In April and May, Hong Kong Heavenly King Jacky Cheung set the record for the most concerts in a single leg performed at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, when he sold 72,000 tickets across nine nights for his 60+ Concert Tour.
This beats the four concerts each held at the venue by Singaporean singer JJ Lin during 2018’s JJ Lin Sanctuary World Tour and fellow Heavenly King Andy Lau during 2019’s My Love Andy Lau World Tour.
When tickets for his six shows in Kuala Lumpur went on sale on May 26, they were snapped up in two hours.
Concert promoter Unusual Entertainment is still exploring the possibility of adding more shows for Cheung both in Singapore and Malaysia.
The Straits Times uncovers five reasons for this massive demand.
Cheung has a devoted fan base in the Lion City and is no stranger to performing multiple nights at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
He was the first act to hold five shows at the venue in 2011 for his ½ Century Tour.
He also held three shows during the initial Singapore leg of his A Classic Tour in 2017 and three more during the encore leg of the same tour in 2018.
Koh San Chin, Unusual Entertainment’s assistant director of marketing, says Cheung has a proven global track record in selling out his concerts, and Singapore is no exception.
“For A Classic Tour, a total of 60,000 tickets were sold over six shows in Singapore. Therefore, we were confident that he could sell six shows right from the get-go, considering it has been five years since his last tour.”
She adds that holding multiple shows depends on many factors, such as the act, the buying power of its target audience, the availability of the act and its team, as well as the venue.
Benjamin Cassim, a senior lecturer in hospitality and tourism management at Temasek Polytechnic, says: “(Cheung) has been very careful to maintain a positive personal brand, as well as his physical well-being and looks.
“In all of his live performances, he has maintained very high levels of engagement with his audiences. These add to his popularity and create a strong desire among fans to see him perform live.”
In addition, the “God Of Songs” is famous for his dramatic vibrato and rich baritone.
For Singaporean Wendy Yeow, 45, it will be her third Jacky Cheung concert. She recalls watching one of his shows in the 1990s, as well as his ½ Century Tour performance in Singapore in 2011.
The public relations specialist, who bought four S$388 (RM1,323) tickets to his upcoming July 16 show in Singapore, admires how he has shown his vocal skills “time and again”, whether he is belting out love ballads such as Love Is Eternal (1997) or upbeat dance numbers like Legend Of The Hungry Wolf (1994).
She hopes he will perform Your Name My Surname (1996) as she thinks its lyrics are “very moving and meaningful”.
“I did not manage to get tickets to his A Classic Tour concerts as they sold out so quickly, so this time, I was determined to grab tickets. I entered the system half an hour before ticket sales started, and thankfully managed to secure them.”
Cheung has a long list of classic hits in Cantonese and Mandarin, with the most popular released in the 1990s, such as Just Want To Spend My Life With You (1993) and You And Me On The Road (1993).
In 1998, he clinched the Golden Melody Award for Best Male Mandarin Singer.
The age demographic of his audience squares with research suggesting the powerful ability of music to evoke coming-of-age memories.
Yeow started listening to Cheung’s songs in the early 1990s when she was in secondary school.
She says: “I grew up with his songs and must have spent years listening to his CDs and flipping through those lyric booklets. So even now, when I listen to some of his songs, I don’t know why, but I know every single word. I don’t know how I know them, but I do.”
Cheung’s current world tour is titled 60+ Concert Tour, and he turns 62 on July 10. The gig’s poster also depicts Cheung with some grey in the stubble of his chin.
Cassim feels Cheung’s concert is “smartly positioned” as it suggests he may possibly stop performing live concerts after this tour.
Leung Sau Yee, a senior lecturer in digital marketing and branding at Singapore Polytechnic’s School of Business, also says the strong demand for Cheung’s concerts is likely fuelled by fans’ fear that these could be the star’s last live concerts in Singapore.
In March, when promoting his new Mandarin single Another Ten Years, Cheung said the swift passage of time is something everybody must come to terms with.
“The faster it passes, the less you have,” he said. “As the song’s last sentence goes, ‘how many more decades will there be?’”
So far, the dates for only two other stops of Cheung’s upcoming concert tour have been announced: 12 shows in Macau on June 9 to 11, 16 to 18, 23 to 25, and June 30 to July 2; and six shows in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 11 to 13 and 18 to 20.
As such, it is not surprising that overseas fans were also fighting to nab tickets to his Singapore concerts, with the intention of flying in to catch the show.
Outside Singapore, the top three territories that ticket-holders to Cheung’s concert come from are Malaysia, Taiwan and China, according to Unusual Entertainment.
Cassim said: “Foreigners, especially those from Indonesia and Malaysia, are used to flying into Singapore specifically to attend concerts and entertainment events, even before the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Entertainment event organisers also reach out to potential audiences outside Singapore when marketing events that take place here.
“Apart from concerts, Singapore also provides a wide range of leisure-based experiences that foreigners get to enjoy during their stay here.”
People in their 40s to 60s form the strongest demographic of Cheung’s audience.
This mature crowd includes Gen Xers, younger baby boomers and older millennials who are advanced in their careers, with relatively higher income and spending power.
For this group, the price of tickets to Cheung’s concerts, which cost between S$168 and S$388 (RM573 and RM1,323), is not prohibitive.
Scalpers on online marketplace Carousell also resell tickets at exorbitant prices, with a pair of tickets – each originally priced at S$388 – going for a total of S$2,000 (RM6,822). – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
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