Singapore, 2022- Lay Zhang has officially set sail on his solo offline tour, Grandline II: Infinite Lands and this is the first time ever for him to hold a solo concert on our sunny island. On 19th October 2022, his fans, Xingmi, filled Singapore’s Resorts World Ballroom with excitement, holding their purple lightsticks. The solo artiste is known to be an EXO member and has recently departed from his former entertainment company. This year marks Lay’s 10th year debut anniversary and his 6th year as a solo artist. The Chinese music producer, singer-songwriter, rapper, and dancer took over the night with his phenomenal stage performances.

Lay performed songs from his studio albums, Lay 02 Sheep, Namanana, Lit, and Producer. His songs combined the Hip Hop genre with Chinese instrumentals, hoping to showcase Chinese culture. This is especially evident in his album Lit where Chinese instruments like the zither and gourd flute are used. This has made his music refreshing and unique! The concert made its impactful opening with Descendants of the Dragon from his album, Producer and that evidently hyped up the crowd.

Well-known as an exceptional dancer, Lay was a judge for seasons 3 and 4 of Street Dance of China. His fans had the opportunity to watch him dance live and up close. In the song Lit, Lay brought to the stage a Peking Opera performer, adding special elements to his stage performance. Some other hit songs he performed were Sheep, Namanana, Honey, Mask, Joker and Jade. The fans also got to watch Lay perform his latest hit, Veil, during the concert.

In his efforts to connect with Singapore fans, Lay learnt to say “handsome” and “pretty” the Singaporean way and complimented his fans being ‘yandao’ and ‘chio’ (handsome and pretty in Hokkien). Lay also made his fans sing about chilli crab while he plays his guitar. Lay really made an effort to reconnect with his Singapore fans after meeting face-to-face for the first time in many years! Besides playing his guitar, the multi-talented artiste also played the piano live, singing One Person (Ex Files 2 OST), Boom and Stay with Me.

Being known as the Changsha Prince by his fans, Lay took to stage his song Changsha, rapping in the dialect. Fans also got to learn the Changsha dialect from Lay and the artiste expressed that he hopes fans can visit his hometown and taste the delicious food.

His dedicated fans also prepared fan events where LED finger lights were used for Veil. A banner that reads “张艺兴 我们一直都在” was raised when Lay sings Call My Name. The banner translates to “Zhang Yixing we are always here”. Needless to say, fans also gave Lay his purple ocean throughout the concert.

The show concluded with his Encore singing Honey and The Shepherd Boy. As Lay mentioned, good times are always short, he bids his fans farewell. Lay hopes that his fans will enjoy the concert “after not meeting for so long” he said. The 2.5 hours long concert felt short indeed, but the crowd at the Resort World Ballroom was amazing and fans spent a great time with their idol.

Article credit: Hannah Ong