Last night, I went to Sammi Cheng’s Las Vegas concert at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Pretty good. Compared to Aaron Kwok and his “Dancing Nation Live” concert at The Orleans Arena in late May, Sammi definitely has a much better voice, but her show wasn’t quite as theatrical as Kwok’s. For the better live concert experience, I’d have to give the edge to Kwok.
Apparently, the modus operandi for every male HK pop star performing live is to act as flamingly gay as possible. At least that was Kwok’s M.O. (Jacky Cheung was also very adept at it when he played Caesars in February.)
The M.O. of female HK pop stars is to emulate a stripper bumping and grinding her heart out or Tina Turner on speed. Perhaps some combination of the two.
Las Vegas is a very tough town for HK pop singers because a significant portion of the audience is filled with Chinese gamblers whose tickets are being comped by the casinos. These gamblers probably don’t readily fall into the target demographic of HK pop singers, i.e., over-caffeinated and over-enthused teens and twentysomethings. Usually, the casinos reserve the best seats for these gamblers long before tickets are released to the general public, so the truly crazy fans, those who shell out their own money to attend, are relegated to the fringes. The result is usually a big dead spot of non-enthusiasm right in front of the stage, where a performer would usually expect his/her most enthusiastic fans to be. I’m sure this Zone of Silence is a big shock the first time they perform in Vegas. Also, the comped gamblers are not shy about getting up and simply walking out in the middle of the concert to head for the casinos if they get bored. If you ever go to a HK pop singer’s concert in Vegas, watch for this. It’s hilarious.
And heaven help you if you try to perform Asian hip-hop. Vanness Wu (Christian) went down in flames as a special guest performer at Kelly Chen’s December 2006 concert at the MGM Grand. You could hear a pin drop during his set. It was a total disaster; absolutely horrific. What made it even worse was that Wu brought his sister, Wendy, as his special guest performer, and she tanked worse than he did. At least 10% of the audience had heard of Vanness Wu – or at least the street in San Francisco for which he was named – so he had that going for him if nothing else (and trust me, there was nothing else). Wendy Wu? Nada. If the concept of zero did not exist, they would have had to invent it after her performance. The Wu siblings were simply performing the wrong genre of music for an audience made up of the wrong generation at the wrong time of year (Christmas).
Anyway, the actual point of this entry isn’t to expound on the HK pop concert-going experience in Las Vegas, but to note that Sammi Cheng may be a Christian. I thought I had heard this before, but cursory research didn’t turn up anything. But then she appeared on the cover of the May 2007 issue of Angel’s Heart Monthly, a publication of The Media Evangelism Limited. There was a blurb on the Angel’s Heart Monthly website that may have been a teaser for a more in-depth feature article about her in the actual magazine (but I really have no idea…). Then I found this quote…
Throughout her childhood, Sammi and her family were devout Christians, a religious denomination she holds dear to her heart. “I love the influence by Christianity… and will often go to Bible study,” Sammi says.
Interesting. Even more interesting is the source: AskMen.com. Frankly, I have no idea how much stock I should put into the fact-checking efforts of this website, but it’s the most concrete thing I have so far. So.
Perhaps I’ll go sic the research department on this issue… Stay tuned.
