"DUO" Recap Through the First 7 NIghts

Apologies. As you may have noticed, the updates have been short and simple and there is an abundant lack of news. Not that there hasn't been news, but the schedule of this blog owner has been packed and therefore, the lack of time to translate any sort of mid-length to long article. Maybe a transformation is needed; quick summaries instead of actual word-for-word translations? In the mean time, as requested, here's the up to date news on Eason's DUO.













1. Eason suffered a throat infection prior to DUO and it is reported Eason is taking steroid injections (類固醇) to open up his voice. Katie Chan insists Eason recovered from the infection before the first show and he is not taking injections, he took steroid pills and has since stopped taking them.

2. There has been a lot of criticism regarding Eason's inability to perform due to his voice sounding hoarse and raspy and being unable to reach notes.

3. Denise Ho issues a statement to support Eason:
"[I am] worried about Eason's condition. This happened to me before, losing your voice before concerts is painful, taking steroids can only help at the moment. A regular individual can take a sick day if they are not feeling well, but singers cannot, we can only do all we can to pull through and Eason has 10+ nights to pull through. I cannot imagine the side effects he will have to go through (because of the steroids). As a friend, I am extremely worried. I want to ask ticket holders who will feel disappointed or worried about his performance during the night you will attend, to switch sides for a moment and understand his position, please? Singers are only people."

4. Jan Lamb praises Eason during a "round-table" discussion on the radio program 在清朗的一天出發. The topic was: "Knowing you are going to lose, but you end up winning," otherwise known as, "Losing pretty". Jan Lamb chose Eason and his DUO concerts as an example to illustrate his point. With one newspaper headline saying, "Eason affected by the air quality, causing his voice to become raspy and affected his performance. Will force himself to do 14 additional shows." Jan explains he was present night 2 and he did hear Eason's voice being affected and the news wasn't made up because Eason admits it himself when you saw him shaking his head whenever he couldn't reach a note. Jan explains, "Eason gave me this highly impacting feeling because even though he had a raspy voice, he sang with everything. He really gave it everything he had and that was impressive. It gives the audience a feeling of 'Wow, you are really something Eason Chan!' Other singers who might experience a raspy voice or forgetting lyrics or going off key, you can tell their [performance] attitude changes." (A lady from the round-table discussion chimes in), "They start holding back." Jan agrees, "Yes, for example, back in the day when artists held 20+ shows, they will "save" their voices and hold back during the first half of the scheduled shows (for example, singing lightly during the intro of a song and relying on the heavy sounds and the background singers during the chorus to create atmosphere) and the audience understood the need for that because of the 20+ days of shows. That doesn't happen anywhere around the world. Eason really risks it all, even though he knows his voice is raspy he doesn't care and he gives every single performance everything he has inside of him." (Another man from the round-table discussion chimes in) "Power." Jan continues, "Yes, it feels like Eason is giving you all his power and giving you (sacrificing) his throat. IF (touch wood) Eason needs to cancel a couple of shows to rest (because this has happened to other singers in the past) and he didn't give his performances everything he had, ticket holders would probably blame him and say, 'He held back during his performances and now he's stopping entirely! Give me back my money!' But right now, even IF (touch wood) Eason has to cancel a couple of shows, the ticket holders will accept it because Eason gave it everything he had despite his leg cramping up (figuratively speaking, as an example). This is an example of, 'Knowing you will lose, but you end up winning.'"

5. Nicholas Tse makes a surprise appearance during Night 5 (March 24th)'s encore. Apparently, Carl Wong (band leader) asked Eason, "We're going to start playing a song at random, just sing to the song you hear, okay?" Eason answered, "Okay." Once the band started playing, Nicholas started singing 改造人, a song Eason wrote for Nicholas 10 years ago. The rest of the story:


6. Miriam Yeung makes an appearance Night 6 (March 25th). Apparently, Miriam was there to present Eason with flowers and was about to leave, but seeing Miriam with earplugs, Eason asked her to sing a song. She sang 少女的祈禱:


7. Edmond Leung makes an appearance Night 7 and performs PG家長指引 together, a song Eason wrote for Edmond:


8. Outfits designed by Johanna Ho (何志恩). Upon Eason's request for less exaggeration, Johanna toned it down while maintaining the DUO theme for his wardrobe.

9. Unfortunately, Jan Lamb isn't 100% correct. Despite Eason giving it his all, not all ticket holders are satisfied as they continue to criticize due to expectations not met. Fortunately, Jan isn't 100% incorrect, as fans and ticket holders continue to support Eason through this ordeal and understand that while his vocal isn't 100%, this performance and emotions are.

10. His performances of 囍帖街 and 無人之境 causes media frenzy. The media continues to report on 囍帖街 because the song's original performer is Kay Tse, the person who Eason has been accused of having an affair with. During his performances of 無人之境, he kisses a Japanese dancer as the song speaks of a unattainable relationship, the media continues to report on this particular performance as Hilary was present during several of those performances.

Star sightings through the first 7 shows:

Niki Chow (Night 1)
Denise Ho (Night 1, 5)
Josie Ho (Night 1, 5)
Wilfred Lau (Night 1, 5)
Edmond Leung (Night 1, 7)
Wyman Wong (Night 1)
Shawn Yue (Night 1)
Joey Yung (Night 1)

Matthew Ko (Night 2)
Jan Lamb (Night 2)
Cass Phang (Night 2)
Nancy Wu (Night 2)
Myolie Wu (Night 2)
Rainie Yang (Night 2)
Candice Yu (Night 2)
Zhou Xun (Night 2)

Calvin Choy (Night 3)
Pong Nan (Night 3)
HotCha (Night 3)

Tony Leung Ka Fai (Night 4)
Liza Wang (Night 4)
Ursule Wong (Night 4)

Nicholas Tse (Night 5, 6)
Terence Yin (Night 5)

Fen Nei 薰妮 (Night 6)
Eric Kwok (Night 6)
Grace Ip (Night 6)
Lowell Lo 盧冠廷 (Night 6)
Eric Suen (Night 6)
Miriam Yeung (Night 6)

William So (Night 7)
Gigi Leung (Night 7)
Simon Yam (Night 7)

Sources: mingpao & on.cc 03.21.2010 - 03.27.2010, HOCC Facebook 03.23.2010 & crhk 03.24.2010