HONG KONG-BASED Malaysian pop star Gin Lee will take fans on a musical journey reminiscing on her many “first times”, including songs from her 2009 debut album One & Only, with the hopes of making her First of All World Tour in Genting the beginning of many more performances to come.
Her first-ever solo concert in the country comes in the heels of headlining two sold-out nights in the Hong Kong Coliseum in June last year.
Her show at the Arena of Stars, Resorts World Genting, at 8.30pm on March 2, will be a meaningful night, the singer said, as it will be her “first-ever big-scale concert”.
In a recent interview while she was in Kuala Lumpur promoting the First of All tour stop, Lee (pix) said: “I will be singing and talking a lot about first times. The first album I had, the first song I sang, the first time entering a competition, the first time I sang in the competition. It’s all about first times.
“This – First of All – is my first concert tour. I hope that more will come, you know, like first of all, second of all, third of all ... that’s the message behind its name.”
She will also be singing songs that didn’t appear on the Hong Kong setlist, including numbers from her One & Only.
“I think that will be very meaningful because I know some of the fans, they know me through my first album.”
Lee did, however, perform a rendition of a local classic, Getaran Jiwa, for concert-goers last year, an affair she leveraged to share the many kinds of music she grew up listening to.
Curious reactions from audiences not familiar with the Malay language typically unfolded in a guessing game with mentions such as Thai being met by the singer with: “No, it’s Malay. Don’t you think it’s beautiful?”
Lee added that she would then tell them that she was exposed to different types of music from different types of cultures while growing up in Malaysia.
She said: “I sang songs that I grew up listening to – Mandarin, English, Malay, you know – so I was telling audiences back in Hong Kong that we have beautiful songs, beautiful conversations in Malaysia too.
“This [Getaran Jiwa] is one of my favourites, this very, very classic song ... but I guess I won’t be singing a Malay song in Malaysia. I don’t need to introduce [those] to anyone here,” she said with a laugh.
Like the #10yearchallenge posts which recently trended on social media, Lee’s own musical comparison brings to boil a sense of creative progress and maturity as her career meets its 10th-year milestone.
From doing promotional cafe tours and singing for small groups of people to achieving platinum album sales (with her 2016 studio album beGin) and massive solo concerts, the singer from Johor Baru has risen a long way.
She was even mentored by star-powered Taiwanese singer Jay Chou when she appeared on season four of The Voice of China back in 2016.
Adding to Lee’s repertoire of mostly Cantopop, her next album slated for this year will also be her second Chinese album (after One & Only).
She made her Cantonese debut in 2011 after moving to Hong Kong, with the EP Here I Come.
Reflecting on the release of One & Only 10 years ago, Lee said: “I remember holding my album from cafe to cafe, and telling people: ‘Hi guys, I just had my album, maybe you [would] want to support it’.
“I didn’t have many fans at the time, and then now after all these years in Hong Kong, I have achieved platinum album sales and all that, so it’s a drastic change for me I think.
“At the same time, it’s not like a drastic, sudden change because I’ve spent so much time working on it, but you know, looking back I feel very lucky.”
Counting her parents as her biggest inspirations in life, Lee added: “I started off in Malaysia 10 years ago, and I think it feels great to be back for the concert. I think it will be a very memorable and touching moment for me to sing for my relatives, my friends, my family and my fans from Malaysia.”
