News Article: Having just completed his 116th show, Jacky Cheung continues to break records

This is an awesome article about Jacky and his most recent concert show in Guangzhou...I liked the article so much that I decided to translate and post it. Hope all fellow Jacky fans out there enjoy it!

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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。”

My ‘TVB Rant’ # 17: The 2012 HK Television Wars -- Felix Wong’s Response to Being Called a ‘Traitor’ by the HK Media

Obviously, I’m in another one of my ‘ranting’ moods again! I’ve been reading a lot of the stuff out there recently about former TVB artists joining CTI and not surprisingly, I got ticked off by some of the reports – hence I felt the urge to write this post.

Just as a means of background…a few days ago, Ricky Wong’s City Telecom (CTI) held a Groundbreaking Ceremony for its Television and Multi-media Production Center in Tseung Kwan O (for more information about this, refer to my earlier TVB Rant about the HK Television Wars). In attendance at the ceremony were artists (most of whom formerly worked for TVB) who will be joining CTI once the company obtains its free-to-air television license in the next two months (though technically, pretty much all of them have already signed contracts with CTI). The artists who attended the ceremony include: Maggie Cheung (張可頤), Felix Wong (黃日華), Frankie Lam (林文龍), Bernice Liu (廖碧兒), John Chiang (姜大衛), Yuen Wah (元華), Leila Tong (唐寧), Lisa Lui (呂有慧), Felix Lok (駱應鈞), Rain Lau (劉玉翠), Maria Chen (陳霽平), Prudence Liew (劉美君), Kelvin Kwan (關楚耀), Catherine Chow (周家怡), and Benji Chiang (姜文杰) [Catherine and Benji were the emcees for the event].

Note: The above listed artists aren’t the only former TVB artists joining CTI – there are a few others as well who will be joining but did not attend the ceremony (for example: Wilson Tsui, Yu Mo Lian, Feng So Bor, etc.)

Anyway, in the past few months, there have been literally ‘tons’ of reports out there surrounding CTI and its ‘recruitment’ of TVB artists. All this time, I’ve been pretty much treating these reports as I do with most HK entertainment news – read the information with a grain of salt, but don’t take too seriously. Well, unfortunately, some of the recent reports about CTI’s groundbreaking ceremony went a bit too overboard and in my opinion, really ‘crossed the line’ – to the point that I once again cannot help feeling disappointed with the HK Media.

The issue at hand: many of the recent 'reports' about the CTI groundbreaking ceremony used the term "traitors" to describe the artists who left TVB in favor of CTI. Personally, I have a problem with such irresponsible reporting and my only 'advice' to those reporters who keep using this term is for them to look up the word "traitor" in the dictionary and see what the hell it actually means before using it!!

As one of the artists joining CTI, Felix Wong is of course among those being called a ‘traitor’ by the Media. True to his ‘flame-shooting’ nickname, Felix decided to ‘speak out’ against the reports via his Weibo. Just today, he posted an excellent response on his Weibo with regard to these recent "reports" that I'm sure echoes the sentiments of many of us who have been long time supporters of the HK television industry (as well as the sentiments of those artists who have decided to follow a career path that is a better fit for their needs). His response was "re-tweeted" by many artists, who all expressed their support and encouragement...

Here's Felix's post (the original in Chinese as well as the translated version) from his Weibo:

看完今天報章有感而發，現今香港的電視業，真的需要[新血]加入，有著[百花齊放]的感覺，才能帶來衝擊，把電視業推向高峰！藝人不單止有[發揮]机會，還有更多發展空間。各電視台在良性勁爭下，充分發揮自擁資源、實力、通力合作，便能達到[互贏]局面。在此祝願香港電視業再次踏上癲峯之期！大家互勉奮鬥


Translation: After reading today’s news reports, I feel the need to speak out. Today’s HK television industry is truly in need of ‘new blood’ to join so as to bring about free expression of the arts – this is the only way to ‘shock’ the industry and push it to its peak! In this environment, not only will artists have more opportunities to bring out the best in themselves, but also gives them more space to develop. Through healthy competition, each of the TV stations can more fully develop their resources and strengths and ‘join forces’ to create a win-win situation. Here is wishing that the HK television industry will be able to once again reach the heights of its ‘glory days’! Let’s all work hard and encourage one another!

As a decades-long supporter of the HK entertainment industry, I absolutely agree with Felix because, in all honesty, it pains me to see how horribly the industry has deteriorated. Therefore, if healthy competition and change will bring about a much needed revival of the HK television industry to what it was at its peak, I am all for it!

In conclusion, here’s some ‘food for thought’ for those who keep referring to the artists joining CTI as “traitors” who should feel ashamed of themselves for “betraying” TVB:

It's unfair to say that these artists "betrayed" TVB, as artists are regular people just like everyone else -- they need to make a living and some even have family to support, so of course they are going to choose the path that fits them best. How is it wrong for an artist to go with the company that best fits their needs? Should they forever be indebted to TVB and never ever leave the company just because that company had a hand in launching their career, even if the company mistreats them and doesn't pay them enough to support their families? Should they sacrifice their families and their livelihoods just so that they won't be seen as 'betraying' a company that they've been loyal to for so long but no longer fits their needs? What about all the efforts that these artists put in for many years (in some cases, more than 20-30 years!) and all the money that THEY earned for the company – is that not supposed to count for anything?? Keep in mind that part of the reason why TVB has been able to stand so solidly as the #1 TV station in HK for the past 40+ years is precisely because of the EFFORTS of THESE ARTISTS – without them, TVB would be nothing!

So for you stupid reporters out there who don’t think twice about using the words “traitor” and “betrayal” to describe artists who are simply trying to do what’s best for their families and themselves – PLEASE DO YOUR HOMEWORK NEXT TIME BEFORE PUBLISHING THOSE (DESPICABLE) REPORTS OF YOURS!

News Article: Jacky Cheung to earn $300 million HKD for his ½ Century World Tour Concert

I haven't posted much about Jacky on my blog lately (mostly due to not having time to translate all the articles and other stuff that I've read / watched about him recently), so I didn't want to pass up the chance to post the below article.

To be honest, the 'numbers' in the article mean nothing to me really, since I'll continue to be a devoted Jacky fan no matter how much (or how little) money he makes (so to me, the 'salary' part is a moot point)!

A few other comments regarding the article:

.-- If it's true that the finale show on May 23rd will be the 144th show of Jacky's concert tour, then that means from now until the concert ends, there are approximately 32 shows left. So far, I would estimate that all of the upcoming 'return' shows that have been announced (from mid-February until May) only total about 15 or so (maybe even less, since I'm not necessarily counting every single Mainland China show)....so with half the shows still not announced yet, I guess this means that there is still a chance Jacky will return to the U.S. for another show (or two)? Definitely keeping my fingers crossed!!

.-- I love the song 《一滴淚》! I was so happy that Jacky actually included this song as part of the regular rundown this time around (he sang it during the Las Vegas show as well, since it's actually part of the 'mini-movie' portion) because he rarely ever sings this song live in his other concerts....he usually sings the Cantonese version of the song instead -- if he even sings it that is (nothing wrong with the Cantonese version, it's just that I've always liked the Mandarin version of the song better, probably because I heard the Mando version before the Canto one).

.-- With regard to the 'unpleasant travel experience' mentioned in the article, those who are interested can read a more detailed version of it here  (note that it's a direct link to the original news article from Sina, so the article is in Chinese). The interesting thing to note about the incident -- the airline involved was Cathay Pacific (yup, the same airline that Jacky used to work for decades ago)....ah, the irony!

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Jacky Cheung to earn $300 million HKD for his ½ Century World Tour Concert

Source: Mingpao

Translated by: llwy12

Jacky Cheung’s《1/2 Century Concert》returned to Taiwan this week [February 10th and 11th] with 2 consecutive shows at the Kaoshiung Arena. Last night’s show marked the 112th show of a concert tour that – once all is said and done – will have lasted a year and a half and shown to an audience count exceeding 2 million. It is anticipated that after the finale show (the 144th show of the concert tour) closes at the Asia Expo Center in May, total ticket sales will have exceeded $800 million HKD – with Jacky’s ‘salary’ per show set at approximately $2.3 million HKD, it is estimated that his personal ‘income’ from the entire concert will exceed $300 million HKD.

Since it has been 10 years since Jacky last held a concert in Kaoshiung, the more than 20,000 seats for both shows reached full capacity early on during the ticket sales process. For the opening night performance [on February 10th], Jacky was in his usual good spirits and maintained his trademark high quality performance, kicking off the night with a 5 minute tap-dance routine. Originally, the concert organizers had suggested that Jacky include a special performance of a song in Taiwanese for the audiences, however due to his busy concert tour schedule, he did not get a chance to rehearse the song – therefore, in keeping with his philosophy of not performing at all if he is not able to do it well, Kaoshiung audiences did not get the chance to hear Jacky sing in their native language. However, the audiences did get to hear Jacky sing many of his classic Mandarin hits, which was already enough to put the entire arena in an elevated mood!

On the first night, during his performance of classic hit 《一滴淚》[‘A Teardrop’], Jacky had a ‘near miss’ while trying to reach one of the high notes of the song, though it was barely noticeable to most audiences -- ironically though, during his Taipei concert show last year, Jacky also ‘lost’ to the same song [he encountered a similar problem with the same song last time].

Earlier, Jacky had traveled to London with his wife May Lo and their 2 daughters for vacation during the Lunar New year holiday. However, during their return trip back to Hong Kong, Jacky and his family encountered a slightly unpleasant experience – not only was their flight delayed by 11 hours, they were also mistakenly placed in Economy class when they had actually paid for Business class [a mixup occurred during the switching of flights]. Towards this, Jacky stated that the experience was definitely an unpleasant one, but he would treat it as a learning opportunity for his family to experience together.

Ever the benevolent father, Jacky revealed that his eldest daughter is 11 years old and already doesn’t like ‘playing’ with him anymore – sometimes, when he tries to kiss his daughter, she makes faces at him and runs away. Jacky also had some sound advice for his good friend Andy Lau, who will finally become a father this year: try your best to enjoy every day of being a father because once you miss the opportunity to see your child grow up, you won’t get the same opportunity again.

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Chinese version:

張學友1/2世紀巡唱袋3億

【明報專訊】張學友《1/2世紀演唱會》一連兩晚假高雄巨蛋舉行，昨晚第二場是學友巡唱的第112場，歷時一年半時間，觀眾人數突破200萬人次；預計5月在香港的亞博演唱會第144場後落幕，票房總收入近8億港元；學友每場歌酬以30萬美元計，其個人收入也逾3億港元。

相距10年再在高雄開演唱會，兩場共2.2萬座位早爆滿。前晚首場演出，學友情緒高漲，節目編排保持原汁原味，以5分鐘踢踏舞揭序幕。原本主辦單位建議學友在高雄演唱會唱一首台語歌，學友卻一直忙於巡迴演出而無法配合排練，他認為唱不好寧可不唱，但他的經典國語歌已令全場High爆。

前晚學友唱《一滴淚》的高音部分時有「小破音」情况，去年他在台北演唱會也敗在此曲，觀眾為他捏把冷汗。

唱《一滴淚》有小破音

農曆新年期間，學友跟太太與女兒到倫敦旅遊，返港時因航班延誤，他們轉航機後，是以商務艙價錢降級坐經濟艙回港。他稱這趟經驗很糟，就當作全家人一起體驗不同的生活際遇。學友的長女已11歲，自爆女兒已不想跟他玩，他想親女兒，她會做鬼臉逃走。他不忘提醒今年生龍女的劉德華，應盡量享受當爸爸的每一天，孩子的成長說錯過就錯過了。

圖文提供：自由時報

News Article: After 7 years, Cass Phang finally accepts Wyman Wong’s invitation to perform at concert; no intention of returning to the HK music industry

Songwriter Wyman Wong's "Exhibition of Works" concert has already kicked off this week at the HK Coliseum. Though I may not necessarily be a fan of all of Wyman's works, there have definitely been some songs of his in the past decade that I've enjoyed. Plus it's been a long time since we've seen a truly 'star-studded' concert at the HKC, so I'm actually pretty excited about Wyman's concert, purely because I know we'll get to hear alot of old 90s Canto-pop (yay!).

According to Media reports, Wyman will supposedly have close to 50 guest performers for his 6 show concert -- we'll see if it really ends up being that many...but regardless, it's definitely great to see so many familiar faces all in one place...especially those 'faces' that we don't often get to see anymore!

So far, for Wyman's opening night concert (held on 2/9), some of the guests who performed were: William So, Joey Yung, Eason Chan, Anthony Wong, Amanda Lee, Fiona Sit, Denise Ho, Sammi Cheng...and of course, the 'highlight' of the night was the heavily anticipated return of 90s Cantopop 'queen' Cass Phang to the HKC stage after retiring from the industry 10 years ago.

To be honest, I'm not a Cass fan, but as an 80s/90s HK entertainment fanatic (and seeing how the industry is not what it used to be) -- plus the fact that today's entertainment news primarily focus around artists I can't stand or don't necessarily care for -- I definitely get excited when I see articles such as these about artsts that we haven't seen or heard from in a long time!

So even if those reading this post are not fans of Cass (or Wyman for that matter), that's perfectly fine -- at the very least, hopefully this article will bring back memories of those 'good ole days' of the HK music industry (it certainly did for me!).

Enjoy!

******

Original article published February 11, 2012

Source: Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2257

Translated by: llwy12

***Translator’s Note: Only the sections of the article related to Cass Phang were translated.***

After 7 years, Cass Phang finally accepts Wyman Wong’s invitation to perform at concert; no intention of returning to the HK music industry

Famed lyricist Wyman Wong’s star-studded《Concert YY Wyman Wong Exhibition of Works Concert》held its opening night at the HK Coliseum on February 9th. Prior to the start of the concert, there was already a huge demand for tickets to the show, resulting in additional shows being added – 6 shows total will be held, ending on February 14th.

Amongst the stars slated to perform at the concert, the most highly anticipated was the return of 90s Cantopop queen Cass Phang (彭羚), who had retired from the industry 10 years ago to focus on raising a family. Setting foot on the HK Coliseum stage after a 10 year hiatus, Cass became one of the focal points of the night – first, she sang her famous hit song 《小玩意》[‘Little Plaything’], then performed the song《心淡》[‘Discouraged’] with artist Joey Yung (容祖兒), and ended her performance by reuniting with singer Anthony Wong (黃耀明) to perform their popular duet 《漩渦》[‘Whirlpool’] – gaining loud cheers and applause from the audiences that night.

Last week, a magazine reported that it had received confirmation directly from Cass herself that she would be returning to the HK music industry and that her appearance at Wyman’s concert would pave the way for her comeback. However, it turns out that those earlier reports are false -- at this point in her life, Cass is perfectly happy with her role as ‘wife’ to artist Jan Lamb (林海峰) and ‘mother’ to their 2 daughters. Also, the only reason why she agreed to return to the HKC stage for this one time was because of her long-standing friendship with Wyman Wong.

.--.

The year 2002 marked Cass Phang’s last appearance on the music stage – that year, after completing a 25-show musical dedicated to Teresa Teng, Cass ‘disappeared’ from the HK music scene. The last interview she gave was in 2004, in which she revealed in an exclusive interview with Mingpao Magazine that she was pregnant with her second child.

With the recent ‘rumors’ that Cass will be making an official comeback to the music industry after her guest performance at Wyman’s concert, our [Mingpao] reporter contacted Cass’s previous manager (who today has become her good ‘sister’) Candy Leung to see if Cass would be willing to grant us an interview prior to her performance. However, after checking with Cass, Candy responded: “Cass really does not want to do any more interviews, however if you guys are willing to clarify a few things on her behalf, it would be very much appreciated – the truth is, Cass has never thought of making a return to the industry!”

Then why did that magazine claim to have received confirmation from Cass directly that she would return and become a singer again? Candy replied: “That time, Cass had just returned from a trip with her family and bumped into reporters at the airport – however she says that she never accepted any interview with any Media outlets, so she herself isn’t even sure why things were reported that way. I can tell you on her behalf that those reports about her returning to the industry are absolutely false – you can see with your own eyes that after Cass finishes her guest performance at Wyman’s concert, she will return to her role as Mrs. Lamb! Actually, those false reports were quite bothersome to her – after all, she has not sung in close to 10 years and has been very nervously preparing for this performance. Therefore, she does not want to say anything further and definitely does not want to do any interviews.” Indeed, during her performance at Wyman’s opening night concert, Cass did not say anything on stage outside of her singing.

During an interview backstage after his opening night show, Wyman revealed that he had actually tried to convince Cass to return to the stage 7 years ago: “7 years ago when I held my mini-concert, I had already asked Cass if she could be a guest performer, but at that time, she told me she wasn’t ready. Today, 7 years later, as I was preparing for this ‘exhibition of works’ concert, the first artist I thought of inviting was Cass! Since Cass has such a happy family life and doesn’t have anything to worry about financially, I wasn’t expecting her to say yes, but to my surprise, she agreed immediately – as I was talking on the phone with her, I was in tears! In the years since she left the industry, a lot has happened – I know that someone offered to write her a huge check just to appear at an event and not even sing, however, she refused. Offers of large sums of money cannot motivate Cass to even make an appearance, yet she willingly agreed to perform at my concert – I was so moved that I cried many tears!”

Wyman also revealed the reason why Cass has been unwilling to return to the industry all these years: “Because she has a husband who loves her dearly and does not want her to come out of retirement – plus she loves peace and tranquility! The only reason why I was successful in inviting Cass was because both she and husband Jan are very good friends of mine.”


Focus on her role as Mrs Lamb

Cass entered the music industry in 1990 and in 1995, reached the ‘heavenly queen’ level when she won the ‘Most Popular Female Singer’ award at the JSG Awards Ceremony as well as the ‘Female Singer Gold Award’ at Commercial Radio’s Chik Chak Awards. Cass’s former manager Candy Leung reveals that all these years, Cass has been very grateful to Wyman for writing the song 《小玩意》[‘Little Plaything’] for her, which helped to push her career to peak levels: “That year, the song was a huge hit and after that, they [Cass and Wyman] remained very good friends -- in fact, Wyman is actually considered a ‘family friend’! Friendship is something that can’t be explained – Cass agreed to perform purely because she wanted to help out her friend. Of course, before saying yes to Wyman, she had discussed it with her husband first.”

Candy also revealed that throughout the past few years, many different organizations had invited Cass to return: “There have been invitations for concerts and stage performances as well as guest performances at awards ceremonies and charity events – people would say to me: ‘No matter how much money it costs, it’s not a problem, just give me a price!’ However, none of these offers moved Cass one bit – she has stood firm in not wanting to sing again!”

After Cass married Jan Lamb in 1998, she gave birth to 2 daughters, one in 2000 and the other in 2004 – currently, her eldest daughter is already 12 years old and her younger daughter is 8. Candy reveals that in the past 10 years, Cass’s goals in life have been hugely different from what they were when she first started her singing career: “Cass does enjoy singing and she has already experienced what it is like to be at the height of her career as a singer. But we need to consider that the Cass Phang of today is a wife and mother first and foremost – her biggest goal in life now is to raise her 2 daughters. In each stage of one’s life, there are different choices that need to be made – in the upcoming years until her daughters are grown, Cass has very willingly and happily chosen to focus on her role as ‘Mrs. Lamb’!”

According to reports, Cass has only promised Wyman to be guest performer for the opening and final shows of his concert – this means that the finale show on February 14th will most likely be the very last chance that fans will ever have to see former Canto-pop queen Cass Phang perform!