OPUS JAY 2013 WORLD TOUR

 

Another dream came true... 

A 10 year old dream to be exact... and it's a past due review but I still want to post this anyway LOL

In the middle of F4 rage in early 2000 I got to know this singer named Jay Chou and had been in love with his music ever since. I bought all of his albums, MV dvds, movies, concert dvds, basically everything that he released. I even had giant posters of his from his 2002: The Once Concert Live and 2006 Album: Still Fantasy hanging on my bedroom wall now.

He held some concerts in Singapore, the last one was in 2010 for The Era World Tour. I missed that one because I traveled to Japan for the first time, thus I spent all my money in that holiday, nothing to spare to watch him. So for the past 2 years I've been waiting to hear if he's going to hold another concert in Singapore.

Then in early February I heard the announcement and got an email from Sistic. He'd finally returned for his World Tour of his last album, Opus 12 on June 8-9! Somehow the first 2 days of the ticket sales was intended only for OCBC card & M1 number holder. Sold out in 1 hour! Then they added another day on June 6, and sold out again even before the public sales began. I asked my Singaporean friends who had own the card & number, they said they couldn't get one, it's crazy. So I thought that maybe I wasn't meant to watch it. I was disappointed but I believed that when it's my time then it will be my time.

I was working  in the office when an email came from Sistic. Due to high demand for the concert, they're adding some seats including those with restricted view. I didn't waste my time and logged into Sistic right away. I didn't get it in the first try but once I refreshed there's a Cat 2 single seat available and I grabbed it right away. Tadda!! I got my ticket for June 8 show!!

On the day of the concert, I got to the venue around 7.45pm - ticket said show would start at 8pm. I wanted to buy a couple of merchandise but the queue was so long! I decided to just wait inside the venue. Show didn't start on time cause people were still queuing for merchandise outside. But I was happy when I saw that in every seat they provided free lightstick and baloons. 

Me and my free balloons :)

I was sitting in the middle of 2 boys in their teens on the left and a guy in his late 40s on the right. They all cheered very loudly and sang along in every song too. And at 8.20pm the lights were out and the concert started. At first an opening video was played on stage and on screens. And before you complained for the lack of quality of the pictures that I'm posting, I didn't bring my camera in purpose because I wanted to really enjoy the show and not being busy behind the lens. So I only used my phone camera, besides I was seated on the right side of the stage so I didn't get a very good view. I didn't complain though cause I could still see him clearly from my seat.

His concert was divided in a few segments. And he opened the concert with a rock song from his Opus 12 Album, but he followed right away with (surprisingly) The Final Battle / 最後的戰役 / Zuì Hòu De Zhàn Yì from his 2002 Album, The 8th Dimension. And after a few more songs from his old albums including the famous song that was used into a Pepsi advert Nunchucks / 雙截棍 / Shuāng Jié Gùn he disappeared for a moment from the stage when suddenly a white piano appeared in the middle of the stage. And the piano acoustic ballad segment began. I practically melted on my seats especially when started playing Silence / 安靜 / Ān Jìng I couldn't help myself but screaming along with the whole stadium at the song's ending: It is because I love you too much / shi yin wei wo tai ni... I knew the boys were staring at me cause I kept bugging them to translate whatever Jay was saying yet I could sing my heart out with every song he played LOL

In the middle of this segment I just couldn't hold my bladder anymore and ran to the bathroom in the middle of my less fave song, but while I was p**ing (I'm sorry that you just have to read this :p) I suddenly heard the intro of one of my fave song Can't Express Myself / 開不了口 / Kāi Bù Liǎo Kǒu and I kind of, errrr... sped up the process, zipped up my fly, express hand washing and ran back to my seat with panting breath, all the while singing along with him! Just how crazy I was, eh? LOL

Jay was about to release another self-produced movie, The Rooftop, so another segment was dedicated to the new movie, where he acted out with a girl and some gang. It was interesting but I wasn't familiar with the songs so I didn't sing along at all in this segment. Still, I enjoyed to see him dancing and acting, if I was a cartoon character there would be stars and love coming out of my sparkly eyes! Hahaha As the concert was nearing the end, suddenly the whole stadium went dark and there was some kanji on the screen and the stadium went silent, the boys translated to me that it said: "Please turn off your light stick for the best effect of the next song." So I did, just like everyone. And a few second later the screen and also the stage lit up with stars and planets as if we're in the milky way... A white piano and Jay in white suits turned up and my most fave song from Opus 12 Album, Sign Language / 手語 / Shǒu Yǔ, started!! I was gaping at the screen to see the dreamy like video when suddenly he was being lifted up onto the middle of the stage and blended with the 3D mapped video!! O.M.G.

Jay singing  "Sign Language / 手語 / Shǒu Yǔ"

I had to admit that the effect of the video and live show combined was very beautiful in the dark. Everything was white and sparkly and even some fake snowflakes were falling from the ceiling onto the audience!! So romantic... *sigh* He really went all out with the show, lots of pyrotechnics,  fake snowflakes, confetti, drama, and everything else that ever came up in all his MVs. Oh, and some giant beach balls at the ending of the concert for his song, Ukulele / 烏克麗麗 / Wū Kè Lì Lì.

Giant beach balls in the middle of the audience :)

All in all, it was a great 2.5 hours show and I was so enchanted from the beginning until the end. It was a sold out 3 day shows actually and I wasn't that surprised to see the variety of people in the audience. From children to grandparents, everyone was singing along to his hit songs and moved their bodies with the music, smiling from ear to ear and laughed as he made jokes in Mandarin (which I didn't get cause I didn't want to bother the boys next to me anymore with translating the jokes lol). Another funny thing was, Jay was knows to forgetting lyrics in live shows. So in the small screen at the top of the stadium, facing the stage, where it usually wrote things like: "Clap your hands" "Sing along!" etc... all his lyrics was played word by word with the sequences such as: "Repeat" "Encore" "Change clothes", I laughed like crazy when I found out about it! Oh Jay...

The concert was so memorable and I'm so looking forward to another concert of his in the future. Some more pics of my handsome boy.... :)

 Theatrical Jay

Guitar playing Jay