Whitney Live In Hongkou...
[Eastday.com
Report]
Whitney live in Hongkou
Shanghai Daily news
Fifteen years after her last solo concert in Hong Kong, Whitney Houston
makes her long-awaited debut on the Chinese mainland. She's past her prime
(just barely), but Jin Haili reports that Shanghai still wants to 'feel the
heat' with the diva.
She is one of the greatest singers of her time. She has starred in the
movies. Her face graces glossy magazine covers and her domestic squabbles
fill the supermarket tabloids. She is Whitney Houston, and on July 22, she
will rock Shanghai.
It has been a decade and a half - at the peak of her career - since the diva
was in Hong Kong. She never made it to the Chinese mainland, kept home by a
budding acting career (which eventually fizzled), and crises of domestic
violence and drug abuse. But now she is here, in what she told her Shanghai
fans was "nothing less than a dream-come-true adventure."
"It's also a dream-come-true story for us," says Yu Suqin, general manager
of the Shanghai Arts Corp, agent for the local concert. Last November, the
company organized Mariah Carey's Shanghai debut.
Houston, like Carey, will perform at the Hongkou Stadium, and Yu's only
regret is that "we cannot hear them perform 'When You Believe' together."
Houston, 41, started on the road to stardom in utero - she has excellent
musical genes. The daughter of gospel diva Cissy Houston and cousin of
renowned gospel-influenced pop singer Dionne Warwick, it was only a matter
of time before Houston realized that music was in her blood.
"Being around people like Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick and
Roberta Flack, all these greats, I was taught to listen and observe,"
Houston says. "It had a great impact on me as a singer, as a performer and
as a musician, because growing up around it, you just can't help identifying
with it immediately. It was something that was so natural to me and when I
started singing, it was almost like speaking."
Her family heritage and her natural segue into singing - to say nothing of
an enormous talent - led her to the almost instantaneous success of her
eponymous debut album in 1985. With total sales of 20 million, the "Whitney
Houston" album is still the all-time best-selling debut album in the world.
Her screen career, which featured lukewarm reviews in mediocre films like
"Bodyguard" never took off, but fortunately, her loyal fans forgave her, and
stayed focused on the music.
Sophia Chiu, a Shanghai-based Taiwanese, has all 14 of her albums, but
confesses that the debut album remains her favorite.
Chiu, 36, has bought a 1,600 yuan (US$192) VIP ticket for the concert, and
says that she has friends flying over from Taiwan to attend the concert.
Ticket prices range from 120 yuan to 1,600 yuan, very close to the prices
for Carey's concert.
It's pricey, considering the diva is only performing 20 songs, but mainland
fans (Houston will also hold a concert in Beijing on July 25) are getting a
better deal than their Hong Kong counterparts. The top ticket price in Hong
Kong is HK$5,000 (US$ 610).
But then, Houston is not a cheap date. According to Wolfman Jack
Entertainment, the Hong Kong concert organizer, she and her 50-member
production team command US$1.2 million .
"The market will be the judge as to whether Houston is worth the financial
risk," says Yu, who declined to reveal the costs of the Shanghai concert.
"I will tell you that I am confident of breaking even," she says, adding
that more than 70 percent of the tickets have been sold.
Part of Houston's cost is, undoubtedly, her long list of requirements: The
Shanghai organizer received a six-page addendum to the contract with
detailed instructions on food, accommodation and dressing room setup.
Dinner, according to her instructions, must be served between 5:30pm and
8pm, and include two hot entrees, two hot green vegetables, a garden salad
with three dressings, two types of desserts, loaves of whole wheat and white
bread, four cases of assorted regular and diet soft drinks and one bottle of
2 percent fat-free whole white milk ...
"My message for women is to love and respect themselves, for if they love
themselves they can love others as well," Houston said when she received a
Lifetime Achievement Award at the first-ever Women's World Awards at
Hamburg's Congress Center on June 28. "I have learned to do this."
In the end, Chiu, the Taiwanese fan, says it best: "I just can't wait for
the moment that the whole stadium is on its feet for 'I wanna dance with
somebody'."
Date: July 22, 7:15pm
Venue: Hongkou Football Stadium, 444 Jiangwan Rd E.
Tickets: 120-1,600 yuan
Tel: 6218-3267
NEWSFILE:
17 JULY 2004
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