Kit Chan The Music Room Concert 2011
Grand Theater at Marina Bay Sands/Thursday
Is it too soon for another gig by home-grown songbird Kit Chan after her sell-out shows at the Esplanade’s Huayi – Chinese Festival Of Arts in February? The answer is a resounding no.
Once again, she proves to be a big draw live. Another show was added for tonight after the first two nights on Thursday and Friday at the 2,155-seater venue were sold out.
While she had to share the stage with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra at the Huayi gig, this time, it was all about Chan. Even the pre-show announcement about no flash photography and silencing beeping devices was made by her.
She appeared on stage with slicked-back hair and a shimmery gown which revealed a flash of leg. At one point, she said she was nervous and added: “You know the best cure for nervousness? Loud applause!” The audience responded on cue.
She was totally comfortable in her own skin and clearly relished the experience of holding another solo show after a seven-year hiatus from the scene.
Picking which songs to perform was a challenge as she has released more than 10 albums between 1993 and 2004, and she shared her winnowing process.
First, she would have to sing those songs without which she “might not leave the venue alive”. Second, were selections from her comeback covers album Re-interpreting Kit Chan (2011). Third, pick songs which would let out the drama queen in her.
So she performed her hits such as Heartache, Worried, Liking You and, of course, Home. The last was a version that started out hovering on the edge of space and then segued into Michael Buble’s Home. As hands waved in the air, she urged: “Let’s do this NDP rehearsal together.”
She bantered playfully in English, Mandarin and Cantonese and also sang Waiting and Forget Him from two Hong Kong musicals she had acted in – Snow.Wolf.Lake and The Legend.
Mixed in with familiar tracks were other Kit Chan numbers that had not been heard in years, including the first song she recorded, Do Not Destroy The Harmony, and the uptempo Look At The Moon.
Some of the classics she sang were not included on her recent covers album, including Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U and Stephen Sondheim’s Send In The Clowns. In particular, Clowns is not a song for any young, wet-behind-the-ears singer and it is a measure of Chan’s vocal and emotional maturity that she did justice to this song about missed chances and fate’s twisted sense of humour.
On Pink Martini’s Sympathique, she got in touch with her inner diva, slinking across the stage and vogueing languorously as she crooned silkily: “Je ne veux pas travailler (I don’t want to work)”.
The decision to do away with over-the-top costumes, back-up dancers and elaborate production worked as it kept the focus squarely on Chan and her band of able musicians.
Even the encore was thoroughly satisfying as she presented a new song – a beautiful Cantonese ballad called Left And Right Hands written by local songwriter and guest pianist Jimmy Ye and lyricist Lin Xi for the late Leslie Cheung.
When it was time to finally say goodbye, she did a reprise of Liking You, accompanied by just music director Goh Kheng Long on the piano. She sang: “I like following you like this, up to you to bring me to wherever.”
It took the words right out of the audience’s mouths.
(ST)