Jacky Cheung “A Classic Tour” – Las Vegas stop: February 17, 2018

As promised, here is my recap of Jacky’s concert, which I flew to Las Vegas to watch this past weekend.  Just like with his previous concerts, getting the chance to watch and hear Jacky sing live is one of those experiences that is worth every single penny paid for the ticket (which in this case, caused me upwards of $500 for the most expensive VIP ticket option once all taxes and fees were factored in)!  This year was particularly special because of the 4-sided stage that Jacky chose to utilize for his entire concert tour, which meant that it would allow him to get more up close to fans for one and two, no matter which side audiences sat on, it was guaranteed that they would get some amount of personal interaction and also a more enhanced viewing experience.  Therefore, with this concert, it was especially advantageous to sit closer to the stage, which is why I chose to buy the most expensive tickets available – I ended up in one of the first 9 rows in my section with a seat very close to the aisle on the side of the stage, which provided me the perfect vantage point to all the action on stage.  Needless to say, I was super happy with the seat I ended up getting (despite being a bit apprehensive at first due to the stressful ticket purchasing process and also not being able to choose seats at the time of purchase).   

I went to the Saturday night 8pm show (Jacky did a total of 2 shows at MGM – one on Saturday night and the other on Sunday afternoon, 3pm) and of course, being the type of person who is always super-prepared and never likes rushing or doing anything last minute, I flew in from Los Angeles the night before the concert (on Friday, 2/16) and did some walking around to get a feel for the venue (obviously I don’t go to Las Vegas often, since I’m not a gambler and not particularly into watching shows, even the ones that HK artists often go there to perform – pretty much the only reason I have to go to Vegas is for Jacky’s concert).  Both of the two previous Jacky concerts I went to (his “1/2 Century Tour” in 2012 and his “Year of Jacky Cheung” tour in 2007) were at Caesar’s Palace, which was a much smaller venue – this was the first time he performed at MGM Grand Garden Arena and since his concert this time around was being organized by his record company Universal rather than an “official” concert organizer like previously, I was curious to see how different the experience would be.  One of the first things I noticed was that there seemed to be a lot less “promo” material for the concert this time around.  I did see a few banners outside of MGM Grand hotel advertising the concert and all of the Chinese-themed restaurants in the hotel also had signs at the entrance with his concert poster on them -- which, curiously were there on Friday night when I walked around but were removed already by the time I walked through again Saturday mid-morning (I had a few friends who actually arrived on Saturday around lunch time and they commented that they almost thought they were in the wrong place because there were no posters whatsoever when they walked through).  Not sure what the deal was with the posters and why they were removed so soon (especially when there was to be another show on Sunday) but not really a big deal I guess – just thought it was a little weird.

The night of the concert, I actually went down to the arena a little before 7pm to line up and was shocked to see that there were already thousands of people there, patiently waiting in line to get through security (and here I thought that I was super early, lol).  I forgot that MGM’s arena could sit 13,000 plus people (especially with the 4-sided stage this time around), so I guess seeing about a thousand people already there that early was “normal” given the total number of people expected (side note – we ended up starting late, around 8:15pm, because so many people were still outside the arena waiting to get in).  Seeing that we started late, I was actually a little worried that some of the songs might get cut, but it turns out I had nothing to worry about because Jacky gave us 100% of the performance he gave at the other stops and then some (just to put things in perspective, the concert ran for 3.5 hours, with Jacky singing nearly 40 songs – definitely a record!).

In terms of the concert itself – IT. WAS. AWESOME!!!!  Jacky gave a mind-blowing performance and as is his usual style, he put 110% effort into giving us a show that was worthy of all the time and money we spent to get there!   Getting to hear Jacky sing live was already a treat in and of itself, but to see all the effort he put into the dancing for his fast songs – given that he is already 56 years old and dancing was never really his strong suit – I had nothing but admiration and respect for Jacky, especially at that moment!  During the “talking” segment halfway into the concert, when Jacky talked about being ill right before the concert and also suffering from jetlag and insomnia (he arrived in Vegas the Friday prior to the first show but had barely slept), my heart broke a little because I knew how tired he must have been but being the perfectionist he always is, I knew that also meant he pushed himself extra hard to make sure Saturday’s performance would be flawless (and it WAS for the most part, with only a few imperfections here and there with a few songs – largely unnoticeable in my opinion and definitely didn’t detract from his overall performance).  I hope that Jacky was able to rest up a bit more prior to Sunday’s show (which I wasn’t able to attend due to that show being added so much later and my schedule already being set) but if not, I can only hope that Jacky takes care of himself and gets sufficient rest prior to his next stop (in Australia), which thankfully isn’t until March 9^th (a little over 2 weeks away).

I know with the recaps I did for Jacky’s previous two concerts, I had “complained” about some annoyances I had with rude audience members and whatnot but this time around, I really didn’t have much to complain about.  Perhaps it’s because this time I made a conscious effort not to pay as much attention to people around me or maybe I was just too excited to be sitting so close to the stage for the first time in my life and getting to see Jacky perform so up close that everything else just paled in comparisons.  The concert experience this time around was beyond amazing and absolutely unforgettable!  Oh and I definitely have to put in a word about the “magic sticks” that each of us had waiting for us at our seats – talk about an “enhanced” concert experience, that was a wonderful touch to an already amazing show!  Looking back even now, I am still in awe of how that stick was “timed” so well to the music, to the point that it turned off automatically (despite on/off switch being in the “on” position) during certain songs and turned back on or changed colors during others – truly “magical” and I have to say that I’ve never seen anything like it (not that I’ve been to many concerts in my life, but specifically for Jacky’s previous concerts, compared to the simple “glow sticks” that we had gotten for those, this “magic stick” was definitely a major upgrade, lol)!

I will end this post with the rundown of all the songs Jacky sang that night, though a quick disclaimer that despite having “written down” all the songs during the concert, there is still a possibility I might have missed something during the segments when I was too immersed in Jacky’s performance to pay attention to what I was doing.  So if anyone who is reading this was also there for Saturday night’s show and see that I may have missed a song or two, please definitely let me know (thank you)!  Oh and anyone who had attended Saturday night or Sunday afternoon’s show (or both), please feel free to share your thoughts as well!

**

Jacky Cheung “A Classic Tour” Concert – Saturday, February 17, 2018 – Song List

1.       我與你

2.       非常夏日

3.       今晚要盡情

4.       慢慢

5.       離人

6.       這麽近那麽遠

7.       怎麼捨得你

8.       愛火花

9.       忘記他

10.   她來聽我的演唱會

11.   我真的受傷了

12.   頭髮亂了

13.   和好不如初

14.   遙遠的他

15.   想和你去吹吹風

16.   野貓之戀

17.   餓狼傳説

18.   如果這都不算愛

19.   醒著做夢

20.   不經不覺

21.   春風秋雨

22.   你的名字我的姓氏

23.   愛是永恆

24.   祝福

25.   用餘生去愛

26.   給朋友

27.   心如刀割

28.   不老的傳説

29.   離開以後

30.   一千個傷心的理由

31.   只想一生跟你走

32.   我等到花兒也謝了

33.   一路上有你

34.   吻別

35.   每天愛你多一些

36.   李香蘭

37.   Amour

38.   情以逝

39.   如果愛

The BIG day: Jacky Cheung "A Classic Tour" - Las Vegas stop!!

Ok, well, not quite the BIG day yet, as there are still a few hours until midnight so technically right now it's still the day BEFORE the big day, lol.  But hey, the fact that I'm here at the MGM hotel in Las Vegas and perhaps Jacky is in the same building as well already makes me super happy, lol.  I am SO looking forward to his concert tomorrow night -- can't wait!!

Here are a few pics that I took (sorry for the bad photography skills -- taking pictures is definitely not a strength of mine!).  One thing I noticed this time around -- there wasn't as much promo for his concert here as there was in past years, which I guess isn't too surprising given the organizer of the concert this time is different and I'm sure does not have as much pull (and definitely not as much experience) as the previous organizer.  I remember when it was at Caesar's Palace, Jacky's concert banners actually covered an entire half section of one side of the building, plus there were large posters all over the place).  This time around, there was only a medium-sized banner out in front of MGM hotel and also a bunch of smaller posters in front of all the Asian-themed restaurants in the hotel.  I didn't go into the MGM Garden Arena area yet (passed by it but didn't go in) so not sure if there are any big posters there or not -- I hope there are though!

In any case, I'm EXCITED to be here and totally ready to be BLOWN AWAY by yet another magnificent Jacky performance.  I'll definitely be doing a recap some time after the concert (might not be right after though -- maybe the next day) so be sure to watch for that post!

Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures! :-)

Jacky concert - Confirmation of additional Las Vegas show!!

The below picture says it all!  Those who didn’t get tickets for the 2/17 show, make sure to put 1/4/18 on your calendar as that is when the tickets for the added show on 2/18 goes on sale!

** LATEST UPDATE 12/30 ** Jacky Concert - Additional Las Vegas show added???

** UPDATE 12/30/17:  IEM Showplace posted the following on their Facebook page this morning:

主辨正積極協調多加一場拉斯維加斯站演出，目前整合進度樂觀。安排加場是需要多方協調，希望粉絲給予更多的鼓勵與正能量，並耐心等待好消息。謝謝！
Currently working on adding another show at Las Vegas Stop and progress so far is optimistic. Please give us more courage and positive energy while we work very hard towards bringing you good news as soon as we can. Thank you.

Source:  IEM Showplace via Facebook


**UPDATE** Ok, apparently this is a glitch — the webpage is no longer accessible now.  People on FB said that their orders were cancelled.  Someone else said they called IEM and were told that the show is still being confirmed and tickets won’t officially go on sale until next week so anyone who purchased tickets for 2/18, their orders will be cancelled.


Hi guys,

Just wanted to bring to everyone's attention that it looks like they added an additional show to the Las Vegas stop for Jacky's concert.  There has been no announcement made so far though and his official concert page hasn't been updated yet.  IEMShowplace's Facebook page (which is the page that they tell us to check every time we call) also has not been updated since 12/8.  However someone on Facebook checked on IEMShowplace's web page and it appears that a show was added for 2/18 at 3pm (see below screenshot).  Not sure if they will be making the announcement soon or if this is a mistake, but since so many fellow fans missed out on tickets for the 2/17 show, I figured I would post this up and you guys can check it out if you want.  If I find out anything further, I'll be sure to update!

P.S.:  Word of warning -- we found out alot of people who bought tickets earlier in the month got their orders cancelled nearly a week later due to the purchase being made "outside of the U.S."  Quite a few people have been complaining on FB about it -- someone actually called and was told their order was cancelled because the person bought their tickets while on a trip in Canada (even though the credit card they used and account they created all had their U.S. address / phone numbers on it).  In reading the Terms and Conditions on IEM's website, it does not specifically prohibit overseas audiences from buying so not sure what the deal is with the cancellations but I wanted to let fans know just in case....

Website:
https://www.iemshowplace.com/jacky-cheung-a-classic-tour-las-vegas-stop/

Jacky Cheung Concert Tour - U.S. Shows - ticket information!

Finally – ticket information for Jacky's U.S. shows was just announced!  For those who can read Chinese, below are the original posts from iemshowplace's (concert organizer) Facebook page.  There are some special instructions on here so make sure you read it carefully.  

For the benefit of those who may not be able to read Chinese, I went ahead and translated (note that the posts for both the Connecticut and Las Vegas shows have the exact same information on them, with the only difference being the dates and times).

Translation:

Jacky Cheung – A Classic Tour – Las Vegas (MGM Grand Garden Arena)

Date/time:  February 17, 2018 at 8pm

IEMshowplace Facebook fans can buy tickets on 12/7/17 – one day ahead of official ticket release.  Please be aware of the following:

1.       A limited amount of tickets will go on sale starting 12/7/2017 (Thursday) from 12:00noon to 11:59pmand will end once all tickets have been sold.  In order to purchase tickets, you will need to use your Facebook account to log in to the ticket sales website.  The website for presale will be announced on 12/7/2017 at 11:59am on Facebook.

2.       Those who purchase tickets online will not be able to choose their seats.   The tickets will be sold on a "first come first served" basis.  Once you indicate the which level of tickets you want, the system will automatically choose the seats starting from the middle inner seats in that ticket bracket and expand out from there to both sides.  If your credit card fails to go through, then you will need to wait until the system purges your information before placing another order

3.       Please note:  After your online order successfully goes through, all sales are final – no refund or exchange will be allowed.  

Sent from my iPhone

Jacky’s Concert: Official Announcement!

** Sorry guys -- looks like this post got all warped up initially...I guess that's what happens when I try to do a rush post from my phone!  I fixed the post so it should be good now.**


It's here!!!!

Official announcement for U.S. shows on Universal's Facebook page! In terms of where/how to buy tickets, the last sentence says "details will be announced in next couple days"

***UPDATED***Jacky Concert News - North America tour dates!!!

**UPDATED 11/30/17**

Ok, so I have updated information.  I actually called the concert organizers (Universal) and was able to get confirmed information from them.  Jacky will indeed be doing 3 shows in Connecticut and 1 show (so far) in Las Vegas – the dates below are also accurate ( I didn’t ask about Canada, since I live in the U.S., so my apologies to Canadian fans).  The lady I spoke with said that tickets have not officially gone on sale yet.  I told her that I know of people who claim to already have bought tickets and she said she knows, as there were a bunch of people who somehow were able to get into their website earlier and buy tickets even though they were not officially on sale (perhaps website was hacked?)…as soon as they found out about this, they shut everything down, which is why there is no information about Jacky’s concert on their website (iemshowplace.com).  The tickets don’t officially go on sale until next week – the exact date and time will be announced on their Facebook page in the next couple of days.

Also, in terms of prices, the most expensive tickets range between $468 to $488 USD – this is important to know because if anyone tries to sell you tickets for more than that price (not including handling charges of course), most likely they are scalpers.  Just wanted to make everyone aware so fellow fans don’t get jipped out of their hard earned money.

I’ll keep posting updates as I find out more info.

**UPDATED 11/29/17**

There is finally word on the show dates for the North America (USA / Canada) leg of Jacky's concert tour!  I got word from a friend that the show dates for U.S. and Canada are tentatively scheduled for the following:

Las Vegas:  2/17/18 at MGM Grand Garden Arena

Connecticut  2/2/18 through 2/4/18 at Mohegan Sun Arena

Vancouver, Canada:  2/27/18 at Rogers Arena

**

From what I understand, the above dates are tentative and supposedly additional dates are being finalized.  I checked UMG's official concert tour web page and none of the above dates are posted yet -- not sure if they are behind on posting or the dates haven't been confirmed yet.  I haven't heard any official announcements from Universal or Jacky's fan club yet so of course take this with a grain of salt.

In terms of ticket information, I've seen some websites that supposedly are selling tickets, but not sure if I believe the legitimacy of those.  I checked the website that was listed on the Las Vegas poster (yes, there is a poster for the Las Vegas one already...though real or fake I don't know) where supposedly tickets were being sold, but when I pulled up the site, Jacky's concert isn't even listed.  My friend said that his friend told him he bought tickets already but again, not sure how true that is.  I checked MGM Grand's website where it lists upcoming shows all the way out through February and so far nothing there either.

I will definitely post further if I hear anything -- for now though, this is all I've got.  If anyone else hears anything, feel free to give me a holler in the comments!

Jacky Cheung concert news!!

FINALLY!  The organizers of Jacky’s concert (his record company Universal) have officially announced tour dates outside of Mainland China!  Jacky’s concert tour will be stopping in Malaysia in January, Singapore in February, and Australia in March – I will update specific date information in the sidebar once I get access to my computer.   

Since Jacky’s concert started in October 2016, the tour has mainly been in HK and throughout Mainland China, with a brief stop in Taiwan and Singapore in early 2017. Sounds like 2018 will be the year Jacky finally takes his concert tour abroad and expand to other countries.  Last year, Universal had confirmed that Jacky will for sure be performing in the U.S. and Canada (which have been usual stops for him in previous concert tours), however they were still trying to work out a bunch of stuff so no idea when that would be.  So far, there has still been no word on U.S. and Canada tour dates, but I am holding out hope it will be announced soon….perhaps in April or May 2018, since those slots haven’t been filled yet?  Or possibly in the summer of 2018, when his daughters are off from school so he can travel a little farther out, since he wouldn’t have to chaperone his daughters to school like he normally does.  Either way, whenever he comes to the U.S. for his concert, I . WILL . BE . WAITING!!!!

Back from hiatus + Jacky Cheung’s 2016/2017 World Tour Concert – post #2

I’m back!!!! :-)

Yes, after a nearly 3 month hiatus, I am finally back to writing and posting stuff on my blog.  My apologies to those readers who have continued to follow my blog, expecting to read about certain topics, but in the end, the posts didn’t materialize.  I am working on finishing up some of the posts that I’ve had in draft mode for ages as well as hopefully getting around to starting some of the newer posts that I’ve been wanting to do but just haven’t had time to gather my thoughts on.  I am hopeful at being able to do at least a few posts a month rather than the dismal one post every couple months that I’ve been averaging.  To all my blog readers – thank you in advance for your patience!

Ok, so with that out of the way….I can’t think of a better way to “return” to blogging than to blog about my idol, Jacky Cheung!  As I’m sure all of you know by now, Jacky launched his highly anticipated “A Classic Tour” concert on October 21^st in Beijing, China and since then, has already completed multiple shows in other Mainland China cities such as Chongqing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Wuhan.  Jacky kicked off the Hong Kong leg of his tour 6 days ago on 12/4 at the Hong Kong Coliseum (a ‘second home’ of sorts for him given the number of concerts he’s held there in his 30 year career).  He will be doing 23 shows in HK this month, with the last show on January 2^nd.  Not surprisingly, tickets for Jacky’s concert have been extremely hard to get, with each show selling out within a matter of hours from when the tickets officially go on sale – so if you were able to get tickets to watch his concert, I absolutely salute you (though please be careful because there have been an unprecedented number of scalpers in recent months buying up Jacky’s concert tickets and re-selling them for ridiculously inflated prices)!

Even though I haven’t really kept up with posting actual written content on my blog, I’ve been doing my best to keep up with the schedule for Jacky’s concert tour and so have posted up the latest tour dates and venues on the side bar of my blog for those who are interested.  Like many others I’ve talked to, I am anxiously awaiting the announcement of the dates for the “overseas” leg of Jacky’s tour – more specifically, for the U.S. leg, since that’s where I live.  The concert organizers (Jacky’s record label Universal) have confirmed that Jacky will definitely come to the U.S. and Canada for a few shows, but they are still working out the schedule as well as the choice of venue.  This actually does make sense, as Jacky’s concert this year is unique in that he decided to bring back the ‘4-side open stage’ concept to his concert, which is something he hasn’t done in over 20 years (the last time he did a ‘4-side open stage’ concert was back in 1995 if I remember correctly).  And for those who have seen any of the 23 shows Jacky has done so far, I’m sure you can attest to the spectacular effect the stage has on the show this year.  With that in mind, the search for an appropriate venue that would be able to accommodate the stage is crucial and will undoubtedly take some time, so I will continue to patiently wait because I know it will be well worth it.  Of course, just being able to see Jacky perform live is already worth the wait (I already waited 4 years for Jacky to do another concert tour, what’s another few months, right?)!  Admittedly, I am super-excited about Jacky’s concert this year, especially after watching some of the fan-vids that have come out of the past few shows as well reading the various opinion pieces that people (both Jacky fans and non-fans alike) have written after watching the concert.  Please, Universal, announce the U.S. dates soon!!!

While I have been following Jacky’s concert pretty closely since its launch in October, I don’t intend to do a recap of the shows so far, as I don’t feel that I would be able to do justice to all the great moments that have occurred so far (and we’re barely 25 shows in).  With that said though, there ARE a few highlights from the past few shows that I do want to mention.  I will try to post up relevant pictures where I can, but it may not always be possible due to the sheer number of pictures that are out there now, especially on social media.  Anyway, if you weren’t hyped up about Jacky’s concert before, you probably will be after checking out these highlights!! J

**NOTE:  All pictures credited as listed ***

Beijing kickoff – October 2016

**Jacky performed to a sold-out stadium packed with fans who have been highly anticipating his return to the stage.  Of course, Jacky did not disappoint, as the first night was absolutely spectacular, with Jacky giving 110% as he always does and audiences from that night walking away after the concert regretting that they didn’t buy tickets to the other 2 shows as well!

** On the third and last night of the Beijing leg, Jacky supposedly ‘screwed up’ a little on one of the songs (meaning he couldn’t hit one of the notes in the climax of the song and his voice nearly cracked).  Of course, no one noticed that he messed up, but being the perfectionist that Jacky is when it comes to his singing, he absolutely noticed and essentially beat himself up over it – during the “talking” segment of that show, Jacky apologized to the audiences and to the crew for his ‘mess-up’ and vowed to work even harder to ‘perfect’ that particular song.  To be honest, not a single person in that stadium that night minded that he had messed up (in fact, probably 99% of the audience didn’t even notice), yet Jacky took the issue to heart and took it as an opportunity to do even better.  No other celebrity out there has the type of work ethic and super high standards set for themselves as he does!  Of course, this is one (of the many) reasons why we love Jacky so much, but at the same time, it’s heartbreaking to see Jacky beating himself up over a non-issue.  Aside from that small ‘incident’, the rest of the Beijing leg was spectacular!

**In terms of ‘celebrity sightings’, there were quite a few ‘big names’ and familiar faces who flew to Beijing to support Jacky, including the following (not all-inclusive):

--- Jacky’s former record producer Michael Au (who lives and works in Beijing now) as well as Jacky’s good friend and long-time singing partner Priscilla Chan (loved their frequent collaborations in the 80s and 90s).

--- Songwriter Keith Chan and family (his wife and 2 daughters), who penned the lyrics to many of Jacky’s greatest hit songs back in the 80s/90s and is still a frequent collaborator even now (Keith’s wife is also a former songwriter who wrote some of Jacky’s songs as well).

--- CRHK DJ Vani, who is also Jacky’s god-sister (she also went to Jacky’s HK shows too!)

--- Actress Zhang Zhiyi and her husband Wang Feng; also singer Eason Chan, who also held his concert in Beijing on the same days as Jacky, but still went to Jacky’s concert after wrapping the last show of his own concert. (sorry, couldn't find the actual pics so had to use a newspaper clipping)

--- My personal FAVORITE moment of the night though was ‘Film King’ Tony Leung Chiu Wai attending the concert and surprising Jacky by showing up backstage after the concert.  I’m sure all Jacky fans know how close Jacky and Tony are (gosh, they’ve know each other for what, like 30 years now?) and with both artists’ busy schedules, it’s not always possible for them to get together…so obviously, us fans were overjoyed to see the two of them share such “sweet moments” together, lol (yes, I know – I’m technically a Jacky/Harlem shipper, but hey, I love the Jacky/Tony ‘bromance’ just as much, haha!).  Oh, and big THANK YOU to Vani, as she was the one who took the photos of Jacky and Tony together backstage and shared them with fans via weibo.  [Sidenote:  the pictures of Jacky and Tony were all over various media outlets’ entertainment sections the next day, lol!]

 

 

Hong Kong kickoff – December 2016

** Jacky kicked off the HK leg of his tour on 12/4 and once again, it was spectacular!  Performing in his hometown, Jacky said that he was very nervous because he didn’t want to let HK audiences down.  In interviews with the media after his concert, Jacky said that he would only give himself a score of 80% for his performance, as he felt that there some things he could’ve done better.  Sorry Jacky, but we have to disagree with you -- most of us felt that you were flawless that night!

** The HK shows are special not just for Jacky, but for us fans as well, since it’s also home to many of the celebrities we know and love.  I am highly anticipating all of the celebrities who will undoubtedly attend one of the 23 shows in HK, but so far, the number of celebrities who came out to support Jacky on the first night was enough to make my jealous of those fans / audiences who were able to score tickets for that show!

--- On that first night (12/4), many of Jacky’s long-time friends (the crowd that Jacky usually hangs out with outside of work) came out to support him by attending the concert together as a big group (they all sat together in the same section too – man, those fans who sat behind them were SO LUCKY!!!).  A few of those friends include:  Eric Tsang, Alex To and his wife Ice, Kenny Bee and his wife Fan Jiang, Chingmy Yau and her husband Shum Kar Wai (they also brought one of their daughters with them), Nansun Shi, Margie Tsang, Tina Liu, Anna Ueyama, etc. (I didn’t name everyone, as there were way too many). 

 

--- In addition to Jacky’s friends, other celebrities such as Na Ying, Candy Law, Candice Yu, etc. attended as well. Jacky’s godfather Wu Fung also went to support his godson (Wu Fung is so sweet – so far, he’s gone to 3 of the shows!), as did Jacky’s god-sister Vani (who went again after flying to Beijing to attend the debut shows).

--- I’m still trying to catch up but I know on subsequent nights, other celebrities attended the concert as well, including Nick Cheung, Bernice Liu, Karen Tong, Miriam Yeung, C-Allstar, etc.  I haven’t gone through all the pictures yet so only posted up a few below.

***** TO BE CONTINUED….. 

Jacky Cheung’s 2016 World Tour Concert – Countdown post #1

It’s almost that time again!!!  My idol Jacky Cheung had announced earlier in the year that he will for sure be starting a concert tour this year (2016), however the details have yet to be announced.  A few months ago, an entertainment magazine claimed that Jacky’s concert was originally set to start in October 2016, however due to legal disputes with Jacky’s former concert manager Florence Chan, Jacky and his current concert organizer Universal will be delaying the concert indefinitely.  Universal responded by denying the report and confirming that Jacky’s concert will launch in October 2016 in Mainland China as originally planned.  They did not reveal any other information in their statement though and said that further details will be forthcoming at a later date.  Jacky did confirm in a subsequent interview (during promo efforts for his new movie) that his concert will indeed launch in October and the previous reports of the concert being delayed are false, however he also declined to reveal too much detail and asked that everyone wait for Universal’s official announcement (reporters did ask him about the HK leg of the concert, to which he replied that the ‘earliest’ he would be able to do HK is December due to availability of the HK Coliseum, which is notoriously difficult to book).

 

As of right now, neither Universal nor Jacky have made any official announcements concerning his concert.  With the rise in fraudulent news and scams in the entertainment circle the past few years, especially with the prevalence of social media and ordinary netizens becoming easy targets, I would like to take this opportunity to warn all Jacky fans (and non-fans alike) to be wary of any information you hear / see / read on the Internet pertaining to Jacky’s concert.  Unless the information comes from Universal, Jacky himself, or his official fan club, otherwise, please take whatever you hear with a grain of salt!

 

A few days ago, there was a supposedly ‘leaked’ document from the Mainland company collaborating with Universal for the China leg of Jacky’s concert claiming that the necessary approvals have been received from the Mainland government agencies for the concert to be held in Beijing.  The document claimed to be for the Beijing leg of the tour and listed concert dates, venue, performer, as well as 60 songs that would supposedly be performed (the dates are listed as 10/21 to 10/23 at the LeSports Center in Beijing).  While I’m pretty sure the venue and dates are likely correct, the song list for sure is NOT, for the following reasons: 

 

1) Jacky traditionally sings around 30 to 35 songs at his concerts, which is enough to fill a 2 to 3 hour timeslot – even the shows that go overtime with multiple encore segments have only been around 40 songs max, so for someone to claim that he will song 60 songs in a 3 hour timeframe is ludicrous.

 

2) A few songs from Jacky’s newest album Wake Up Dreaming were not on the list, which is already a huge red flag, since Jacky himself had already said that he will for sure be performing all 10 songs from his new album at his next concert (which is in-line with how Jacky has done it in the past whenever he holds a concert after an album release)

 

3)  Some of the song names in the ‘60-song list’ were actually spelled wrong (there were extra Chinese characters in some of the songs that didn’t belong there while some songs had characters missing, which essentially turns the song into a completely different song altogether).  Obviously this is another huge red flag, as we all know that the official organizers and Jacky himself would never spell the song names wrong – this is not only unprofessional but also hugely erodes credibility.

 

I checked with a few friends in Beijing who are familiar with how the process works there and they told me that the document released was merely a form that the company arranging the concert had to fill out and submit to the Mainland government entities to get permission to use the listed venue.  It is purely a ‘best guesstimate’ procedural document used to secure the facility and by no means should it be treated as any type of ‘official’ announcement regarding the concert.  My friends said that the song choices were most likely the personal preferences of whoever put the form together and therefore should not be treated as ‘the official rundown’ for the concert (one of my friends also told me that the ‘content’ field on the form can’t be left blank otherwise the application will get rejected, which is probably why the person wrote down a list of 60 songs in the hopes that maybe half of them will be on the mark when the official announcement comes out).

 

As I’ve done in past years, I will definitely be posting up concert information in the sidebar section of my blog, however I will only do so once the ‘official’ announcements come out and I am able to validate the information as being correct and accurate.  In the meantime, I encourage those who are highly anticipating Jacky’s concert to be vigilant and carefully filter through any information you receive concerning his upcoming concert tour.

My Thoughts on this year’s HK Film Awards

Not surprisingly, the HKFA was one award ceremony I absolutely was anticipating this year – main reason is of course my idol Jacky Cheung garnering a Best Actor nomination for his role in Heaven in the Dark (and unlike previous years, he was one of the hot favorites this time around).  My other reason for watching was for Sean Lau, as he’s one of my favorite actors and this is actually his first time hosting the awards (director and HKFA association chairman Derek Yee said that it took much persuasion to get Sean to agree to host).

I’m sure everyone has read the results of the HKFA and know who the winners are by now, so I’m not going to bother listing out the winners.  Instead, I am just going to focus on the categories that I actually cared about as well as the highlights (and low lights) of the ceremony this year.

First up – Best Actor (though ironically this was one of the last awards presented last night).  Jacky obviously didn’t win Best Actor (Aaron Kwok won for his role in Port of Call) – if he had won, this post definitely would’ve started with a scream of excitement, lol.  While I’m a little bit disappointed that Jacky didn’t win, I was surprisingly not too upset about it, since I sort of anticipated it already (Jacky just doesn’t have the luck when it comes to film awards).  Of course, us fans were hoping that the 6^th time’s the charm (he was nominated for HKFA Best Actor 5 times previously), but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. Well, awards are very much about luck and timing and in a way, all stars need to be aligned, so over the years, I’ve learned not to put too much emotion or attach too much significance to awards.  Whether he ever wins the BA award or not, Jacky will always be Best Actor in my heart and I will always support him!

Even though Jacky didn’t win Best Actor, he did win the Best Dressed award alongside his Heaven in the Dark partner Karena Lam, which I felt was well-deserved because he did look extremely handsome last night.  The expression on Jacky’s face when his name was announced was absolutely priceless – he was obviously very surprised!

Outside of the Best Actor category, the other category I was interested in was Best Picture.  I was actually a bit surprised that Ten Years won given how controversial the movie was, plus the great lengths that Mainland China went to in efforts to suppress the film -- including pulling strings behind the scenes to get all movie theaters to quietly ‘remove’ the film from showing after it became such a surprise hit, as well as Mainland’s latest move of ‘banning’ the HKFA ceremony itself due to Ten Years being nominated  (the awards show is usually aired live in Mainland every year, but this year, they released a statement saying that the show won’t be broadcast in China at all).  Ten Years is actually one of the movies on my ‘must watch’ list and I was super-happy that it had gotten a nomination at HKFA, though to be honest, I was like 99% sure that it wouldn’t actually win the award, since, in recent years, much of the HK entertainment industry has been reluctant to take on Mainland China head-on, so I figured the HKFA would continue along those same lines and not take the risk of doing something that is widely considered as slapping Mainland China in the face.  Well, I was wrong and boy am I glad!  This film went through so much and I’m happy that it was able to overcome all the obstacles it did.  With that said though, the movie still faces a difficult road ahead, but hopefully its HKFA win can help the movie in this area.  The producer was indeed correct when he stated in his acceptance speech that the award actually belongs to all the audiences who supported the film, as they were the ones who turned the previously unknown controversial independent film into a runaway hit.  For me though, I actually applaud the HKFA committee members for being so brave and not letting politics influence their decision this time around.  Congrats to the cast and crew of Ten Years for a well-deserved win!

Oh and one thing I just had to mention – I saw a lot of comments from pro-China supporters slamming the HKFA and there were quite a few netizens as well as other members of the general public who were ‘pissed’ that Ten Years won and felt it was ‘undeserving’ due to its status as an independent film with a largely unknown cast and ‘no name’ new directors, plus its hugely controversial subject matter.  My response to that is – those people’s comments can be ignored because it’s obvious their comments are politically-motivated and they don’t have a clue what movies or artistic creativity are about.  If they want to take the HK vs Mainland China thing so seriously (I agree with the sentiment that a lot of times, it’s really Mainland that is making the conflict bigger than it really needs to be), then they are the ones truly missing out.  They don’t see us Hong Kongers complaining when Mainland actors and actresses take home the Best Actor and Actress trophies, even when we feel our actors/actresses are more deserving, do they??

Ok, so onto the actual ceremony itself….

Here are my favorite moments from this year’s ceremony:

-          Sean Lau’s hosting:  he was great!  For someone who doesn’t like to talk, he did a pretty good job for his first time.   And yes, it was super-sweet that his wife Amy Kwok attended the ceremony just to support her husband (aww, love this couple).  I also got a kick out of Sean’s buddy Nick Cheung ‘teasing’ him throughout the ceremony – I actually feel that Nick was the one who laughed the loudest at all of Sean’s jokes, haha.

-          The segment where so many former child actors went on stage to talk about the first film they acted in and how old they were at the time.  At first, I actually thought this was only a ‘tribute’ segment to child actors, which was very appropriate given this year’s HKFA theme, but it turned out this was a ‘2-in-1’ thing where all of those artists remained onstage to present the Best Director award.  I enjoyed seeing so many of those former child actors again, especially the veteran artists who started back in the 1950s and are still active in the industry even now – really admire their dedication to the HK film industry!  For me, the other highlight was definitely seeing John Chiang and Paul Chun together on the same stage – the first thought that went through my mind in seeing them was how great it would be if their brother Derek Yee (who was nominated for Best Director that night) was up there too?  The Chiang family is one of my (and my family’s) favorite entertainment industry families, so I of course was happy to see Paul, John, and Derek together on the same awards show.  Now of course Derek Yee didn’t end up winning (Tsui Hark won instead for The Taking of Tiger Mountain), but it was still an enjoyable – and extremely rare – moment that I will cherish.  [Sidenote:  I also found it so sweet that Benji and Lesley attended the ceremony to support their dad Paul Chun – when he came out on stage, the camera panned over to Benji and Lesley, who were recording the moment with their cell phones…aww, so sweet!  Love this family!]

-          Another presenter moment I enjoyed was when McDull (from the McDull cartoon series) and Wu Ba (from the HK hit movie Monster Hunt) went onstage to present the award for Best Visual Effects.  Both of them were soooo cute!!  And whoever ‘scripted’ their speech did a pretty good job, as their speech was cute and also got quite a few laughs from the audiences. 

-          Andy Lau presenting the Best Newcomer and Best New Director awards alongside the 5 adorable little girls from the movie Little Big Master was also a nice touch.  I actually like it when they have little kids as presenters because it just makes the atmosphere so much lighter and happier (plus everyone is so much more forgiving when the presenters screw up their speeches).

-          I had fun with the segment where Jacky and Nick presented the awards for Best Screenplay and Best Action Choreography.  They continued to play off their ‘real-life brothers’ relationship right from the getgo, with Nick introducing himself as Jacky.  Throughout their presentation speech, they just kept acting silly, even dragging Sean into it at one point (of course, since Sean is one of Nick’s close friends, lol).  Jacky and Nick also sat together off-stage as well and there was a lot of interaction between them, which was of course expected given their close friendship.  And I swear, based on the number of times the camera panned over to Jacky and Nick, the camera man must be a fan of theirs or something, haha! 

-          Best presentation speech in my opinion goes to Carina Lau, who presented the award for Best Actor.  She did a great job livening the atmosphere and in my opinion, gave a speech that was both witty and fun – she got a lot of well-deserved applause and chuckles, which was definitely needed given that the Best Actor award was the second to last award of the night and everyone had been sitting there for 3 hours straight already.  Good job Carina!

-          Best acceptance speech in my opinion goes to the production team of Ten Years.  As a Hong Konger, I was actually quite moved by their speech, especially the part where they said that the last thing on their minds was that the movie would do well or get any awards – their intention was just to do a little something for HK, their hometown and a city they love.  And both producers humbly acknowledged that their film doesn’t measure up to the others in terms of technical standards (of course, since Ten Years was a low-budget independent film whereas all the others were big-budget commercial films), so they were all the more grateful that the HKFA recognized their efforts.

Concluding thoughts:  Aside from the issue of not very many ‘big stars’ attending the ceremony outside of the nominees (which, to be honest, has been an ‘issue’ with the HKFAs for like the past decade already), this year’s HKFA ceremony still ended up being one of the better HKFA shows the past few years in my opinion.  I enjoyed watching this ceremony more than any other awards show this year.

Congrats to all the winners and hopefully next year will see the emergence of more great films!