s Facebook fan group pages is that the set list for his current tour omits many of his classic hits in favour of deep cuts from his back catalogue.
This was obvious when people started leaving their seats for a quick bathroom break or beer run during less well-received songs, such as Double Trouble, Wild Drinking and So Hot.
But the moment Cheung went back to the soaring ballads like Rainy Day Breakup, Forever with You and Love is Eternal, he held the crowd under his spell once again, with many raising their mobile phones to capture the moment.
With over 50 musicians – including a string and horn section led by Singaporean music director Goh Kheng Long – housed in a four-storey structure, these songs also benefited from the new orchestral arrangements, which made them sound even more epic than the studio versions.
Like 2018’s A Classic Tour, 60+’s stage design is a sight to behold, with the visuals on the massive LED screens giving the shows a theatrical feel.
The shows’ cutting-edge production is a reminder of why Cheung remains at the forefront of the Cantopop scene – not just in the studio but also live, where his shows everywhere sell out within hours – and has yet to be dethroned as the God of Songs even after close to four decades in showbiz.
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