Jay Chou enters new era
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Taiwan pop singer Jay Chou is promising to usher in a new era of music with his The Era 2010 World Tour that will hit Beijing Workers' Stadium tomorrow night.
"I will show the audience the essence of my music in the last 10 years, this year's tour is a milestone," Chou told the Global Times. "Ten years ago I was very cautious about music, hoping nothing but my music to be accepted by others, now I feel more confident and mature, I can now experiment with new styles and ideas, it is a new era for me," he added.
Costing 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) to stage, tomorrow night's show sold out a week ago, according to organizers, with last Friday's tour stop in Shanghai selling out in three days.
"The concert will have a brand-new futuristic feel, with high-tech lighting and stage settings, I will take people to a futuristic world in three hours with around 30 songs," Chou said.
With 10 studio albums and over 100 popular hits under his belt, Chou explained that selecting songs for the concert was very important.
"To keep this concert fresh, I will have two or three songs from my lat-est album, overall it will have various music styles including electronic, hip-hop and love songs," he said. "There is nothing to worry about regarding the unity of the concert with such diverse elements, all will come into one - a 'Jay Chou genre'."
Chou said that one of the highlights of the evening will be a video production made for the occasion. "There will be ancient castle when I sing my castle-themed songs and background videos such as a time machine and exotic countries will all appear on the LED screen."
The full music video version of Chou's latest hit "The Era" will premiere at the Beijing show. "The video is like a short film, I was playing a vampire, when the piano plays, a giant monster is coming along and mysterious things happen, the full story will be revealed in Beijing," he said.
Chou explained that aside from the music and video productions, costumes are wide and varied. "There will be a total of 12 outfits in the concert, I quite like the knight's costume, the futuristic warrior outfit is nice as well and I will also be wearing traditional Chinese silk clothes, they all fit different songs of mine."
Guest performances are usually a highly-anticipated feature in Chinese pop concerts. Pop singer Jolin Tsai, rumored to be Chou's ex-girlfriend by Taiwanese media, has been performing with him on stage, creating a stir among the media and Chou fans. Beijing's concert will see an extra mystery guest performer, according to Chou.
"I will have Lara Fabian, Cindy Yen and The Drifters [a Taiwanese duo created by Chou] performing in the concert and then there's the usual plan for my concerts, the surprise one. I will possibly consider a local singer, the answer cannot be revealed until the night," he said.
After its Beijing stop, The Era 2010 World Tour is scheduled to hit Tianjin July 10 and Chengdu October 23, with organizers stating it will also tour to all major Chinese cities, including Guangzhou and Hangzhou, although the exact performance dates are yet to be confirmed.
