Concert: 周杰伦《嘉年华》世界巡回演唱会 – 新加坡站 Jay Chou “Carnival” World Tour in Singapore
Date: 18 December 2022
Venue: Singapore National Stadium
I’ve been to so many concerts in the past, most tickets were paid out from my own pocket. But these recent few years since COVID-19 happened, I’ve come to a realisation, was it really worth so much of my money spent on those concerts in the name of searching for answers to my mystery and getting “closer” to the artists, only to get myself hurt and discouraged by the lack of certainty and results in the aftermath? Why did I keep spending the money just to get myself hurt over and over again without any intended results at the end of it all? It just didn’t make sense to me anymore. And so, I’ve since made a silent promise to myself I would never fork out my money to go to a concert ever again unless I am given a ticket to watch it for free.
Well, quite unexpectedly, such an instance really did happen to me in December 2022. During that month the talk of the town was Jay Chou’s concert which would take place at the National Stadium for the first time after almost 3 years since he had the last stop of the same tour here in Singapore slightly just before the COVID-19 global outbreak. His tour for the remaining stops back then was disrupted due to the COVID-19 social distancing measures. But now that the restrictions had very much eased and gone back to normal, he resumed his tour and his very first stop was scheduled here again in Singapore. I didn’t think much of it at first until a friend of mine suddenly asked if I would be interested to go to his concert together as she had gotten free corporate VIP tickets from her company. I thought, why not! I still kept my promise that I would only go to a concert if I got a free ticket. I had never imagined that the universe could still make it happen for me in such a way!
But when the day came, I began to receive unpleasant vibes from my friend whom I would be going to the concert with. She kept doing things that agitated and disappointed me although I mostly held my emotions in since she was the one who sort of “treated” me to the free ticket and I still valued my friendship with her. We were supposed to meet at Kallang Wave Mall just next to the National Stadium for a quick dinner with her husband. But that evening, while I was in the shower, I wasn’t aware that she had a change of mind and asked me to go to her house to have dinner instead with the outside food that her husband had already bought for us. I wasn’t okay with that as we were running late and I thought it would be a hassle for me to travel to her house first then go to the concert together. I was unhappy and told her to go ahead without me and I would probably find some quick bites at Kallang Wave Mall myself instead. Eventually she met me there and insisted that we still had time and she could accompany me at a small cafe for some drinks or small bites when she knew I hadn’t eaten anything yet. But I was getting annoyed with her complacent attitude when I knew time was running out and the concert was about to start but she kept insisting that concerts usually do not start on time and that we could still get into the stadium even 30 minutes late and the show would not have started still. She seemed to treat me like a fool who hasn’t been to concerts before. We had a slight argument but when we cooled down, we made a bet with each other. If the show started on time or earlier than scheduled time, she would lose $5 to me. Conversely, if the show started late, then I would give her $5.
As we finally made our way to the stadium when it was about 8pm scheduled time, we heard music began to play and the audience started cheering and people who were still outside started running. We also hastened our pace as we laughed while my friend lamented why the need for the rush, knowing that she had lost her bet to me.
She brought me to the VIP suite that belongs to her company. It was my first time in a VIP suite at the National Stadium and I was amazed at how it was like. Although it wasn’t close to the stage at all and located at the 3rd/4th floor, the room was air-conditioned and carpeted with a sofa, a bar filled with drinks, alcohol and snacks and a TV screen where you can watch the concert comfortably too. But if you feel like joining the heat with the other audience outside, you can open the glass door and get seated on the stadium seats.
However, one thing we realised was while the concert goers who were paying were given free Jay Chou official concert lightsticks, all of us at the VIP suites or you may call the viewing gallery were not given any. Although we felt pretty left out, having the urge to take those untaken lightsticks from the few empty seats on the top row on the level directly below us, we ended up accepting the fact we couldn’t expect much since we were watching the concert for free anyway. So we became more casual, going in and out of the VIP room whenever we felt it. I guess it was the same for most of the others at the corporate VIP suites too. My friend even went back to the room to do some yoga stretching on a new floor mat I got for her as a housewarming gift when the newer songs that we weren’t so familiar came up.
When it was nearing to the end of his concert, we joined back on the audience seats again. When it seemed like the concert was about to end and Jay seemed to leave the stage for the last time, I told my friend based on my experience that it wasn’t actually the end yet and there would be an encore. But she was again skeptical but she didn’t dare to bet with me this time. Indeed Jay reappeared on stage again for the last encore before he said that he would not delay further and end the concert on time as he understood most/some of us probably including his crew and himself would not want to miss the World Cup finals that were also happening on the same night.
Well in the end? My friend did not give me the $5 for the bet she lost to me. She had probably forgotten about it and even though I felt uncomfortable about it, I couldn’t figure out a way to ask her for it politely without making myself seem like a petty person. But it was just something about it that didn’t feel right…
The next day, since it was a Monday, I went back to work in the office as usual. My colleague, upon hearing that I had just gone to watch the Jay Chou concert over the weekend, started telling me that he had received backlash from many Singaporeans or other fans after the concert. Apparently, there were complaints over the bad sound system at the National Stadium, lacklustre vocal and dance performances from the main star, Jay Chou himself and having too many other guest performers who were standing in/covering his songs for him while he went backstage to get changed or maybe only singing the chorus himself among other things (https://mothership.sg/2022/12/jay-chou-singapore-concert-disappointing/). I was really surprised because I genuinely didn’t think there was anything much of an issue when I was there at the concert. I thought the concert was really fun and entertaining to watch as if you were really at a carnival with a quick magic show segment and even a karaoke segment that allowed some interactions with the fans to sing directly from the audience. But thinking from the perspective of the general audience who had paid for the expensive tickets just to catch Jay Chou perform live, it was understandable that they were unhappy when the spotlight wasn’t just on him alone, but was spread over so many other guest performers. From what was supposed to be a Jay Chou solo concert, it did kinda seem like it had turned into a Jay Chou and his gang of brothers concert instead.
Personally though, I think I was able to enjoy the concert a lot more mostly because I didn’t pay a single cent for the ticket at all. If there were any songs that you weren’t so familiar with or anything that you didn’t like, you could just go back to your suite, take some snacks and drinks and catch a breather. No stress, less pain, lower expectations, very lighthearted and casual… lol. But one takeaway with me from the concert, I did gain some inspirations after getting reminded of many of his nostalgic old songs that were like pure gold to many of us who had grown up listening to his songs throughout our teenage years.
Just like this really cool song titled ““夜的第七章 (Twilight’s Chapter 7)” for example, which I eventually did a little music mashup and video edits for after the concert ended.
So that was my very first concert experience watching from the VIP suite room. Before this, I didn’t even know that such VIP suites actually exist at the concerts so it was pretty eye-opening for me. And incredibly magical at the same time as if I was really invited to watch the concert for free as a VIP guest by the artist himself, but in real life I knew that it wasn’t the case lol.