This marks “Heavenly King”
Leon Lai’s debut performance at Axiata Bukit Jalil venue, having had his last
concert at Arena Of Stars Genting 6 years ago. I haven’t seen him performing
live for decades but somehow, I had the sudden urge to watch him in action
again this year. Have to admit I wasn’t
pleased that Starplanet is the local organizer. Many others like me had pretty
unpleasant experience when “battling” for GD and Jacky Cheung’s concert
tickets. Praying hard that Big Bang
would not appoint this unscrupulous organizer for any future engagements,
especially their reunion concert in 2026.
In fact, I lashed out at their staff when they had the audacity to claim
that my ticket had been utilized when I tried to enter the hall. It turns out that the staff had already successfully scanned my
ticket barcode during the first time but the moron did not noticed that, hence
kept trying to scan my ticket again and again. They only came to their senses
when my friend pointed this out to them and asked them to recheck the record on
the scanning device !
Before the concert commenced, there was a slight commotion at the VIP zone. Then I realised the ruckus is due to the presence of veteran artiste, Nancy Sit and everyone wanted to snap a photo with her. I suspect she was in town for Jin Ye Ye’s CNY program shoot. At 59, Leon has maintained his physique quite well and face wise, he has not aged much. However, I was kinda startled that there wasn’t any live band on stage. The positive aspect is Leon’s vocal remains very steady although he might not have impressive vocal range like Jacky Cheung’s. Nowadays, I noticed that many veterans (Liza Wang, Sam Hui and even Alan Tam) could hardly hit the high notes or even singing out of tune due age-related voice changes (“presbyphonia”). Personally, I think it’s best not to hold a full- blown concert if you know your vocal capability has already declined rapidly. Anyway, back to Leon. It’s no secret that out of the Four Heavenly King, Leon is definitely the least skillful dancer. Hence, I am not surprised that Leon has taken a step further by not dancing at all during the catchy techno dance medley. He’s probably the only singer who could get away with sitting still on the platform while the dancers groove to the beat of his up-tempo songs (DNA出錯, 听身体唱歌 and 尽情的爱) For the record, he did finally attempt to dance during the closing numbers when he rendered “Sugar In The Marmalade” and “Sayonara Oh 我的親愛”. The song that earned the most applause and erupted a sing along session with the audience is the popular “今夜你会不会来” (Mandarin version). Leon also belted many ever green killer songs such as “對不起, 我愛你”, “夏日傾情” and “那有一天不想你” plus OST from “The Legendary Ranger原振俠”. Also, do not expect any flamboyant outfits. Appearing in black tuxedo during the opening act, he only changed his coat twice, to green and red throughout the concert. Leon kept small talk to a minimum. He revealed that he used to have many Malaysian school mates during his boarding school days in UK. Thus, he is no stranger to Malaysian lingo. As expected, there were criticisms in the social media that it feels like watching Leon at a karaoke session, rather than a full-fledged concert. In addition, true to Leon’s style, there was no encore either. From my standpoint and talking as someone who used to listen to his songs during my teenage years, I thoroughly enjoyed myself at this nostalgic-feel-good no-frills show. To many, Leon Lai is quite a character but to his fans, this is just the way he is. Leon is not someone who would bend over backward to be conventional. You either like him or you don’t. Judging from the response to his concerts and staying power, Leon still has the ability to captivate the audience. The concert ended in almost 2 hours and sadly, many chart toppers did not make it to his set list.
Concert Rundown 演唱会曲目：
《孤单的人孤单的我》、《情》、《感应》、《两个人的烟火》、《蓝色街灯》、《DNA出错》、《传情达意》、《一生幸福》、《顾家》、《那一天不想你》、《火舞艳阳》、《长情》、《如果可以再见你》、《我这样爱你》、《对不起，我爱你》、《夏日倾情》、《超平凡人主题曲》、《听身体唱歌》、《尽情的爱》、《今夜你会不会来》、《傻痴痴》、《愿你今夜别离去》、《Sugar in the Marmalade》、《我亲爱的Medley：对你的爱永远多一点+夏日倾情》
