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Article originally published: February 27, 2012
Source: Sohu.com
Translation: llwy12
Having just completed his 116th show, Jacky Cheung continues to break records
** Note: The below article was published in a Guangzhou newspaper, so most of the content will relate to Jacky’s concert tour in China. **
On 2/25, Jacky Cheung completed the Guangzhou [China] leg of his “1/2 Century World Tour Concert” and in the coming days, he will travel to Putian [in Fujian province] and Shenzhen, ultimately arriving here in Hangzhou on March 10th. Each show that Jacky performs brings him one step closer to breaking the Guinness World Record for number of concert shows performed by an Asian singer. Actually, the original record is currently held by Jacky himself for his 2007 ‘The Year of Jacky Cheung World Tour Concert’, which at that time, had established an unprecedented record of 105 shows on one concert tour. Looking at it right now, the original ‘number’ has already been exceeded, as the Guangzhou leg of the tour was already Jacky’s 116th show.
During the Guangzhou performance, fellow singer Eason Chan made a special trip to visit his friend Jacky – the two singers even performed a song together during rehearsals. Recently, there have been rumors that due to Eason straining and overextending his vocal cords, he is in danger of losing his voice – don’t know if Eason took the opportunity during his visit to ask Jacky for his ‘secret’ to maintaining good health.
Xie Hong, a manager for the Tianjin division of Rock Records who once accompanied Jacky for more than 100 shows on his world tour, described Jacky’s regular world tour ‘routine’ in this way: “Every Thursday, after taking his daughters to school, Jacky would fly to the first city where he’s scheduled to perform. He would have rehearsals on Friday afternoon, then the actual performance that same night. The next day (Saturday), he would switch to another city, rehearse on Sunday afternoon, then perform that same night. On Monday, he would fly back to Hong Kong, pick up his daughters from school, then head home. On days that he does not need to perform, Jacky would get up at 6am every morning and work out for 2 hours; at night, he would always go to bed before 10pm.”
After completing a concert, most singers normally hold a celebration gathering, however due to the frequency of Jacky’s performances, he usually ‘omits’ the celebration party, choosing to do it only once every few months. According to Xie Hong, Jacky is willing to ‘omit’ certain formalities when needed, however there is one ‘formality’ that Jacky is firm about never omitting: rehearsals. Indeed, Jacky’s persistence when it comes to rehearsals is one area where Xie Hong admires him the most: “He’s already performed over 100 shows, yet he still insists on rehearsing prior to every single show. To be honest, I’ve already watched [the rehearsals] to the point that I don’t want to watch anymore, however Jacky never gets fed up with it – in fact, he never finds it [the rehearsals] even the least bit tedious!” Also, for his performances, Jacky refuses to use a teleprompter – he would rather set aside a certain amount of time each day to recite and memorize the lyrics to the songs. Xie Hong once suggested to Jacky that perhaps he should use a teleprompter to help him save time and energy and so that the process would be less exhausting for him, but Jacky politely turned down his offer with the response: “As soon as one starts to develop the mentality of being dependent [on something], it’s very easy to get into the habit of being lazy.”
What moves Xie Hong the most though, is Jacky’s considerate nature. During his concert tours, Jacky is very much aware that the concert sponsors [in each city] are usually the ones responsible for providing (and paying for) his meals, therefore, he never chooses any expensive dishes and most of the time, eats only simple vegetable and occasional meat dishes – if in certain cases he felt like eating fish, he would always choose the least expensive one.
As a concert sponsor, Xie Hong admits that of course he would prefer for Jacky to sing his classic hits for each show: “It saves on production costs, plus the audience reaction will definitely be excellent, so it sounds like the best route to take, right? Nope, not for Jacky. Because he feels that Chinese singers rarely incorporate stage musicals in their performances, he wanted to serve as an example for everyone.” That’s why for this concert, the stage musical segment is one of the most important parts of the performance – for the MV (music video) accompanying the musical portion, Jacky asked renowned director Andrew Lau to help him produce / direct it and actress Shu Qi to star in it. The stage musical segment tells the story of a couple as they go through various stages of their relationship – from meeting, to falling in love, marrying, and eventually, the strain on their relationship due to the passing of time (secretly, Xie Hong and the crew refer to the MV as “If You Are the Only One 3“ 《非诚勿扰3》 [TN: an actual movie starring Shu Qi and directed by Feng Shao Gang]).
Xie Hong concludes: “We see Jacky put such exhaustive, painstaking effort into his performances and at first, we didn’t understand it – but later on, we came to realize that it is a natural part of who he is as person – and that’s why he is the ‘God the Songs’!”
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Chinese version:
刚刚演完第116场 张学友不断刷新吉尼斯世界纪录
记者 钱卓君 广州报道
2012年02月27日03:29
2月25日，张学友结束了“2012张学友1/2世纪巡回演唱会”广州站的演出，接下来张学友将马不停蹄奔赴莆田、深圳，3月10日来到杭州黄龙体育中心。每唱一场，张学友都在刷新亚洲歌手举办演唱会次数的吉尼斯世界纪录。原纪录是张学友在2007年“学友光年世界巡回演唱会”时创下的105场，现在这个数据早就被抛到了身后，广州站已经是第116场。
在广州演出时，陈奕迅特地赶去探班，他还和张学友在彩排时合作了一曲。因为用嗓过度，陈奕迅最近面临失声风险，不知道他这次在广州有没有向张学友讨点健康秘诀。
跟过张学友一百多场演出的天津滚石老总叶宏，这样描述张学友的生活规律：“每个星期四，学友送孩子上学后，就搭飞机到第一个城市。周五下午彩排，晚上表演，周六转场，周日下午彩排，晚上表演。周一搭飞机回香港，接孩子放学回家。没有演出的日子，他每天早上6点多起床，锻炼两个小时的身体，晚上10点前一定睡觉。”
通常演唱会结束后，歌手都会举办庆功宴，但张学友因
为演出密度太大，庆功宴就被省略到几个月开一次。叶宏说，张学友别的环节都愿意省略，只有彩排不肯省，这也是让他很佩服的一点：“已经演了一百多场，他还是坚持每场之前进行彩排，我都看得不想再看了，他居然一点都不厌倦。”还有，张学友不肯用提词器，他宁愿每天花一定时间去背歌词。叶宏提议过，不用这么辛苦，能省点力就省点力，但张学友说，人一旦产生依赖心理就会习惯偷懒。
而最让叶宏感动的是，明知道主办方会买单，但张学友吃饭时从来不点贵的菜，平时也就吃点蔬菜红烧肉，偶尔想吃鱼了，也挑便宜的点。
作为演出商，叶宏巴不得张学友每场都唱老歌，“成本又省，观众反响又好，何乐而不为？但张学友不干，他认为华人歌手极少触及音乐剧，他要给大家做示范。”所以这次演唱会，音乐剧是张学友的重头戏，光是MV就找了刘伟强执导，女主角是舒淇。音乐剧讲述一对恋人从相识、相恋、相守，最后在岁月的折磨中，渐渐沦为怨偶，叶宏他们私下管这个叫《非诚勿扰3》。“学友这么折腾，我们一开始不理解，后来想，他就是这么有个性的人，所以才是歌神。”
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