Gala Spectacular 1986

One of those re-runs of classics by TVB again this afternoon. It was great! A no frills charity show for one of HK's oldest charity organisations 保良局, the six performers were truly singers while the four comperes (Lydia Sum, Ho B, Ah Lek and Carina Lau) were witty and funny.

First off was a very young Lui Fong. Even though I wasn't familiar with his songs, I remembered his duet with Carina, and 君心知我心, the theme song of a very old TVB series 赤腳紳士 which I watched when I was very young. Sometimes I'm a bit amazed by my memory!

Next was George Lam. He and his moustache looked exactly the same then and now! I only knew a few of his hits and he sang all of them, the classic 最愛是誰, the tongue-twister monster of numbers 數字人生, the even-more-of-a-tongue-twister 阿Lam日記, and 千億個夜晚.

Then it was Anita! She and her Grasshoppers did three songs including 愛將 and 將冰山劈開. During the latter, her mic suddenly went silent and her vocals couldn't be heard. One Grasshopper cooly went up to her and gave her his mic while an equally calm and collected Mui-jeh passed him her spoilt one, as if it was all part of the dance routine. 型爆!

Teresa Teng was up next but I wasn't very familiar with her songs apart from the evergreen 月亮代表我的心 and 償還, later covered by Anita and Sammi respectively. Her Cantonese wasn't perfect but I actually found her slightly clumsy speeches rather endearing, and so did the audience, I think.

Then it was Leslie, who opened with two slow numbers 當年情 and 有誰共鳴 before getting the audience high with his by-now classic duet with Anita 冰山大火 and another fast song.

Last to perform was Jenny Tseng. I didn't know any of her songs, except her final take with an innovative combination of 明天會更好/We are the World.

But even though some of the songs were dated and the make-up and dressing rather weird by today's standards, after watching the show, I was again reminded that some people are just born with the poise and charm to be a star.

有些人站出來就是巨星.