I wasn't terribly excited going to this. At first I was, but it was a week night performance starting at 9.30 pm, at the not-too-convenient location of Harbourfront, and four hours before the event, I somehow got myself a mild case of diarrhoea. But I had free tickets, and never one to let anything - especially anything free - go to waste, I managed to drag myself there. And whadd'ya know? I actually enjoyed the music. Really, properly enjoyed it. At least more than any of the past concerts I had to fork out money to attend in the recent music festivals. Story of my life. The more expectations I have of something, the higher the letdown. Expect nothing, and enjoy everything.
I first heard Sa Ding Ding perform at this beauty pageant on TV last year (I forget which) and found her music and persona intriguing enough to google her. Turns out she's this Sanskrit/Tibetan/self-invented-language-singing, half-Han half-Mongolian singer-songwriter (yes she's one of those multi-slashers) who hit it big time when she won a BBC World Music Award in 2008 and has since released her third album and performed in over 20 countries. She's even been invited to perform in Algeria, which has a 50,000-strong Chinese population.
Watching her sing and perform live, I have to say she's a natural. She's one of those born to be onstage. It's not just that she's talented and beautiful and has a really unique style. She's all that, but when she's singing and dancing, you get the sense that she's really - to steal a favourite phrase from Inside the Actor's Studio - in the moment. Never mind that this might be one of the smaller venues she's played at, never mind that part of the crowd might even be paying more attention to their drinks than her, never mind that she tripped up on some of the lyrics in her one English song - you never for one second doubt that she is anything but totally immersed in this other world that she's created in her music. I'm reminded of the Athena character in The Witch of Portobello, a woman who goes into a kind of spiritual trance when she dances. Some times SDD looked like she was going to go careening into her guzheng-player at the corner of the stage, but it never happened. This must be the apogee of performing that judges on Idol-type shows talk about - to possess both spontaneity and control, and just deliver a damn good show. She even managed to combine her brand of world-folk-spiritual-chant music with electric rock, and not have it sound totally ridiculous.Well ok I have to say, I'm not a big fan of the English song she performed, which was mainly her chanting a series of incomprehensible English words, until she suddenly lets rip a "... this must be your LUCKY DAAAAY!" at the end of the chorus. But other than this one mis-step, she seems to have found her unique niche in music. Controversial as it may be, she is to traditional Chinese music what Vanessa Mae is to classical music and Sarah Brightman is to opera.
Her last song, an encore piece, was Alive, which she sang in Sanskrit, and which is the first song I heard her sing. She had a post-show autograph session, but I had to rush off as I was minutes away from missing the last MRT ride home. A Chinese girl I met at the event said that SDD was a big star in China (I guess for a non-mainstream artiste), and that she thought it was a pity the audience here didn't seem to really appreciate her music. Well I'm not sure about the uncles and aunties (not being ageist, but what were they doing there?), but the crowd that night seemed pretty entertained. I hope people stayed for the autograph session. And if she ever has a proper concert here in Singapore, you bet I'll be there.
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