Dubbed the “King of Mandopop“, and having sold over 30 million records, Jay Chou is one of the best-selling artists in many Asia countries. As of November 21, 2022, Jay Chou was the best-selling music artist in China with about 320 million yuan (~SGD$62 million ) of sales revenue across all mainstream music platforms. However, could an incident in Singapore lead to this reknowned singer’s downfall?
In 2003, Chou was the cover story of Time magazine (Asia version), titled New King of Asian Pop, acknowledging his influence on popular culture. He has since held five world tours, performing in cities around the world to more than 10 million people. Chou has also debuted his acting career and made his film debut in Initial D (2005), and since ventured into many movie projects.
As part of his Carnival World Tour, Chou performed two concerts at the Singapore National Stadium on 17 and 18 December 2022. Chou’s concert tickets prices ranged from $218- $388 with accordance to the seating arrangements.
During the concert, Jay Chou sang a range of 3-5 songs before he invite ‘special guests’ up on stage to sing alongside with him. During that segment itself, many posted on Tiktok that Jay Chou felt more like a special guest instead. Most commented that his guests were actually singing better as compared to the artist himself. Some even asserted that Chou failed to take his fans seriously as the ‘market’ in Singapore is too small.
Moreover, some fans couldn’t help but compare Chou’s performance with JJ Lin and Mayday, who both held their concerts recently. Netizens felt that he found the other two artists’ performances seemed to be better and bemoaned the fact it was due to his age that caught up with him.
From the backlash itself, it appeared that many fans were dissatisfied and underwhelmed by the entire concert itself. Many have voiced concerns about Chou’s vocals as well as the subpar sound system and broken lightsticks that was provided. Commenters even added that it was more of a magic performance instead of a concert.
On the contrary, a few fans defended him by stating that Jay has suffered from ankylosing spondylitis since the age of 18 – a rare type of arthritis that causes pain and stiffness in one’s spine. Therefore, he was in pain even when he was performing on stage. Some even commented that it was due to his age and if they were true fans, they should’ve understood and support him regardless.
Following that, Chou posted videos and pictures from the performance and complimented the crowd for their great enthusiasm in spite of the torrent of unfavourable comments on his social media accounts.
Now that you’ve read the comments from both perspective, what is your stand on this matter?
