(May 19, 2012)
at CotaiArena, The Venetian Macao
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Here's the rundown for Vivian's Macau concert.
Vivian's performance at her Macau concert was excellent!! .. and her voice was magnificent!! The concert was about 2 hours long, which is kind of expected for a 'world tour' type of show, but I do wish the concert could have lasted a little longer, like her previous Hong Kong concert. After all, Vivian had said before that she went to karaoke and sang by herself for 8 hours straight, so she's definitely got the voice strength to sing for a few hours..haha. It would have been nice if Vivian sang more of her own songs at the Macau show...out of the 25 songs she sang, 10 of them were other singers' songs. It's not like she doesn't have enough hit songs to sing all of her own songs at her concert...and I'm pretty sure her fans aren't tired of hearing her sing her own songs, especially her overseas fans who don't have much of a chance to see/hear her sing live on stage. The Macau concert was scheduled to start at 8:00PM, but some of us were already standing in line waiting to get into the venue at 7:00PM, because Vivian's 2nd Edition of the "Deep V.25 Concert" DVD/Blu-ray was going to be sold inside the venue and you had to buy the DVD or Blu-ray in order to attend the autograph session after the concert. There was a limited number of concert DVDs/Blu-rays that would be sold. If you bought the DVD or Blu-ray, then you also get Vivian's Macao concert poster for free! When the venue doors opened, a lot of us ran to the counter to get in line to buy Vivian's DVD/Blu-ray, although it probably wasn't necessary for us to run...haha..but well, we didn't know how many people would be allowed to attend the autograph signing, so better to be safe than sorry. Each person was given one pink bracelet for each DVD or Blu-ray that they bought, so if you have for example 2 pink bracelets, then you could get 2 Vivian autographs at the autograph signing. The bracelet was required for attending the autograph signing. The CotaiArena has a seating capacity of 15,000, but since Vivian's concert was a 3-sided stage and some of the seating sections were closed off, I'm guessing the seating capacity was 6,000 to 7,000, but the show wasn't sold out. The concert tickets weren't open to the public to purchase until less than a month before the show...I heard a guy sitting near me mumbling about how there wasn't any advertisements for Vivian's Macau concert in the HK magazines/newspapers, so probably a lot of people didn't even know she was having a concert in Macau. Each seat at the venue had a pair of thundersticks/pong bong sticks, an LED finger flashlight, and a small flyer for Vivian's autograph session that was placed on the seat. I was sitting at the 8th row on the right section of the floor seating. I didn't quite understand the fans' seating arrangement... most of the fans who bought the HK$800 VIP tickets were not sitting together...like for the right section floor seating, there was a row of 12 fans, then 3 fans behind them, then 4 behind, then another 4 behind, then 2, etc.. most of the SG, Taiwan, and China fans were sitting on the upper right side of the venue and not on the floor section, but there were some empty seats on the floor seating area..like the entire 8th row middle section of the floor seating was empty and there were a number of other empty seats. If the concert organizers needed to save seats for some of their VIP gamblers, then they could have saved the left and middle sections of the floor seating for the VIP gamblers and let the fans sit all together on the right floor section instead. The show started at about 8:20PM. The show started out with some Viv photos being shown on the big video screen (the same Viv photos on the postcards from Viv's 2nd edition blu-ray concert DVD). I'm guessing most fans thought Viv would be singing her own song as the first song of the concert, but to our surprise, she sang the English song "Yesterday Once More" by the Carpenters. Viv appeared wearing an elegant beige dress with some white flowers on her headpiece. While she was singing "Yesterday Once More," the big video screen behind her was showing images of all her CDs throughout her career. After Viv sang "Yesterday Once More," she sang "A Long and Lasting Love." Viv made a slight change in the way she sang "A Long and Lasting Love" (compared to last year's live performance of this song) during one of the lines for the 2nd part of the song...it was a nice change!..it showed off more of Viv's 'new' voice. After singing "A Long and Lasting Love," she sang "If You Knew My Reason." Then she talked to the audience,
saying how happy she was to be in Macau performing at the CotaiArena
at the Venetian, as this was her first stop for her "Journey of
Love" world tour. She said this year was her 26th year in showbiz
and that she never imagined she would be singing on stage again a little
over a year after her 25th anniversary concert last year. She said ever
since 2004, she's only been working part-time doing certain jobs in
front of the camera. She said nowadays she doesn't really plan ahead
on the types of jobs she does, just like her Macau concert this time.
She said she didn't make her final decision on doing the Macau concert
until early April!...and then she asked the audience, "Do you know
why?" (why she decided to do the concert)..and she said the reason
why is because she wants her fans to be happy!.. Then Viv said during her music journey, besides her own songs which really touched her, there were also many songs by other singers which touched her. she wanted to share with her supporters the song which she feels is a classic song, "New Endless Love." After singing Wanfang Lin's Mandarin song "New Endless Love," Viv went backstage to change into her next outfit. A few minutes later, Viv reappeared on stage wearing a silver/greenish gray skirt covered in sequins with a feather headpiece. Viv looked young and cute in this skirt, as she sang the "Sailormoon Theme Song" and "One-sided Love." Out of the 4 outfits she wore during the concert, I liked this one the most. Surprisingly, Viv sang the full version of "One-sided Love"..at her 'Back for Love' concert in 2006 and 'Deep V. 25' concert last year, she just sang half of this song. Another big surprise, she did a few of the original dance steps to "One-sided Love!"..brings back lots of memories for her fans.. I haven't seen her dance those steps live on stage since her 1995 Las Vegas concert. There was some confetti which was released towards the end of the song.. Viv almost swallowed one of them..she had to take a piece of the confetti out of her mouth. At the end of the song, I noticed a few people in the 5th row who were arriving late for the concert...an hour after the scheduled start time of the concert!... obviously not Vivian fans. Viv talked about how she loves to sing karaoke and that she's sung 8 hours straight before by herself.. and then she asked the audience if anyone could beat her record (of singing 8 hours straight).. and some fans screamed they could go 24 hours straight singing Viv's songs.. then Viv said they should set up a time to meet and have a karaoke competition. Then one fan screamed, "sing for a year!"..but Viv couldn't hear him and just replied back with, "I love you!"..haha..Viv said this was the best phrase to use when she couldn't hear what someone said..haha. Viv said she really likes to sing because when she sings, she could forget everything and be relaxed. She said she would imagine that her voice is an instrument and that it could combine together with other instruments to make a very harmonious music. Then she said she was really looking forward to the next part of the show, because she really likes to listen to strings music. She had invited 4 string musicians on stage to perform with her. Viv said there were some songs which she usually likes to sing, but didn't have a chance to sing these songs on stage yet. Viv then sang Kit Chan's song "Waited and Waited." Viv seemed rather emotional when singing this song... even seemed like she might have cried a bit at the end (she was touching the bottom of her left eye), although not 100% sure. Then Viv sang Eason Chan's Mandarin song "Long Time No See" and Chyi Yu's Mandarin song "Walking in the Rain." I would have liked to hear at least one of Viv's songs with the string musicians... Viv then talked about how when she was young, the people who really liked to sing, such as herself, would participate in singing competitions, since there was no karaoke back then. She said one time she chose a Japanese song to enter a singing competition, and this song gave her the opportunity to make her dreams come true of becoming a singer. Viv said that later on, there was a Cantonese version of this song...she said she has sung this song more often than "One-sided Love," but she still has strong feelings when she sings this song, which is "Beloved." After Viv sang "Beloved," she went backstage to change into her next outfit. A few minutes later, Viv came back on stage wearing a white corset with black shorts, a black see-through skirt, and a white hat with a gun on it (the same hat she wore at her 'Deep V.' concert last year). She was singing and dancing to the fast songs medley "Bad Girl" (Anita Mui's song), "Dancing Street," (Priscilla Chan's song), and "Love You Endlessly" (Aaron Kwok's song). During Aaron's song, Viv did the same hand gesture Aaron does for the song part, "dui ni ai ai ai bu wan." After the fast songs medley, Viv sang Mavis Hee's Mandarin song, "Moonlight in the City." Viv must REALLY like this song...for the past year, she seems to have sung this song more than her own songs when she appeared at events in Mainland China or in HK. It's almost like this song has become her own song now. After singing "Moonlight in the City," 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." Then Viv talked about how she and her team didn't want to cut these side track songs out of this concert's rundown, since these songs have touched many loyal fans before. She mentioned she had a big regret during her 'Deep V' concert last year...she had to cut a few songs from her rundown because the show would be too long, and she said since she didn't sing a certain song, she found out many of fans were disappointed that she didn't sing this one song, and she wanted to make it up to her fans at the show tonight..this song was "Crazy Heart Changes to a Deeper Love." After Viv sang "Crazy Heart Changes to a Deeper Love," Viv said she hoped the fan were pleased with her singing this song and fulfilling their wish of hearing this song. Viv then said that tonight was her first stop for her world tour and that she never imagined she would be doing a world tour, so it's really unexpected for her. She said as she was standing on stage, she was feeling very happy and very touched, and she was really enjoying the moment..she said she would really cherish this opportunity of performing there tonight and that this was a great start for her Journey of Love. She thanked the main concert organizer/sponsor The Venetian. Viv talked about how she and The Venetian were very compatible and mentioned the first time they had a meeting when her team showed her the concert poster, she said she screamed out loud that she really liked the "V" on the poster...she thought the 'V' was her logo, but then they told her the "V" was actually the Venetian's symbol...hehe..Viv said she was quite embarrassed at that moment. Then she mentioned if she had the chance to autograph her name next to the "V" on the poster and borrow Venetian's symbol, the Venetian probably wouldn't mind. Viv then thanked her backup singers, and her band, the strings musicians who previously appeared, and especially thank her music director Anthony Chue, who was still in Thailand that same morning. Viv said she and him were really worried for the last few days that there might be some bad weather in Thailand that might delay his flight back to HK, so both of them kept on praying, and Viv said, "Thanks God!" Then Viv thanked the rest of the people who helped arrange the show, and she also thanked all the audience members who came from many different places to go to Macau to see her show. Then Viv said she would be singing her last song for the night, "Keep Love." Thank goodness she sang "Keep Love"... I would have been extremely disappointed if this song was cut out of the concert rundown. After "Keep Love," Viv left the stage while the audience was screaming for an encore. Viv came back on stage a few minutes later wearing a red and black gown and a headpiece that kind of looked like a glass plate. Viv sang Momoe Yamaguchi's Japanese song Autumn Cherry Blossoms. After this song, Viv said she didn't dare to move her head, cuz her headpiece was starting to slip off her head..and then suddenly a couple of Viv's helpers appeared on stage to fix her headpiece. Viv said it was even hard for her to walk in the gown she was wearing. She slowly walked down the stairs on the stage..and said that being a princess isn't easy and that she couldn't do it. Then Viv said she would be singing a few of her songs which she seldom or sometimes never sang on stage before and that her fans have waited a very long time to hear. The fans were screaming loudly when the music for "Keep the Lover" started playing. It's the first time I've heard Viv sing this song live, and she sounded great!! The next song Viv sang was "A Thousand Mornings"...I think most fans were super excited to hear this song, myself included.. this is one of Viv's sidetrack songs that I really wanted to hear her sing..again, it's the first time I've heard Viv sing this song live..she sounded excellent!!! Viv then talked about why she wanted to do the world tour, with her main reason being that she wanted to meet her fans up close from all over the world. She said she really wants to see all the fans who have supported her for all these years..and she talked about her autograph signing event at the Venetian that would take place after her concert. Then Viv sang her final song for the night, "Lonely Heartache." During the middle of the song, Viv changed the words that she would normally say for this song and said, "During my world tour, this would be my journey to look for love. As I go to each place, I would accumulate the love and support everyone has given me, and then I would set out/embark on to my next location. Tonight this place is filled with love. I believe that in our future 'Journey of Love' [shows], we will experience even more love." The concert ended a little before 10:30PM. After the concert ended, a lot of
people were rushing to go buy Viv's concert DVD, or rushing to go to
the restroom, or rushing to get in line for the autograph signing. Since
I didn't know how long we were going to have to stand in line for the
autograph signing, I decided to go to the restroom, but then when I
got to the autograph signing area, there was a LOOOONG line!!..and I
wasn't able to join some of the fans I knew who were already standing
in line up ahead. There had to be at least 500 people in line..I'm guessing
there was a lot more than that. The good thing is the line moved pretty
quickly...Viv must be a fast signer. I was in line for about an hour
before Viv signed my Blu-ray
DVD. Viv was wearing a red dress, although the dress didn't look
exactly the same as the dress that the newspapers showed a few days
before Viv's concert.. it looked like Viv's red dress was sewn up a
few inches so that the dress wasn't very 'deep V,' as compared to the
red dress that the mannequin was wearing in this
pix from sina.com.cn. But it's good she altered the dress, since
the original dress would be rather dangerous to wear for an autograph
session. Viv had said during her concert that the autograph session
would give fans the chance to shake hands with her, but I think most
people didn't shake hands with her during the autograph session...maybe
cuz they didn't want to disturb her while she's signing (she'd have
to put the pen down, shake the person's hand, then pick up the pen again),
or they were too happy/excited to see Viv up close that they forgot
to stick out their hand to ask for a handshake (uhh...that would be
me..hehe...I just said "Hi!"..and "Thank you!"..Viv
said "Hi" back and smiled..I had a brain freeze |
(awww!..Viv is so sweet!! 
..haha..I
forgot everything I was planning to say to her and forgot to shake her
hand). My pink bracelet wasn't cut off by one of the workers after I
got Viv's autograph...a couple of the fans told me I should go back
in line to get another autograph, but I had a good spot to stand after
I got my autograph, so I just stayed there to watch Viv sign the rest
of the fans' items. Plus if I had gone back to get another autograph,
Carmen or Viv would probably ask me why I was in line again...hehe.
The autograph session was over at about 11:45PM...just in time for some
of us fans to make the 1:00AM ferry back to HK. Now we're all wondering
when and where will Viv's next stop be for her "Journey of Love"
world tour. Images are not to be reproduced
in any way and not to be used for commercial purposes.
If you would like to use any of these images on your web page, please contact
me first. Thanks.
Photos I took
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Autograph session
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Photos I bought
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