Jacky Cheung ½ Century Concert – Live from Las Vegas!

I just got back from watching Jacky’s concert in Las Vegas (the above picture was taken by me right outside the inner entrance to The Colosseum, where the concert was held).

Needless to say, as a huge Jacky fan, I was very excited about this trip – to tell you the truth, I rarely ever go to Vegas unless I’m going to see a show or concert (the last time I was there was in 2007 for Jacky’s concert). Even now that it’s over, I’m still excited that I got to see Jacky again and experience his always awesome concert once again.

Of course, now that I started this blog, I definitely want to share the highlights of my trip with everyone (both fellow Jacky fans as well as non-fans alike). So here it goes….


I have been looking forward to this trip since last year, when I found out that Jacky would indeed be doing a World Tour this year – of course, as a fan, I kept my eyes and ears open for any information whatsoever about the concert (and any other information / articles about Jacky himself for that matter). This definitely paid off, as I was able to purchase Front Orchestra tickets almost immediately after the official release date, which means that I would finally be in the front section close to the stage (though not as close as I would have liked, but way better than the seats we got for his previous concert in 2007).

I will admit that at first, I was a little bit jealous of those who actually got front row (or first 10 row) seats and how lucky they must be. But then, as I sat in my 15th row seat and saw all the stuff going on in front of me (before, during, and after the concert), my ‘jealousy’ turned into ‘annoyance’ and ‘anger’ – I realized that most of the people who sat in the rows in front of me weren’t even Jacky fans…they were just “there” because they had gotten free tickets from their company or some sponsor and so figured they would just go (some of them didn’t even know who Jacky was and didn’t even care!). This is why quite a few of them ended up leaving before the concert was even over – if they were truly die-hard fans like me who actually paid $300+ per ticket to watch the concert, there is no possible way that they would have left instead of waiting for the concert to end (hey, I even stayed for the ending credits when most of the other people were already leaving)! Not to mention, there were people playing with their phones and stuff throughout the entire concert plus others who kept leaving their seats and coming back (if those people were “coming and going” because of bathroom breaks, then they must have very active bladders…lol!) Oh, and how about those people who brought their infant children to watch the show? I’m sorry, but who in their right minds would pay $300+ to come watch a concert (these people sat in the rows in front of me) knowing that they wouldn’t be able to watch the entire show because their infant children would burst out crying like 10 minutes into it and they would undoubtedly need to run out with the child to feed them or change their diaper? Hello? Is it just me or is that a totally stupid move? (Now, don’t get me wrong – I love children, as we have an infant in our family and I love him dearly, but I know better than to bring him to watch a concert that he is totally not old enough to understand). This is another reason why I say that most of the people who sat in front of me got free tickets and weren’t true fans…

The biggest annoyance of all (and this is a big pet peeve of mine in general) was that more than half the audience showed up late. Um, doesn’t the word “punctuality” mean anything to these people, or am I the only one who cares about being on-time? The tickets (and all the advertisements) indicate that the concert starts at 8pm, yet ¾ of the audience didn’t even arrive until after that time (the show ended up starting around 8:30pm or so). I was the most annoyed with this because I’ve always been a punctual person my entire life, since I equate “punctuality” with “respect” – so when people are late, I view it as being disrespectful.

Sorry about the above “rant”, but I just had to vent, as I felt that it was very disrespectful to Jacky and to the rest of the crew (as well as to his fans and those who are truly trying to watch and enjoy the concert) when people do that kind of stuff -- especially an artist like Jacky, who likes to sing for people who like to listen to him sing or who enjoy his music.

Ok, now that I got that off my chest, onto the actual concert itself….

The format of the concert was very similar to what I had read about in various articles and such (yes, of course I did my research beforehand and read up on the shows he already did in other countries up to that point), though there were a few differences.

The concert kicked off with a “mini-movie” directed by reknown HK director Andrew Lau (of “Infernal Affairs” fame) and starring Jacky as well as actress Shu Qi. Instead of doing an excerpt from his musical this time around (which is what he did for his 2007 concert), Jacky incorporated a short film this time around to accompany his performance on stage. The film basically told the story about how a fictitious couple played by Jacky and Shu Qi meet, fall in love, marry, separate, and reconcile – pretty much an illustration of the various stages of a love relationship. To accompany each “stage” of the relationship, Jacky would sing various hits and play out some of the scenes live right on stage (the ‘female lead’ for the stage performance wasn’t Shu Qi of course – she was just a member of the crew, probably one of the dancers). I really enjoyed this first part and felt it was very clever the way that the film clips and the stage performances complemented each other so well – my only complaint would be that having both the film and Jacky’s on-stage performance going on at the same time made it difficult for me to choose which to watch. I somehow was able to adjust my eyes so that I was able to watch the film clips and Jacky at the same time (don’t ask me how – I guess when you’re as big a fan as I am, you would probably find a way as well…LOL!).

The rest of the show consisted of a tribute to Lydia Shum (Jacky’s godmother), a “salute” to rock (which is a very important component of Jacky’s music), a part entitled “Jacky’s Private Corner” where Jacky shares some of his personal life (rare treat) and also sings a few specially selected songs that he likes, and lastly, a look back at Jacky’s “Golden Hits” (where he sings many of his classic hits from the 80s and 90s that made him famous, including: 每天愛你多一些, 只想一生跟你走, 月半彎, 李香蘭, 分手總要在雨天, 餓狼傳說, 祝福, etc. The format was awesome, as Jacky was able to incorporate his newer hits (i.e. songs from his newest album “Private Corner” as well as his new Mandarin single 三分拍 and everything else in between, from his older classics to his other lesser known albums). Reviewing the song list in my head, I think this is Jacky’s only concert so far where he is able to incorporate songs from such a variety of albums spanning the 80s, 90s, and 00s. It’s certainly a fitting format given that the theme of his concert this year is “half a century” of life.

Anyway, after the tribute to Lydia, Jacky finally spoke to the audience (I love Jacky’s sense of humor so I was just waiting for him to address the audience as he does with each of his concerts). And in typical Jacky fashion, he was absolutely charming with his perfect choice of words, his friendly personality, and his natural humor. One of the biggest highlights of the show was when Jacky did the “splits” at the end of his tribute to Lydia – definitely a daunting task for a 49 year old! As the audience broke out in applause and cheers, Jacky looked up (his face was nearly touching the ground, which made the move even more difficult), sat in a semi-cross legged position, and while rubbing his thigh, he stuck his tongue out, then, smiling, he apologized to the audience, saying: “I know this action [rubbing his thigh] is unsightly, but it REALLY hurts!” At that moment, I couldn’t help but applaud Jacky for his professionalism and his perseverance!

Right before the start of his “Private Corner” segment, Jacky showed an animated clip (also directed by Andrew Lau) that recounted his life from when he was born to now – it showed the various “highlights” of his life (including how he was a mischievous kid always getting into trouble, how he got the scar on his face, his participation in the singing contest that launched his career, the awards he got, his bout with alcoholism, his marriage and his kids, etc.) in a cute, cartoon-like fashion (accompanied by Jacky singing “Life is Like a Dream” live on stage). At the end of that segment, the “real” Jacky showed up on screen and we watched as he slowly transitioned into “elderly” Jacky – that part was really funny (I have to take this opportunity to praise the makeup artist for doing such a great job of transforming Jacky into an “old man” in the clip).

Oh, and of course, I have to mention the “Golden Hits” segment. In the first half of this segment, Jacky sang a few of his popular fast songs (餓狼傳說, 這個冬天不太冷, 頭髮亂了, etc.) – the great thing about this part of the performance was that Jacky’s old MVs of the same songs were playing on the big screen in the background and he did almost the exact same dance moves as he did way back then (for those who have been following Jacky’s music all these years, you’ll notice that most of these songs go back to the early / mid 90s, more than 15 years ago)…again, for someone who will be turning 50 years old this year, to be able to hit those exact same dance moves is not an easy feat (after the fast songs were over, Jacky commented that Aaron Kwok isn’t the only one who knows how to dance…LOL!). During the second half of the “Golden Hits” segment, Jacky sang many of the romantic ballads from the late 80s/early 90s that made him famous (the songs I listed above). Throughout this entire segment especially, most of the audience was singing along with Jacky (me included) and waving our glow sticks enthusiastically.

Obviously, I could go on and on about the show, but I actually would like to save some material for another post, as there is some deeper analysis that I would like to write about, including posting the song list from the concert (which will take a little while to compile, since I would be doing it from memory).

Overall, the concert was definitely well worth the wait (technically, I waited 4 years if we start counting from the time of his previous concert in 2007 until now) and absolutely worth the price! If I had the money (and circumstances permitted), I would not mind watching his other 2 shows in Vegas as well (he did a total of 3 shows in Vegas). The concert was definitely well put together and was very fitting of a half century celebration of life!