Electric A-Mei
NEW STRAITS TIMES,
Wednesday, October 20th, 1999

By Ricky Yap

HER years of traipsing the club circuit in her homeland have certainly paid off for Taiwanese singer Sherry Zhang Hui-Mei, popularly known as A-Mei.

And this polished gem positively shone at her one-off concert at the newly-renovated Merdeka Stadium. A-Mei drove the 35,000-odd crowd into a state of frenzied delirium with her sexy charm and suggestive stage work.

She was in complete control of the three-hour concert from the word "Go" as she stepped out on the stage in a green sequinned top and a tassled pom-pom skirt, rendering Give Me The Feeling.

With that opening number to warm up the crowd, A-Mei then launched into the intro of Bad Boy, one of her biggest hits, which whipped the crowd into wild ecstasy.

Keeping in step with the eight back-up dancers - four males and four females - A-Mei showed off nifty dance moves and sexy gyrations that have earned her the nickname of "Madonna of China" from her concerts there two months ago.

Animated in character and oozing with girlish sweetness and spontaneity, A-Mei continued the momentum with High, High, High.

She then slowed down the pace with two ballads - Nothing U Want and Blue Sky - before departing backstage for a costume change, allowing her younger sister Saya to take centrestage with a rather sexy version of an Arabian dance to the opening music of Sunrise.

This set the stage for A-Mei's re-entrance from an elevated platform to render the tune, followed by Mountain Song, in which her tribal origins were showcased and where she gave a new twist (no pun intended) to her tribal dancing skills.

The daughter of the chief of the Beinan hilltribe in Taitung (a day's drive from Taipei), A-Mei presented more of these pop tribal tunes - spiced with trademark chantings - later on in her concert.

In a showcase of her talent, she did an unplugged performance with six of her musicians, rendering Think About U, Cut Love, Can't Cry and Relief.

There were moments that A-Mei was so touched by the rapturous applause that she almost broke down. But she managed to maintain her composure each time - albeit briefly as she couldn't control her emotions midway through and shed tears, almost as if on cue while rendering the sad tune, Crying Sea.

That turned out to be the much-needed break for A-Mei as Saya and cousin sister Raya, both known as "A My-My", took centrestage with a fast-paced version of a tribal tune, A Lu Wan Da.

It was a triple dose of girl power when A-Mei stepped back into the limelight to join A My-My in the crowd-pleasing Ba Ba Ba, with the tune ending in a blinding display of pyrotechnics.

As if the atmosphere in the stadium were not hot enough, generated by A-Mei's electrifying performances - her costumes - cut-offs, a halter criss-cross bra top, short skirts and pants that showed off her thighs - also helped to raise temperatures.

A-Mei had her "victim's" hands tied together with a whip and made him sit still while she gyrated up and down before him - which provoked loud catcalls and wolf-whistles - as she crooned Don't Lie To Me, a slow love song about needing and controlling her man.