I've never been much of a Wang Leehom fan but when you win tickets to go see him in concert, anyone can become a fan. My heart was always tilted very, very much towards Jay Chou, but I still listened to a majority of Leehom's songs in high school. It was also my first time going to a concert in Genting's Arena of Stars, so there was that.

With a 2 hour drive jam up to Genting, no thanks to roadworks, I was a grumpy ball of annoyance as I checked into the free room which came together with the two concert tickets. I brought along my brother, John Morgenstern, because I didn't buy him a birthday present this year. A big, big thank you to Getha for hooking us up with a free night's stay.

How I celebrated a free room.

After dinner, and a meeting with Bugger Seah who was up there to watch the concert with his girlfriend and her entire family, we went to Getha's booth inside the Arena of Stars for a winners photo session. I got to meet the other two grand prize winners, Vivian and Hui Ling as well as their respective plus ones.

This was after the concert. The one before the concert is still with Getha. 

At 8.30pm, the lights dimmed to a crescendo of cheers and the dancers took their positions on stage while a short clip of Leehom dispatching waves of soldiers played onscreen. Leehom himself appeared soon after, decked in an eye-catching red vest, raising the decibel levels in the Arena of Stars to an all time high. He began with the very upbeat 火力全開, followed by 龙的传人. It's at this point that my memory begins to fail me, and I begin to immerse myself into Leehom's fiery performance.

Nothing I say here can do justice to Leehom's showmanship and his stage presence. The guy is brilliant, engaging the crowd with witty banter in a mixture of English and Mandarin, and showing off his musical genius by playing a plethora of instruments like the piano, the erhu and his awesome Bahamut guitar. He had the crowd dancing along to hits like 花田錯, 蓋世英雄, 美, 十八般武藝, Julia and 放開你的心, while providing the perfect emotional ballads in the form of songs like 唯一, 你不知道的事, 改變自己, 心跳, 落葉歸根 and 一首簡單的歌.

One of the highlights of the concert was Leehom's version of P. Ramlee's Getaran Jiwa, which you can watch below. For him to sing a classic song like Getaran Jiwa, in Malay no less, really raised my respect for him as a hardworking singer.



There's another highlight in the concert, when he sings a medley of 10 songs acapella style, complete with cheeky versions of himself accompanying him onscreen. Among the songs in the medley include 爱的就是你, 我們的歌, 你是我心内的一首歌 and Can You Feel My World. You know what's cooler than one Leehom? 7SEVEN freaking Leehoms sharing a stage, that's what. Also, look out for the special appearance by Selina from S.H.E, unfortunately digitalized. Watch the video below:




Another notable moment was when he sang 爱因为在心中onstage with members of the Homaniacs, his fanclub in Malaysia. The way Leehom interacted with the girl, holding her hand, grasping her shoulders, smiling at her, probably had many fangirls in the crowd envying her. Watch the whole video below:

一首簡單的歌 & 爱因为在心中(with Homaniacs)




Leehom capped off the night with Forever Love, before coming back for an encore. The best thing about his encore was that it ran for a little over 45 minutes, by far the longest encore I ever experienced. When he ran out of songs (as if it was possible), he went 'rouge' and sang without the aid of his band or backup singers. He sang songs like Lean on Me, 依然爱你, 你不在 and Kiss Goodbye with virtually only the crowd's voice backing him.

Here's his recording of the Genting crowd that night singing 依然爱你 for all his fans on social networking sites:




And Kiss Goodbye, the final song of the night:




Overall, Wang Leehom's 火力全開 Music Man II Round 2 was explosive. It had the energy, it had the vibe and all the Chinked out style that Leehom is so famous for. I practically sang my voice hoarse at all the familiar songs, almost every song he sang that night. It was definitely a rip roaring ride into the Music Man's world. Yes, Leehom, I can definitely feel your world.

Again, a big thank you to Getha and ChurpChurp for giving me the chance to catch Leehom is concert. Jay Chou's concert is in August (hint hint).

Cheerios!