Kelly Chen’s eagerly awaited comeback concert materialized at
Arena Of Stars (Genting) on 29th and 30th March. After a lapse of 8 long years, I’m super
pumped to see Kelly’s sensational performance once again. In case you are wondering why her concert is
called “Season 2” and was there ever a Season 1 ? Well, “Season 2” signifies
the second stage of Kelly’s career. As
depicted on the promotional poster, the tiara donning Kelly indicates the Queen
of Cantopop has returned! It’s rather
hard for me not to bring up the age factor when it comes to this age defying stunner. With the availability of filter/beauty camera apps in mobile sets, I am
usually not sold when looking at pictures of artistes in social media. More often than not, it is usually heavily
edited. It certainly wasn’t the case for Kelly, who at 52, could easily passed
off as someone 20 years younger. This is
so apparent during the concert and upon seeing her up-close at the hotel lobby.
I am truly blown away by her porcelain complexion ! Lately, it has become a trend for most HK singers to
kick start their concert abroad (particularly in Macau) before circulating back
to HK. In the past, the inaugural
concert venue has always been Hong Kong, followed by overseas stops. It’s the same scenario with Kelly, who is now
in the midst of her international tour.
Thankfully, after Macau, L.A., Toronto, Guangzhou and Shanghai, it was
Malaysia’s turn.
Her repertoire consists of evergreen hits plus a few new tracks. Since the middle of last year, Kelly has started releasing a string of new tracks in preparation for the concert. Overall, it was a well-balanced mix of explosive dance tracks and karaoke sing-along crowd favourites. I had expected her to sing the new single “Season 2” but it wasn’t in the rundown list. Frankly, with 30 albums under her belt, there just isn’t adequate time to cover all her popular hits within 2.5 hours. I’m relieved her Malaysia song list is made up Cantonese songs. Kelly burst onto the stage with a succession of mid-tempo songs such as “Ask” and “都是你的错”, with Kelly in a black peaked cap and “Puppets and Puppets” fashion label’s golden attire, accompanied by dancers in black armor. She also performed the slower tempo glorious 80’s remix version of “花花宇宙”. The band leader is none other than Joey Tang, who also duetted with Kelly on “纪念日”. The amusing part is when some members of the audience shouted “Joey…Joey….Joey”, a lady nearby was overhead telling her friends “Isn’t her Western name Kelly ? Why are they shouting Yung Cho Yee’s name (Joey) ?”. Lol. During Kelly’s costume change, Joey Tang entertained us with Taichi’s evergreen hit – “红色跑车” with gusto, with the familiar electric guitar intro blaring away. Although Mark Lui has migrated to UK, he still took on the tasks of producing and re-arranging the concert rundown. The mere mention of Mark made her voice quivers as she is clearly moved by her longtime collaborator-cum-bestie’s unyielding support in her musical endeavors over the past 3 decades. There is no denying that Mark played a pivotal role in catapulting her to fame, especially with his signature techno “洗脑”(brainwashing) infectious songs such as “恋爱情色”, “失忆周末”…just to name a handful. Kelly also shared with the audience her love for durian (her fave being Musang King) and lamented that she has to devour any durians prior to the shows but will certainly do so after the concerts. She disclosed that many years ago, she and her entourage were stopped by airport security for having durians in the luggage. Not wanting to discard the king of fruits, Kelly and her crew quickly stormed out of the airport building to gobble all the durians prior to boarding. Of course, it is a no longer an issue now as durians can be vacuum packed to suppress the pungent aroma. During “大日子”, Kelly put on a dark figure-hugging suit. The costume really showcased her extremely svelte figure. The audience were elated during the hands shaking session as Kelly not only shook hands with the front row fans, she also went all the way to the back to greet the rest of the audience. How can you not love this lady?! Next up is her enduring timeless classics….omg ! her vocal is textbook perfect, especially when singing the falsetto chorus of “谁愿放手”. For me and many others, it’s undeniably a wonderful trip down memory lane. It’s still fresh in my mind that my first face-to-face meeting with Kelly was for the promotion and autograph session for her debut Mandarin album “我不以為“ in Malaysia. I still have the autographed cassette with me !
The final segment is party time with her funky chart-toppers
! Kelly shouted – “this is the final part, get your feet on the ground and dance!
”. By then, I am already immensely intoxicated by her
commanding stage presence, passionate singing, familiar choreography but most
of all, her dynamic vigour . Kelly has proven that age is no obstacle if you still
have the drive to pursue your goals.
