Kelly Chen

A friend phoned last night urging “Quick, Lini turn on the TV - I’m watching you onscreen singing at a concert in China!”  Well, he was partly right because I had certainly felt like I WAS singing in China then!  He was referring to a re-broadcast of the November ‘08 “Our Chinese Heart” concert held at GM Place stadium (yup, the same place Britney Spears and AC/DC play), for an audience of 13,000.  This was an ambitious variety concert produced by Asia’s largest broadcaster CCTV featuring many Asian stars such as Kelly Chen, Daniel Chan, Guo Feng and many more.  http://www.ourchineseheart.com/jt/home.html

Onstage with Han Lei

It was quite the experience that’s for sure.  Namely because I’d been contacted to perform a Mandarin song I’d never heard of just one week prior to the concert.  Negotiations stalled and I was never contracted……..until the very DAY of the show!!  I consider myself game for most challenges in my career (ok, except for the National Geographic acting shoot involving live tigers), I had heard the song was brief and straight-forward so decided to cram in a month’s learning into just a few hours.  Little did I know what was ahead.

Arrived at GM Place and was informed by the one person who spoke any English that I’d be singing the song with renowned Chinese singer Han Lei.  For the 3 hour concert FINALE.  Ran through the song just twice with him; he’s a fine gentleman who speaks no English and has a gorgeous, soaring tenor voice.  My voice is alto, not exactly the best match for this duet.  My ear monitors were faulty and cut out constantly so I finally realized I better not dare move from my spot.  So much for my Britney dance moves…

@ GM Place

Somehow it all came together, we pulled it off, and it’s now been broadcast multiple times to over a billion viewers I’m told.  That’s pretty wild.  I’m thankful to Vancouver performer Jack Li who helped me and I’m grateful to have experienced a venue of this magnitude.  I just ask for a bit more notice for the next challenge, okay Universe?!

You can see more of the photos at http://www.linievans.com/photos.html