Ada Choi at the Canto Pub, Marina South, Singapore (Full Version)
by "just me"
(originally posted on Ada Choi's English Forum on the 13th Oct 2001)
I have just returned from seeing Ada at the Canto Pub at Marina South, Singapore. Yippee!!! :-)
Here's a short description of the experience... (if any of it is incoherent or repetitive, it's probably cuz I'm still excited. :-) Sorry.)
Being highly inexperienced in the art of "stalking" a star, my friend and I arrived at the Canto Pub punctually at 11pm only to find out that she wasn't scheduled to go on stage till midnight. Of course we didn't know that for a while and at first we thought that maybe we got the dates mixed up. :-)
The pub was fairly crowded to begin with but the tables and the dance floor really begin to fill up as it approached midnight. I don't know how many people were in the pub, it's hard to tell cuz I was in a corner and couldn't see the dance floor.
To keep the crowd occupied they played several Sammi Cheng MTVs, so many that I thought that I was getting preped for a Sammi Cheng mini-concert. :) After some techno music and Aaron Kwok's Para Para Sakura, it's midnight and the MC for the night announces that she's about to go on stage and plays the Healing Hands Ada-Lawrence MTV. The excitment begins to build as everyone waits in anticipation for her arrival.
Finally, the MTV ends and the MC announces her arrival. She arrives on stage singing Tarcy Su's Lemon Tree song. She's all smiles and looking gorgeous in black as she waves and beams at the crowd.
Knowing that Ada's not a singer and having heard both of her songs, I wasn't expecting much but I have to say that she's either really improved or just far better at live performances. She does lose her way a little doing the "da-da" parts in the song but I think she was a little distracted cuz she was busy waving at everyone.
After she's done with the song, she says that she's going to sing another song. This time a Cantonese song and she'll shake hands with everyone as she sings this song. This is the song from the album with Kenix Kwok, Francis Ng etc... "qi shi wo hen jian dan." As she sings the song, she bends to shake as many hands as possible from people on the dance floor and who are just in front of the stage. And the normally reserved Singapore crowd goes wild with joy.
After the song, she thanks everyone and says that Singaporeans are very "re qing" and she jokes that we are so "re qing" that even our hands are so sweaty. :-) The MC then comes out to chat with her. She says that this is her first time here... I'm not sure if that means her first time in Singapore or her first time in Canto Pub or her first time on stage in Singapore. I tend to believe that she meant first time in Singapore since I don't remember her ever having come here. She also said that she arrived in Singapore Thursday night. The MC and her then asks the crowd if they like her etc and the answer that came roaring back with evey question is of course a resounding "YES!!!!" :-)
The MC also asked her about her work. And she said that she has just finished shooting "Lok Sun." The MC then said something like, "Oh yes, I heard you had to jump into one of the ponds and you were freezing." She said quite spontaneously that that wasn't the worst part, the worst part was that the pond was full of turtle doo-doo. (Of course she didn't say it quite like that. :-) )
She then asks for a male volunteer from the crowd to come up on stage with her. The lucky bugger gets to go on stage to "perform" a song with her. She then sings "Mo Qi" (I think that's the pinyin for the song.) She then drags the shy chap here and there before ending the song by twirling into his arms which gets the crowd cheering. After that, the lucky dog gets a polaroid picture taken with her as a gift.
After that she goes backstage for a costume change and comes out in a fiery red, high collar, long coat thing. (Sorry, I can never describe clothing.) She then sings Wong Fei's "A Love Letter to Myself" in Cantonese before saying goodbye.
The MC then comes on stage and says, gee 4 songs isn't enough, is it? The crowd roars back, "NO!!!!" So with the help of the MC, the crowd cheers her back on where she tells everyone that she'll sing one of Ah Mei's "qi shi wo shen mo dou bu xiang yao." By this time, she's also made a third costume change and it's a black off-shoulder thing. She then says that the song is difficult for her because it's a Mandarin song and she's not really a singer, so she asks the crowd to sing along at the high parts in case she goes out of tune. She begins to sing and the crowd obliges by singing along with her. IMO, she actually sang the Faye Wong song and this song rather well... at least I was impressed. :-)
After that, she thanks everyone and says that she hopes to see us all again at the Canto Pub and then she bids adieu for real. Huge claps all around and as more techno music plays, a large portion of the crowd makes their way home.
It was a highly enjoyable evening for Ada Choi fans. Too bad she only appeared for 40-45 minutes. But really, it's a real deal cuz the normal cover charge for Canto Pub is S$15 and there is no additional charge or request to buy drinks to enter tonight. So essentially, if you are a regular Canto Pub patron, it's free.
She looks really good in person and her smile is trully brilliant. She's not as skinny as I thought she might be and she is very lanky. She sings surprisingly well live and her voice is high, light and sweet; quite suitable for Chinese pop music. She also managed to establish chemistry with the crowd of normally reserved Singaporeans. As a testament to her attraction, as I was leaving the pub, I saw a couple who are probably in their 50s leaving the pub too. They were obviously there to see her. Canto Pub's crowd is rather young and my bud and I don't quite fit in that age group either. :-) But heck, if she is going to be there again, I'm going.
My buddy and I are sort of reserved people and we've never done this before and also we've never been to the Canto Pub. I wished now that we had known how this whole thing works cuz I would have been on the dance floor too, hoping to shake her hand.
enjoy
ps. For those interested, Chilam is scheduled to be at the Canto Pub on the 26th of Oct