The Star
Sally Yeh at Her Best
Sally Yeh gave fans a booty-licious night to savour with titillating costumes, sensual dance moves and tantalising vocals.
It was a
night of revelry coupled with good songs and superb showmanship from one
of Hong Kong𠏋 greatest divas at the Sally Yeh It𠏋 My Prime 25th Anniversary
Concert, writes MICHAEL CHEANG who was among the 6,000-plus strong audience
at Genting Arena of Stars.
MALAYSIAN Canto pop fans were spoiled silly last weekend, as two of Hong Kong𠏋 greatest divas paid us a visit � Faye Wong on Friday and Sally Yeh in Genting Highlands the following day. While Wong gave a splendid performance in Stadium Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur, Yeh was not to be outdone, despite playing the smaller 6,300-capacity Arena of Stars. She not only sold every single of those 6,300 tickets (and then some), but also gave a booty-licious performance to boot (pun not intended).
At the appropriately themed Sally Yeh It𠏋 My Prime 25th Anniversary Concert, Yeh not only showed that she is in her prime musically and vocally, but also in terms of feminine wiles (her costumes featured more cleavage than a hundred Mariah-Carey-in-KL concerts). Based on her performance that night, it is hard to imagine Yeh is already 42 years old. On the night, she seemed more like 14, what with her girlish voice and giggles, her playful demeanour and her constant prancing and dancing about on stage.
The concert started at 8.30pm sharp, and as she launched into the energetic dance number, Cheers, dressed in a revealing white blouse and white pants, it was a hint of what was to come � a night of fun and dancing. After all, this concert was about celebration and having fun; therefore who needs depressing and melancholy songs to mar the occasion? Yeh was in an infectiously gleeful mood. Her rapport with the audience was friendly and fun-loving, and one could really tell she was going all out to enjoy herself.
Despite a few notable exclusions, Yeh still managed to include a good number of her greatest hits into the 150-minute concert, namely favourites like Walking by Gracefully, Ten Past Midnight, Believe in Myself and Red Dust.
Yeh𠏋 voice is best savoured when singing slow numbers, and two songs that really spelled out her vocal quality was Burning Heart and I Want to Live On. Nevertheless, that did not mean that she was a disappointment on the easier numbers such as Autumn Come Autumn Go and A Woman𠏋 Weakness, which she delivered with a tender touch.
All the same, this concert was mostly about the dance numbers, as she peppered her show with sequences of dance and upbeat numbers, and eventually rounded things up with a five-song encore where she danced more than she sang. Not that this reviewer is complaining because boy, she sure can shake that booty (in fact, at one point the microphone receiver in her pocket fell out).
She delivered Walking by Gracefully lying on the floor and proceeded to Lover and Friend without getting up. She sang almost half the song while on the floor, with a video cameraman hovering over her. The result � a rather interesting video perspective of Yeh singing while lying on the floor. (Trust me, it was a lot more entertaining to watch than it sounds here.)
Possibly, the only weak spot of the entire concert was the guest performance by Anthony Wong Yiu Meng, which was slotted in the middle of the show that has its spotlight firmly fixed on Yeh. However, he did give a good show in the end when he sang two duets with Yeh. While it is clear that Wong is a great musician in his own right, he unfortunately ended up being mere filler entertainment while she went for one of her costume changes.
Speaking of costume changes, the breaks were filled in rather interestingly, underlining the fact that the concert celebrates Yeh𠏋 25 years in show business. One costume break was filled in with a video clip of her being interviewed by Alan Tam and Hacken Lee (accompanied by some amusing pictures of a younger Yeh), while others had clips of her movies, as well as her award-winning moments.
All her five costume changes were designed to bring out her best feminine assets. In fact, one could see two sides of Yeh that night � one part sensuous woman, the other part giggly teenager. As it turned out, both sides of her were equally entertaining to watch, and the audience lapped it all up eagerly.
Malaysian fans clearly missed her very much, as the enthusiasm from the crowd was overwhelming and security guards had trouble holding them back at times.
When Yeh was lying down after finishing Walking by Gracefully, a daring girl actually ran upstage to kiss her on the cheek, much to Yeh𠏋 bewilderment. Earlier, while getting up-close with her fans, (during the song Night Wind), she was mobbed by them and could not even continue singing. She had to keep saying, 𦽳low down, slow down� in an effort to calm down the fans. By the time the concert entered its energetic finale, almost the entire hall was dancing, much to the dismay of the guards.
All in all, Yeh may already have been in the business for 25 years, but on this kind of form, she could yet keep it up for a number of years more. One could have little complaint about the concert as it was a superb performance by a singer who is obviously still in her prime.