Jam Hsiao Promotion Showcase LIVE in Singapore
By Wei Mun

I’ve never been to a live concert before. Not even a mini one. I used to think that it was a waste of time, and that I could always enjoy my favourite artiste’s music in the comfort of my house.

I USED to.

After the exclusive invite-only Jam Hsiao, Promotion LIVE Showcase presented by SingTel, I’ll never ever think the same way again. I didn’t really know many of his songs, maybe about 2? But I love the only 2 songs I know. So when given the chance to hear him LIVE, all I wanted was to finally see him in person and to get to know more of his songs.

I got more than I bargained for.

You can never imagine the feeling of having your heart beating in the same rhythmic movement with the music and whenever Jam sings, it seems as if you were right there, in the picture, in the song, in the story.

The faster tempo songs saw me tap my feet along with the music. Slow ballads brought me into the story, so much so that I was overwhelmed by emotions.

You know, sometimes, there are some singers who are better heard on CDs than live. Jam is DEFINITELY not one of them. And I seriously think that this is one singer who sounds even better – LIVE.

Watching Jam sing LIVE is an enjoyment. Unlike many other singers who have lots of interaction with their fans and who performed for the audience, Jam comes across to me as someone who really loves singing, rather than performing to an audience. Seeing him so deeply engrossed in his music, I got sucked into his world of music. At that moment, I could not think of anything else other than the lyrics, the music, the singing and stories of the songs. It was only when the songs ended that I was transported back to reality.

The persona of Jam singing and Jam being interviewed appears quite different. When singing, Jam exhibits confidence, displaying his astounding wide voice range to experiment with different singing techniques. During interviews, Jam on the other hand, exposed his freshness in relating to the media and audiences. Come to think of it, he is just a new kid on the block having recently released his maiden album.

And this was not evident and had not deterred the number of people who turned up for the event. I thought some superstar was inside as I was queuing to get in.

Jam is known for replying in super short sentences: for open-ended questions, the most he used to reply was 4 words. But on that day, when asked to introduce his new album, his reply stunned me (this has got to be one of his longest replies, and it goes something like this):
“I feel that this album is very nice, because it has great songs, great producers and great music. Please support me. Thank you.”

The crowd cheered and applauded. Even the emcee of the event was impressed that Jam had spoken out of the norm!