蔡琴【銀色月光下】新加坡演唱會2005

Cai Qin "Silver Moonlight" Singapore Concert 2005

Last night, we attended our first paid Chinese gig. It was at the Singpaore Indoor Stadium, and even though we arrived early, the traffic towards the stadium was long enough to make anybody late. Thankfully even though we parked a distance away, we were still on time.

My first statement to Adrian when we got out of the vehicle was, "Err. I really think we're one of the youngest ones here."

We kinda expected that, just that reality struck us that we're not exactly attending a youngish pop concert. Cai Qin started her career in showbiz when we were just two. And to this date, she has cut 43 albums. Can you imagine that?

I discovered Cai Qin's music by accident. There was a season when I was into Chinese oldies and was hunting for the song 夜來香 (ye lai xiang) when I stumbled upon her version of it. And although I didn't know half the things she sang, I loved the way she sounded - and how she made the songs sound.

Inside the Indoor Stadium, the audience kept streaming in. It was a centrestage performance with 4 round platform levels, inspired by the moon. At 8.30pm, the concert started... it was dramatic, with the poetic introduction of her latest album to the theme and she appeared onto the stage with her first song. While I always thought her voice in her albums was fantastic, I was even more amazed with the real thing. Her deep voice was impressive and she was a true performer.

And a true-blue entertainer at that. She was humorous and knew how to talk to her audience. Her jokes were self-deprecating at times, but she largely knew how to make people laugh and pay attention. She wasn't full of comedic antics, but she was glamorously flambouyant. Her outfits were simple - and she was right - it takes only a confident woman to wear a simple dress.

On top of her usual Mandarin songs, she sang two Hokkien songs and actually made them sound classy. And two English tracks - one of which was Leaving on a Jetplane. She even had a fabulous band who accompanied her. It was also the first time I've heard the harmonica sound so good.

And this was also the first time ever in a concert that I've heard the performer do a personal credit mention of all the sponsors. Strange. I don't know about other Chinese concerts.. the only other one I've been to was Wu Bai & China Blue in 2000, and I don't think they thanked the sponsors.

Cai Qin is in a class of her own. And we'll definitely want to attend her next concert in Singapore, hopefully, next year.