Best Asian gigs of 2015
For Music, For Life... Liang Wenfu Concert 2015
The Star Theatre/April 10 and 11
Singer-songwriter Liang Wern Fook, whose name is pretty much synonymous with the home-grown Mandarin music movement that is xinyao, held his first solo concert and showed why he is the quintessential chronicler of Singapore life.
So what if he is primarily a songwriter and not a singer? His modest voice has a charm of its own and the fans lapped up the little anecdotes behind the famous compositions.

Jolin Tsai 2015 Play World Tour – Singapore
Singapore Indoor Stadium/July 25
Taking inspiration from her album Play (2014), Jolin Tsai morphed from Medusa – complete with a headpiece of writhing mechanical snakes (left) – to roaring 1920s flapper girl to underwater princess.
The Taiwanese diva shimmied with a bevy of statuesque dancers and delivered on both the high- octane tracks as well as the ballads. She even performed We’re All Different, Yet The Same – a song banned on radio and television here for its homosexual content – by presenting it as a broader anthem of inclusion and acceptance. Well played.

JJ Lin Timeline: Genesis World Tour
Singapore Indoor Stadium/Sept 5
Home-grown singer-songwriter JJ Lin kept it all in the family in the homecoming leg of his latest tour. He sang duets with his mother, father and elder brother and proclaimed to the full-house crowd: “Don’t blame me for being partial on my Singapore stop.”
There was also an SG50 moment when he sang Our Singapore, the English theme song for this year’s National Day celebrations. Singapore fans had no problems with him playing favourites at all.

Worst
S.H.E. / Aaron Yan Forever Stars 2015 Singapore
Singapore Indoor Stadium/ Nov 10
Popular Taiwanese girl group S.H.E. find themselves in this awkward spot no thanks to their labelmate Aaron Yan. He had problems with pitching and high notes and the loudest applause came when he announced his final number. Enough said.
(ST)