Me And Song: Sam Lee Singapore Concert 2023

Resorts World Ballroom
Sunday, 2.30pm

For someone who is always crooning about loneliness and heartbreak, Taiwanese singer-songwriter Sam Lee was in a happy place over the weekend.

The 50-year-old fulfilled his dream of staging his first solo gig in Singapore since he entered show business 24 years ago.

One could even call it a revenge concert series as he held three performances for his fans here.

The first one took place last Saturday evening as a private event for Resorts World Sentosa members.

Two ticketed shows followed on Sunday, with the 2.30pm gig attended by a near sold-out crowd of 5,500 and the 8pm concert drawing a capacity turnout of 6,000.

Lee’s last Singapore performance was in 2017, when he shared the stage with Hong Kong singer William So and fellow Taiwanese Roger Yang, coincidentally at the same venue.

“I’ve waited so long to have my own concert. It has been 24 years,” he said emotionally to the cheering audience.

His fans, mostly in their 40s and older, turned up to reminisce about his chart-topping ballads from the noughties, but Lee had other plans for them.

He wanted to introduce them to his newer works and started the 2½-hour show with Face, Tattoo and Most Beautiful Regret. These make up three out of the four tracks from his 2022 EP Face II.

The crowd was slow to warm up to them, but politely waved in tandem the free light sticks that were given out.

A set of livelier numbers from his early singing days, including Let’s Fall In Love (2004), also could not quite energise the audience.

Ever the confident performer, Lee did not seem worried and said he knew his fans have always been reserved and shy.

In a recent interview with The Straits Times, he spoke fervently about his love of English songs and said he might pick one for the Singapore shows. Instead, he chose to deliver his rendition of retired Taiwanese balladeer Jody Chiang’s Hokkien hit The Sound Of Rain (1999).

And it turned out that the mystery guest singer he hinted about in the same interview was Taiwanese singer Landy Wen, who is known for her dance moves. The 44-year-old even tried to teach Lee to twerk onstage, to much audience laughter.

Where were the emotive Mandopop songs about lost love – such as Letting Go (2004) and Recently (2006) – that his fans wanted to sing along to?

Lee had kept them all for the second half and turned the ballroom into a massive karaoke hall.

The Prince of Love Songs, as he is affectionately known, even ventured offstage to get close to his fans and worked up a fervour.

Some lucky fans got to duet with him on his 2006 hit You Love Her So Much (2006) and his cover of late Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng’s 1977 classic The Moon Represents My Heart.

As for his signature anthem Devotion Love (2002), he belted out an unaccompanied short segment and invited the crowd to complete the song.

The infectious energy did not dissipate even as the concert came to a close.

Lee makes heartbreak sound so good and his fans would likely agree that it was a show – or karaoke party – worth waiting for.