Pittsford native a star — in China

[Tony Obsessed]

Really? I'd only seen a trailer of it you posted before!

[summertime]

Yes, back on Wed, Jan 14th - however, I noticed that the links have been working on and off.

[summertime]

Latest MV -

我完全沒有任何理由理你 - Wo Wan Quan Mei You Ren He Li You Li Ni -

I Absolutely Don’t Have Any Reason To Pay Attention To You


http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bh1tifCLBw


English Translation and Pinyin for this specific song is item 5 in the link below -




English Translation and Pinyin for entire Heartbeat album:

http://www.mymemories.biz/lh/ly/lyheartbeat.htm

[Tony Obsessed]

The latest MV is hilarious! It's his funniest to date (in my opinion) and I think Leehom still looks hot even in his pajamas with messy hair! Also the bit where the guy gets an electric shock is obviously his way of getting back at Xiao Chong, a record company executive and judge on a TV talent show who basically called him a fraud! Would a so called "fraud" really last so long on the Taiwanese music scene and sell 50 million albums worldwide? I think not! The nerve of the guy is unbelievable, but at least he got his own back!

[summertime]

Well, I went to Wang Leehom's concert in Las Vegas. Life is short right ?LOL

The concert was 2.5 hours and it went by really fast. Videos of his concerts do not do his live performance justice - he was on that night.

The concert started late, 8:30 pm instead of 8 pm, as a lot of the audience was still to arrive. There was a lion dance before the start of the concert, and Leehom was encored at the end.

One thing though, my seat was supposed to be good, and the view was great. I was 1 row off the floor, on the side, about one section over from the stage. However, the unfortunate thing was I was beside the section with all the organizers/admin staff etc.. So there was this never-ending stream of people moving about, blocking my view for photos. I'm not a violent person, but it was getting to the point where I was going to seriously place my hands on the shoulders of the next unfortunate soul to block my view and fling them aside LOL

Leehom did ask the audience what language they wanted - ie. Cantonese, Mandarin or English. There seemed to be more Cantonese speakers than Mandarin speakers which surprised him. However, the loudest cheers were for English LOL So he spoke mainly English, some Mandarin, and a tiny bit of Cantonese.

He made some comments about the recent change in U.S. administrations - and folks, he is definitely not a fan of George Bush. He spoke about Chinese New Year - it being the year of the ox; why the word "ox", and not "cow" or "bull" - and how "We've already had 8 years of bull". I heard him say in an interview once that expressing political views as an entertainer in Asia just doesn't fly - so this was interesting.

He went into the crowd a lot, throwing the audience into a tizzy. The ushers at the MGM Grand had a helluva time trying to block all the people charging for whereever Leehom went, and they had to react very quickly LOL

He sang rearrangements of his older songs, which sounded great, and also sang Xin Tiao, Wo Wan Quan Mei You Ren He Li You Li Ni and Ai De De Ti from his new album. He played electric guitar, violin, piano and drums.

Overall though, from where I was sitting, the crowd was pretty dead - nowhere near the atmosphere of Jay Chou's concert in Toronto.

The MGM Grand Garden Arena has a capacity of 17,000, however 8,000 seats were opened up for this concert. On one website the seats available showed about 5 to 10% availability, but there were quite a few empty seats in the arena. I was talking with one of the MGM Grand staff and he said that the economic downturn was hitting Las Vegas, and that there'd been layoffs at some of the casino hotels. Anyway, I digress.

There was one unexpected development. Leehom held an autograph session right after the concert - his first ever in the U.S.. He was still in costume when he was signing.

They were selling his CD's at the venue. If Jay Chou had had merchandise at his Toronto concert, he would have made a killing.

I've never been to an autograph session for pop music before (Chinese or western) so it was interesting to see how these things work.

You're basically herded like cattle - well, that's how it appeared to me LOL

Only the Heartbeat CD bought at the arena was eligible for signing - and apparently only 500 were available. Plus, I heard Leehom was only going to sign for an hour. But, there were way more people lining up - way more - and it seemed like people brought multiple items. The line really didn't move for the first 1/2 hr to 45 min. I didn't know how Leehom was going to get through it all.

As time passed, restrictions were imposed. The organizers became more stringent on which CD could be signed. Then they announced that only the front cover of the CD was to be signed. Then it was announced that you couldn't take pictures - not even from a distance.

From the get go, I never expected to get a pic with Leehom anyway, and never expected to see him offstage.

Anyhow, by the time it got to me, it was like an assembly line - the line was just flying. And they kept announcing to keep things moving so that everybody could be gotten to. So Leehom was trying to keep his head down, and kept any chat to the bare minimum. He did shake hands with every person. So I merely said to him "Please come to Toronto" and he said . . . drum roll . . . "Okay." LOL

I think Leehom ended up staying a lot longer than an hour. I think he started off with a lot of energy, but it flagged as it went down the line. The guy must of been exhausted by the end. I've never heard of him doing such a thing after a full-length concert. On a side note, I have seen Lang Lang (gave in to pressure to line-up with the people I went with) and Yundi Li (stood off to the side, and waited for the people I went with) sign after playing full recitals, and they were as peppy as ever. LOL

Oh yes, Las Vegas was amusing - for about a day and half - just not my thing I guess

P.S. He did say he would be starting the Jackie Chan film shortly, and he looks the same in person.

[Tony Obsessed]

OMG you are so lucky! How did you end up getting to the concert as I thought you told me a while ago that you would only see him perform if he came to Canada? What was he like in person? Was he friendly to you and was he as good looking in the flesh as he is in MVs and photos?

[summertime]

I just decided to seize the bull by the horns !

Yes, he looks the same in person. He's so purty LOL

Hmmmm . . . was he friendly ? It pains me to say . . . no. Ai-yah !

His tone was rather grudging and unenthusiastic I'm afraid. I said what I said to Leehom because I was thinking back to Jay Chou's concert in Toronto. How an enthusiastic crowd of 13,000 showed up, excited that it was his first time to give a concert there.

I thought it would be really cool if Wang Leehom came to Toronto, and got a similar turnout and response. But it seems that Leehom thought otherwise ROTFL !

I must say I was quite taken aback by his response because he appears to be a pretty easygoing guy. In addition, the girl after me, said something to him even more innocuous than I, and was not acknowledged at all. Oh wellski.

However, I'm not going to judge a man based on a 5 second fan encounter. I will give him the benefit of the doubt - he is human - and to his credit, he did stay until he signed for everyone, and there was a lot of people.

It appears that those towards the beginning/end of the line had positive experiences. So I think those in the middle were likely just shunted along.

As well, apparently there was another restriction imposed - you weren't allowed to ask questions - which I interpret to mean - don't talk to him. If this restriction was supposed to be in place when my section of the line was approaching, I'll have you know that it was never communicated to us.

Anyhow, I'm still glad I went. I had a great time exploring Las Vegas. There's all these glowing comments out there about Leehom's live performances, and I wanted to check it out for myself - and he lived up to his billing - well worth the price of admission.

The hiccough afterward - well, it is what it is - there's always the risk that something won't turn out as hoped - and this was an interesting glimpse into the difference between on-stage persona and off-stage persona

[Tony Obsessed]

It's a shame that he appeared to be grudging and unenthusiastic when you met him, but like you said Leehom was probably exhausted after the show and maybe even a little bit upset that his concert didn't go down as well as he hoped with the crowd. Putting on a concert obvious takes a lot of time and effort and there is nothing worse than a singer performing for a less than enthusiastic audience. As you already said you can't judge him just from a 5 second meeting and the important thing was that you enjoyed the show (even if others appeared not to so much).

[summertime]

The luck of the draw I suppose.

The crowd wasn't unenthusiastic, it just didn't react, because this was the weekend leading into Chinese New Year, and so it was a different kind of audience. Not everyone was familiar with the songs, and no one really moved to the music, or got up and danced. One girl told me that she saw two senior citizens fall asleep during the concert LOL No mean feat, since the concert was loud, with a rock emphasis and lots of electric guitar.

Even though Leehom has been around for 13/14 years, he didn't start to hold concerts in the U.S. until around 2005. At most, he does 2/3 shows in the U.S. every year or so, at smaller venues or larger venues with reduced capacity. He's never held a solo concert in Canada. It took Jay Chou 8 years to get to Toronto. He outsells Leehom by about 2 to 1.

Every casino hotel I explored had a lot of Chinese New Year decorations - from outside the front entrance, to the lobby, to the neon signs, to the interiors. It was great to see. The Bellagio, Caesar's Palace and The Venetian were especially nice casino hotels. I really want to check out The Venetian in Macau. Every time I go to Hong Kong, I always mean to go to Macau, but I find I can't bear to leave Hong Kong. So I must make it a point the next time I go to Hong Kong.

I wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, but the timing didn't work out. I tried the slot machines, and won back my stake. But I find you quickly run out of things to do in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas strip is very lively at night when everything is all lit up - I would recommend the fountain show outside the Bellagio. However, the strip is very short. There's only so much gambling, eating, going to shows that you can do. I wouldn't last a week there !

[Tony Obsessed]

I got my Leehom 2006 Heroes of Earth concert DVD through the post recently, it's probably the closest I'll ever get to seeing him in Europe sadly! It makes me appreciate his talent even more, his vocals could not have been more perfect, (he singlehandly sung all 4 members of Westlife off the stage. I wonder how they knew him and I swear 2 of them even looked a little jealous when Leehom sung his part!) He sure knows how work the crowd and played no less than 5 different instuments throughout the entire show. I especially enjoyed his Broadway style performance of Love, Love, Love, Ni Bu Zai is the Leehom at his best and most emotional ever (probably because the song was about his ex-girlfriend, Mary Bai) and shaking his posterior in a naughty fashion during Follow Me!

[summertime]

It's nice that you're enjoying the DVD

Westlife is also with Sony BMG so I think that's how they came together.

[Tony Obsessed]

Could anyone who is clued up on Leehom's old albums please tell me if both of these are the same CD in different packaging http://www.yesasia.com/us/the-one-and-only-taiwan-version/1004432776-0-0-0-en/info.html http://www.amazon.co.uk/Only-One-Wang-Lee-Hom/dp/B00008PT4E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1239096334&sr=8-1 I bought the second of these two only to find that it was an album for the Japanese market featuring some old songs! Could someone provide the tracklisting for the one at YesAsia as well?

[Tony Obsessed]

Female Leehom fans I need your help urgently. I am writing a piece on his enviromentalist activities and the related song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ypEpFULEuI for college and would like a few quick questions answered as soon as possible.

1. Do you think Leehom is setting a good example to his fans by drawing attention to enviromental issues?

2. Why do you like Leehom so much as a person and popstar?

3. Has the song Change Me inspired you to change your own enviromental habits?

[katwoman64]

Dear Eve,
I'm not a fan of Leehom, but whomever of the star system uses his success and image to draw attention on the protection of the environment does something good.
Blessed.

I feel especially for the environmental issues, most of all because I KNOW firsthand that we have all the knowledge we need, we have all the know how to use the natural resources without depleting them, but we keep doing the wrong thing.

The people of Israel grew orange trees in the desert. They invented the drop system to water the plants in the 1950s, but we had it just ten years ago.
The technology of solar panels or of eolic wheels is still limited to few and sparse zones on the planet.
The same can be said on those that can have heating and hot water recycling all the rubbish.
At the Museum of Sciences and Technology of Paris there is a prototype of car that can go 100 km with just one liter of petrol. Never made the commercialization of this car.
There are cars that go with Hydrogen, but they still are so expensive that nobody, apart the usual happy fews, can buy them.

It is only partly up to the single people to do this. It's mostly up to governments. But apparently, they still do too little, too late. Apparently, they still have to kowtow to the powerful unscrupolous business community.

This just to mention a few examples on the hows and whys Leehom did a blessed thing.

Bye
mimma
_________________
“I will write peace on your wings and you will fly all over the world”

Sadako Sasaki