Samuel Hui Koon-kit (许冠杰, born 6 September 1948), or better
known as Sam Hui, has always been my all-time most favorite Cantonese pop
singer since I was a teenager. Actually he is 7 years older than
me. I am very familiar with all his songs and love to listen to most of them.
As most people already knew, Sam Hui is a Hong Kong Cantonese pop (Cantopop) musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He is credited with popularising
Cantopop both with the infusion of Western-style music and using light-hearted,
street Cantonese jargon in his lyrics writing that appealed to the Hong
Kong masses,
particularly the working class, and became very popular in the late
1970s. Sam is widely acclaimed as the “God
of Cantopop Songs (歌神)” in Hong Kong,
the first singer ever to be acknowledged with such a title.
I have never attended any musical concerts of singers all
my life in the past. As soon as I first heard from the radio on my way to
work one day last month about Sam Hui's world tour show “What a Wonderful World
Live in Malaysia 2015” at Arena of Stars, Genting Highlands on 21st March, 2015, I
promptly booked four tickets for my wife and two children who were interested
to join me for the show. In addition to that, I also booked two rooms at
the First World Hotel so that we can stay overnight and need not rush back to
home after the show.
Our tickets are priced at RM 255 each and the room RM 100
per night using my Genting WorldCard membership.
On Saturday, 21st March, 2015, my wife Soh Ai, my two sons
Wai Kit and Wai Kei and I left home at 10.00am after taking breakfast and we
reached the First World Hotel, Genting Highlands at around 12.00pm.
We then met Soh Ai’s cousin Albert Choo Chuan Leong who had
a complimentary 1R2N stay at Resort Hotel and as he came alone the previous day
on Friday and would check out on Saturday, he was very kind to let us take over the
room for the second night. As such, my two sons would stay separately in one room each
at the First World Hotel.
After checking into our respective rooms, Albert was
very generous in further treating us to a Chinese (Hakka–style) lunch at
Restoran Good Friends (好友记) before leaving us for home. We had a pleasant chat and savored pretty delicious food. I must take this opportunity to express my
utmost appreciation and gratitude to him for his hospitality and
kindness.
The concert of this evening was indeed an extravaganza of
classic songs by my idol singer Sam Hui lasting from 8.30pm till 11.20pm.
Sam did perform to his best at such a senior age of 67 and I found it truly a show
of value for money. I totally enjoyed every moment of this fascinating
concert which inter alia brought back many fond memories of my past.
Sam Hui began his performance of about 40 songs beginning with
“Jui gan yiu ho waan (最紧要好玩)” or “The
most critical of fun” which is the theme song of his film "Working Class《打工皇帝》(1985)" (See: https://youtu.be/k8x_5cZMBnQ).
He almost sang non-stop for more than two and a half hours with few short breaks to change 6 pieces of costumes and intermittent performance by his two sons Ryan
and Scott, his student Justin and his daughter-in-law Ida (wife of Scott). The greatest
surprise was his eldest brother Michael Hui also appeared on stage to sing a song with
Sam and did a short talk show which could be considered as a warm-up for his
upcoming show at the same venue next month.
The final song by Sam was the famous “浪子心声 (Long zi sum sing)” or “From the heart of a loafer” which
is also a song from his movie “Games Gamblers Play 《鬼马双星》(1974)”. The lyrics that goes: “命里有时终须有ming leoi jau si zung seoi jau; 命里无时莫强求 ming leoi mou si mok koeng kau” (literally meaning: “We’ll eventually gain whatever as fate would have
it; we’d better not to strive too hard for something not destined for us”) is so famous all these years that it has become a philosophical quote.
(See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dkoBCtMLn0A).
Absolutely meaningful from start to end!
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