I went to Vivian's concert shows on March 19 and March 20.

Here's the rundown for Vivian's concert on the 1st night.

* Vivian shook hands with the audience.

Overall thoughts on Vivian's two "Deep V" concerts... this was Vivian's BEST show ever!!! ..absolutely AMAZING!!! Vivian gave a superb performance! Vivian wore several beautiful dresses...and her voice sounded fantastic!! I think Vivian danced more this time compared to her concert in 2006. There were many touching moments during the concert...Vivian cried more this time than her previous HK concerts. There were also a number of surprising moments during the show, although I kinda wish the names of the guest performers weren't revealed beforehand, otherwise there would have been even more surprises.

3/19/11 - A few fans and I had arrived to the HK Coliseum at around 2:30PM, waiting to see Viv arrive at the Coliseum. Viv arrived a little after 3:00PM. She got out of the mini-van and waved to the fans for about a minute or two and then went in to the venue for final rehearsals before the show. I returned to the Coliseum at about 7:00PM...I wanted to get there early to buy some concert souvenirs. I think most fans made sure they went to the ATM before they got to the Coliseum..cuz you need cash to buy the souvenirs. All the proceeds from Viv's souvenirs will be donated to charity to help raise funds for the Yunan and Japan earthquake victims. Viv's good friend Leo Ku had designed 2 T-shirts and 2 Iphone covers for Viv's concert souvenirs. Leo stated on his ABC company's blog that the butterfly design represents Vivian (I'm guessing Leo thinks a butterfly is beautiful, so therefore butterfly=Vivian=beauty), and the leopard pattern is to commemorate Viv's beloved cat Pal who passed away. The souvenirs didn't start selling until about 7:30PM.. I bought the 2 t-shirts ( T-shirt #1 , T-shirt #2 ) and the 2 Iphone covers ( Iphone cover #1 , Iphone cover #2 ) ....even though I don't have an Iphone yet ...but by the time I decide to get an Iphone, this cover might not fit. The t-shirt cost HK$280 (US$36) each and the Iphone cover cost HK$150 (US$19) each. Fans were also able to buy Viv's newest EP! (HK$100 each... only 1,000 copies of the EP available that day) But the EP didn't include the DVD with the music videos...however, it did come with Viv's EP poster!! ...and there were 2 different EP posters ( Poster #1 , Poster #2 ) ...so most fans bought 2 copies of Viv's EP so they could get both posters...myself included..hehe.. ... we saw one fan who bought 10 EPs!...wow.

I was sitting in the red section, Row 1, which was the 4th row (Thanks to Carmen for the close seats!). Most of the fans with their light boards were sitting in the red section. Part of the stage was shaped like a "V," although most of us who were sitting on the lower part of the red section couldn't see the "V" shape. Viv's husband Joe and her good friend Leo were sitting in the green section below the control panel. The show started at about 8:30PM. Before the show started, there were some Viv photos being shown on the big video screen (photos taken these past 25 years) while Viv's good friend Cheng Dan Sui (ah Daan) was telling the audience that over these 25 years of knowing her, he's discovered that Viv is serious when it comes to work and is a perfectionist, and so in order to avoid having any imperfections for Viv's 25 anniversary concert, he asked for everyone's help by turning off their cell phone ring tone and also asked everyone to please not record any audio/video or take flash photography during the show. Then ah Daan asked everyone to count down from 25 to welcome Viv...so everyone counted down..25, 24, 23....(the countdown seemed kinda long...but need to stick w/ the '25' anniversary theme).... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!..all the fans screamed, anticipating Viv's appearance...but guess what?..Viv wasn't the first performer to appear.. instead, Sean Lau Ching Wan appeared on the big video screen and said a few words about Viv, but he didn't appear on stage in person, which was kinda disappointing. About a week before the show, Viv had announced that Ching Wan was going to be a guest at her concert, so we're all assuming he would actually appear on stage.... I don't really consider someone as being a guest if they're just appearing on the big video screen. After Ching Wan's speech, a little girl appeared on stage and sang "Red River Village" while there were video clips of Viv and Ching Wan on the big video screen..mostly video clips from "The Greed of Man" and "Tulips in August." Then it was time for Viv to appear...FINALLY!!

The fans were screaming loudly when Viv appeared wearing a beautiful dress with a pink, orange, and blue water-color like pattern. Her headpiece with the pink flowers looked pretty. I think most of us assume that the first song for a concert is usually a fast song, to make the audience even more excited, but this time Viv started out with one of her most popular songs, "A Long and Lasting Love," which already made me wonder which song would be her last song for the night, since she's already singing "A Long and Lasting Love" now and the little girl already sang "Red River Village." I didn't notice she was standing on a big white paper plane model until her back was facing towards us. There were little colored paper planes next to the big white paper plane model. I'm guessing 99% of Viv's fans have seen the TVB series "The Greed of Man," so we all know the importance of the paper planes, "Red River Village," and of course Lau Ching Wan. As soon as Viv started singing "A Long and Lasting Love," I could clearly hear there was a difference in her singing voice..and when I talked with a few other fans later about Viv's voice, they said the same thing.. Viv's voice sounded a lot more stronger than before (more on this subject on the 3/20 show review)...kinda sounds like a new Viv, but she sounded great!

After Viv sang "A Long and Lasting Love," she sang "Lonely Heartache." During the middle of the song, Lau Ching Wan appeared again on the big video screen...this time what he had to say was linked to Viv's song. If you remember, during the middle of this song, Viv says, "Do you know what forever love is? It's just a beautiful fairytale. After the story ends, we go back to being lonely, waiting for another story to begin. But I want to tell you, in our fairytale, I previously loved you whole-heartedly ..." so during this part of the song, Lau Ching Wan changes some of the words and said, "in this fairytale, you (Viv) would never feel lonely, because everyone here will whole-heartedly love you (Viv)."..that was a clever way of changing the words. The next song Viv sang was "Wedding of Feelings." Something unexpected happened during this song...towards the last part of the song, there were some fireworks that were set off on stage..Viv was singing and then suddenly there was no sound...Viv's back was towards us and I wasn't watching the big video screen at that time, so I assumed something was wrong with her microphone..Viv wasn't singing for a few seconds...then we hear Viv say, "Wah.. the fireworks (the smoke) are really strong.."..it seems there was too much smoke coming from the fireworks and Viv breathed in the smoke and started coughing, so she couldn't sing... she said, "Sorry," and everyone started clapping and cheering to give her support. After the song, Viv said setting off fireworks is really pretty, but she didn't think it would have such an effect (her choking while singing), since they didn't test the fireworks during rehearsals. You can bet there won't be fireworks on the next show during that part of the song.

Next Hacken Lee Hak Kan appeared on stage to sing the duet song "Thousands of Love All in One" with Viv. After the song, Viv was talking with Hacken and said it's been 5 years since she's sang a song with him, since he seldom goes to sing karaoke with her after he had children. Then Hacken said one time when he went to karaoke, everyone else in the room was quiet and didn't play the dice game or drink beer and only sang songs (does this sound familiar?..Hacken mentioned this before at Viv's 2006 "Back for Love" concert )...and he said the most extreme thing was that after Viv finished singing she would force the people sitting near her to applaud...haha!...Viv laughed and said she didn't do that. (if fans were in the same karaoke room as Viv, we would gladly applaud after every song that Viv sings..hehehe ) Then Hacken was saying that Viv's looks haven't changed these past 20something years since he's known her..and Viv jokingly said she didn't know Hacken 20something years ago and that the person he knew wasn't her...haha. Then Viv said that other than Hacken having a wife and kids, he hasn't changed overall. Then Hacken asked Viv when she plans on having a 'small one' (a child)...and Viv asked Hacken why they would be talking about this on stage and that they should talk about it off stage instead..hehe. Hacken also mentioned that Viv is one of the very few singers who doesn't need to use an LCD monitor on stage to see her song lyrics (Viv has a VERY good memory!)...most singers nowadays have multiple LCD monitors on stage in case they forget the song lyrics. After Hacken and Viv finished talking, Hacken assisted Viv in walking back to her 'paper plane' and even bent down to help move the bottom of Viv's dress ...pretending to be a 'gung gung' (eunuch)...hehe... so Viv's dress wouldn't get caught when she descended below the stage.

While Viv was backstage, Hacken sang his song 紅日 (Red Sun). After Hacken's song, the dancers came out on stage, and the audience screamed when Viv appeared wearing a corset/lingerie-like outfit with a white coat tails jacket (this was my least favorite outfit for the night). Viv was singing Anita Mui's fast song "Bad Girl," which was quite a surprise to me, since I never imagined Viv would sing this song..hehe. But unfortunately, Viv only sang a small part of the song and we coudn't see her face or the dance moves cuz her back was towards us the entire time...I assumed she was going to be moving around the stage during the song so everyone could see her, so I didn't bother looking at the big video screen above...I'll have to remember the next concert night to watch the screen for this part. After Viv sang "Bad Girl," she took off her white jacket revealing her rather sexy outfit, which made the audience scream, "Waaahhh!!" ...if someone was sitting in the 'mountain/nose bleed section' seats high above, Viv's outfit might look like she's not wearing any sleeves and just wearing the corset/shorts, since the top part of her outfit was skin-tone color. Viv then sang Priscilla Chan's fast song "Dancing Street"....when Viv came to our side of the stage, that's when I noticed her white hat had a gun on it... hmm..is the gun supposed to make her look like a bad girl?..haha...well no matter what type of outfit she's wearing or what kind of dance she's doing with the dancers, it would be difficult to make anyone believe she's a bad girl . Anyway, the next song Viv sang was Aaron Kwok's hit Mandarin song, "Love You Endlessly"...I recognized the song after the first few seconds of the music and was already wondering if Viv was going to do the famous hand gesture for the song part, "dui ni ai ai ai bu wan.."..and she did!..hehe. Viv finished off the medley with her song "ji jok doh ching" (One-sided Love)...although she didn't dance much for this song. It would have been nice to see her dance a few of the same steps she did for this song back in 1990s, just to reminisce. After Viv finished the song medley, she asked the audience if they knew those songs she just sang.. we all screamed "Yes!"...then Viv said, "You know these songs?.. then you're about a certain age....haha." Then she asked how many people were in their 20s...and how many people were younger than 20..and both times a lot of people screamed, even if they weren't in that age range..hehe.

Next, Viv talked about Hins Cheung King Hin and said that he's very talented and very humorous and is also very caring. Hins then came on stage to sing the Mandarin duet song "Rumors" with Viv. After the song, Hins told Viv that he's listened to Viv's songs ever since he was very little...and the audience laughed and Viv said, "Very little?..wah, you should be careful about what you say"..haha. Then Hins said he's always liked listening to Viv's songs and would watch her concert videos and learn some of her dance steps, like the dance steps for "ji jok doh ching"..and Hins did part of the dance steps for that song and the audience laughed and cheered. Then Viv said she really liked Hins cuz he's a very cute child...haha. Then Hins was talking about his visit to Nepal with Viv, Charlene Choi, and Sai So for World Vision and was saying that Viv has always had a 'jade girl' and princess-like image, and he knew this trip would be a difficult one and was wondering if Viv could handle all the harsh elements of the trip...and if something happened to her then he would have to carry Viv... and Viv was like, "What?..carry me?? You were planning to carry me?" (can you imagine Hins carrying Viv?...he doesn't look that muscular..hehe).. .and the audience burst out laughing. Viv said she should have pretended to faint during the trip to see if Hins could carry her..haha. Hins then talked about how Viv got the stomach flu from the trip, but she still attended promotional events to talk about their Nepal visit while she was sick...and Hins was saying how he respects Viv for being so professional and having lots of love. Hins said Viv isn't what the outside people thought of her as being very fragile, and instead she's very brave and she's like a jade girl and a princess who doesn't have 'gung jue beng' ('princess sickness'...basically a girl who is full of herself and thinks she's a princess who needs everything) ...hahaha.. and Hins said females really envy Viv and males would hope to have a girl like Viv by their side...and the audience applauded. Viv thanked Hins for his compliments and said the females should envy Hins instead, cuz he can eat a lot and his stomach would still be flat and his waist would still be thin..and Viv said she'd like to have Hins' body shape so she could eat and not get fat..and then Hins said that the top part of a female's body is rather important, otherwise they couldn't wear deep V clothes like Viv does...haha...and the audience screamed.. then Viv was telling Hins that 'deep V' wasn't what he thought it meant, cuz he's a child and didn't understand...haha...and then Viv explained that 'deep' means to have a deeper understanding of her and getting to know her more. Viv then said she first paid attention to Hins because of his good singing voice..and Hins responded back saying "...because there's nothing about my looks that caught your attention."..and the audience laughed..and Viv said his looks are rather attractive, but his voice was more attractive and his singing was infectious. Then Viv went offstage and Hins sang his song 笑忘書 (Book of Laughter and Forgetfulness). Hins changed the last part of his song to make it a "Vivian" version...hehe...singing "previously... recalling the cute Vivian."

After Hins' song, Viv appeared on stage wearing a very elegant white dress, with a big blue-lit "V" sign behind her. She was singing one of her favorite singer's songs, Momoe Yamaguchi's ( 山口百惠 ) "Autumn Cherry Blossoms." After this song, Viv talked about the passing of her 2 beloved pets, her dog Ju Jai and her cat Pal, during Chinese New Year this year. I thought Viv was going to start crying while she was talking about them, but she held herself together and didn't cry... and then sang Teresa Teng's song "Goodbye My Love" while the big video screen showed photos of Viv together with Ju Jai and Pal. If I didn't know before the concert about her pets passing away, I'm very sure I would have cried during this part of the show, cuz I cried when I heard the sad and shocking news back in February. Towards the end of the song "Goodbye My Love" and after all of the photos of Viv's pets were shown, there was a message on the big video screen which said, "Forever cherish the memory of Ju Jai and Pal." After singing "Goodbye My Love," Viv sang "When the Red Leaf Falls" while some confetti paper fell from above. Then Viv went offstage to change into her next dress.

Viv appeared a few minutes later on stage wearing a yellow mini-skirt and was singing and dancing to her song, "Pretend." Although Viv didn't wear any 'deep V' dresses during the concert, this dress came pretty close to being deep V...at first it wasn't very noticeable, but then the dress had "half" of a Victorian/palace dress effect for a few seconds while Viv was dancing...which was kinda scary, cuz one more shoulder shrug from Viv and there could have been a wardrobe malfunction if the dress slipped a little further...yikes! Good thing her dress adjusted back to the normal position and nothing happened. After singing "Pretend," she continued with her fast songs medley and sang "Automatic Actions," "Curse," and "Move Out of the Way."

After the fast songs medley, it was time for Viv to come down to shake hands with the fans! I darted out of my chair and ran towards the edge of the stage even before Viv finished her sentence..haha. There were lots of fans pushing and shoving trying to get Viv's handshake.. I got Viv's handshake..yeah!..hehe ...her firm handshake still surprises me . Viv sang "C'est la Vie" and "Lost in Love" while shaking hands with the audience. One thing though...I think it would have been safer if she wore a different dress/outfit during the handshake part instead of this yellow mini-skirt (especially seeing what almost happened a few minutes ago while she was dancing), cuz some perverted person could have easily stuck his 'salty pork hand' out pretending to get a handshake but touch a more sensitive area instead...luckily this didn't happen.

After singing "Lost in Love," Viv walked to the center of the stage and sat down at a keyboard with a big flower decoration hiding the keyboard. Before Viv started playing the keyboard, she said she wanted to play a song for everyone and that this song was very important to her singing career. Then Viv's idol 柏原芳惠 ( Yoshie Kashiwabara ) appeared on stage and sang the Japanese version of Viv's song "Beloved" while Viv played the song on the keyboard. The audience applauded loudly when Yoshie appeared. Can you imagine how happy and excited Viv was feeling?...Viv's idol is standing just a few feet away from her singing the song which basically started her career in showbiz while she plays the music for her idol to sing to.

After the song, Yoshie said a few words in Cantonese and the audience applauded loudly. Then the Japanese-Cantonese translator said Yoshie was very happy to be there to celebrate Viv's 25th anniversary with her and her fans...and the audience screamed and applauded loudly. Viv told Yoshie that she would like to represent the audience to express deep sympathy for the people in Japan and hoped that Yoshie could bring the love/caring from the HK people back to Japan with her to share with the Japanese people. Then Yoshie said she would bring Viv and everyone's regards back to Japan to share with the people. Then Yoshie started crying and said thanks to everyone. Then Viv asked the audience to say "Nippon Ganbatte!" (meaning "You can do it Japan!"..or "Do your best Japan!") as words of encouragement for the people in Japan...so the audience screamed, "Nippon Ganbatte!" three times and Yoshie thanked everyone again. Then Viv went offstage and Yoshie sang a song (not sure about the title of the song). After Yoshie finished her song, Viv came back on stage, still wearing her yellow mini-skirt, and asked if Yoshie could sing one more song (after all, Yoshie flew all the way from Japan to come and support Viv in her concert)...the audience applauded and screamed in agreement, so Yoshie sang another song.

After Yoshie's last song, Viv appeared on stage wearing a dress with a zebra-like pattern... the dress really showed off Viv's slim figure. Viv sang a medley of some of her side track songs..."Past Fairy Tale," "Love You More Than I Love Him," and "Dance of the Steel Wires."

Next, Viv sang her new song "Bonsai."...finally!...we get to hear Viv sing her newest song live on stage! But I'm not sure what was going through Viv's mind after she sang the first few words of the song....Viv started crying and then totally lost it...she couldn't stop crying...she'd sing a few words, then cry..and sing a few more words and then cry somemore....fans were singing along when Viv couldn't sing. I haven't seen Viv cry this much before on stage (I thought Viv was going to cry like this when she was singing "Goodbye My Love" to her 2 beloved pets, but she didn't cry, so it came as a surprise when she started crying so much while she was singing "Bonsai"). About three quarters of the way through the song, Viv said, "I'd like to sing this song again...is that ok?"..and the audience screamed "YES!" Viv pulled herself together and was able to sing "Bonsai" again, this time without crying...great job Viv!

After singing "Bonsai," Viv talked a little and mentioned about how happy she was for the invention of the Internet, because she has more of a chance to communicate with all of her supporters. She said for these past 25 years, it's because of all of her supporters offstage (the audience) who have given her such wonderful memories...and then she said she felt each of the audience members was actually the 'lead actor/actress'. Then Viv said she would be singing her last song for the night, "Offstage Leading Actress." While Viv was singing this song, the big video screen showed video clips of Viv in some of her past TVB series. Most of the audience didn't leave after Viv finished her song, since she didn't have her encore yet.

Then Viv came back on stage a few minutes later and fans were going CRAZY when she appeared wearing a purple mini-skirt with her long hair down, and she was singing the "Sailormoon Theme Song" ...not sure if the long hair was a wig or if it was Viv's real hair, since it seemed a little longer than Viv's actual hair length, and plus Viv's hair was up in a bun less than 10 minutes ago, so it would seem kind of difficult to have changed into another dress and put her hair down and comb it straight in such a short time...but anyway, Viv looked spectacular!! I liked Viv's long-hair look and purple dress the most...very cute!!....which is not a description that can be used for most people her age, but Viv still looks SO young...hehehe. I talked with a few other fans later and they also agreed that this was their favorite Viv look at the concert. After Viv sang the "Sailormoon Theme Song," she sang "If You Knew My Reason" and shook hands with some of the audience. Next, she sang "Keep Love," which is still one of my very favorite Viv songs!...and since she sang this song on her first show, she would probably be singing this song at her second show also...yeah!

After singing "Keep Love," Viv sang her last song "Beloved." Of course fans didn't want the show to end yet, so even after Viv finished singing "Beloved" and left the stage, most of us weren't ready to leave. Fans were still screaming and shouting, hoping Viv would come back on stage...and I think most fans noticed the band didn't leave yet and the lights had not completely turned on, which means there was a good chance Viv would be coming back out to do a 2nd encore. I saw a few empty seats in the 2nd row and ran to the front to get a better seat...hehe. So less than 5 minutes later, Viv appeared on stage again!..yeah!!...still wearing the purple dress. I wasn't expecting Viv would do a 2nd encore for the first show, cuz usually if a singer had a 2nd encore, it would be on the last show. Viv then sang the song "For You," which was her final song for the night. The concert ended at around 11:15PM.

After the concert ended, I wanted to take a look at the Viv pictures that the vendors were selling outside of the Coliseum, but when I got outside, none of the vendors were there!...I heard all the photos were already sold out..probably because most of the fans were still inside the Coliseum for the 2nd encore while some of the other audience members who had left early were able to buy the Viv photos. Luckily I had already bought my concert souvenirs (t-shirt/iphone cover) before the show....the lines to buy the concert souvenirs after the show was VERY long!! I decided to go to the outside of the yellow gate to see if I could wait for Viv to come out. I didn't know how long the wait was going to be...hopefully she wouldn't be doing TV/media interviews tonight, otherwise the wait would be much longer. Viv came out of the back entrance of the Coliseum at about 12:05AM..so I waited about 30 minutes..not too long. Viv signed a few autographs for the fans and then waved good-bye to the fans and got into the minivan and left.

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