My friend Cedric had a few extra tickets to a Chinese singing competition which guest starred up-and-coming Hong Kong singer Jason Chan, so I figured why not. Not only am I always ready to go see live music, but the Sociologist in me was dying to explore new, uncharted terrain. Either way, Chinese events are few and far between in this city. Anyway, not being familiar with Jason Chan or Cantonese pop music in general this was certainly a treat, if not just for the novelty.
The event itself was organized by R-Vision Productions who have put on similar shows in the past, the basic format of which is to have 9 local Montreal Chinese singers come onstage and sing a tune one after another. After each song a pair of hosts would come onstage and interview the singer, crack some jokes and interact with the crowd. I have to say, the MCs were hilarious and singers, good or bad, really took second fiddle to the two hosts. That being said, the local talent varied pretty drastically in terms of skill, some leaning heavily on good looks and others were extremely competent entertainers. In the end however, the selection process seemed a bit bogus. After all 9 had sung they were given balloons to blow up and pop, inside of which was a piece of paper with either a check mark or an X. The X's got to go home, the check marks got to sing a second round. While this unfairly eliminated some of the better singers, the good-looking boy was also kicked out in this fashion much to the crowd's disappointment (mostly made up of swooning teenage girls) and to my sadistic pleasure. What can I say, I'm a small, petty man. Moreover, at this point the MCs gave away 5 toques to the crowd and the audience went ballistic. Considering these toques cost the organizes all of $5 (or free considering they had Rogers plastered all over them) this either shows that (a) Chinese people are crazy cheap, (b) the MCs really knew how to hype up the crowd, or (c) free shit makes everyone go bat shit insane, no matter how banal.
Anyway, after a short break the second round started, and the final 4 singers got a chance to sing another song - but since the elimination process was so random the quality was just as up and down as the first half. Man, thank god I had someone to talk to at the show. After the four singers performed, Jason Chan came onstage and the crowd became a wall of teenage shrieks. While as a singer he easily stood miles ahead of the local-born talent, as a performer it was pretty easy to tell he wasn't having fun. First off, he was stiff as a board and made very little effort to get into the show, unlike the talent show performers who really gave their hearts and souls into their act. I don't really blame him though, as coming from HK he's probably used to a few thousand people attending his show...a few hundred in Montreal didn't really seem to cut it for him. Secondly, he sang all of three songs, to a pre-recording no less. Man, this whole thing reminded me of karaoke.
Finally as the show came to an end, the final four were brought out and judged by a panel. Interestingly, the guy who I thought would win came in third and the guy who I thought sucked came in first. I guess I have no taste in Cantonese pop. Damn. Even funnier though was the girl who came in 4th place. Once they announced the winner she stormed off stage. Sweetie, you might be pretty and all, but you gotta learn to hold a note...sorry. Again, I'm a very bad man.
Overall though, reflecting back on the experience the whole thing seemed so surreal. Here I was in a fully Cantonese/Mandarin-speaking concert not being able to speak either language well. Looking to the bartender, coat-check, or ticket vendor for comfort I realize I'm in Montreal, a French-speaking city...again a language I can't speak. In a strange ironic way, I felt simultaneously wholly Chinese and wholly non-Chinese at the exact same time.
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