http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/life/story/0,4386,156789,00.html Sandy sizzles Pop diva breaks her popularity record with four encores By Samuel Lee WHEN Sandy Lam last performed here two years ago, she had to beg the crowd to go home after two encores. Last Saturday, the Hongkong pop diva broke her own record when she delivered four encores. While her 2000 gig at the University Cultural Centre was an acoustic set for the Singapore Music Festival, the Singapore Indoor Stadium show was a glorious, full-blown affair. The concert's impact was boosted by a snazzily- designed four-cornered stage as well as simple but striking clothes and choreography. But it was her enigmatic appeal ultimately which made audiences fall head over heels for her. Most 36-year-old women would not be caught dead mimicking the girly impishness she projects. But it is not a persona Lam puts on consciously. Rather, it stems from a youthful vigour which comes through naturally in the way she communicates with the crowd, through her singing and sincere banter. Having honed her craft for almost two decades now, her ultra-feminine voice is unparallelled in its crystalline clarity. Its beauty came through in all forms - the two rock-flavoured opening numbers Existence and Clanging Rose, the infectiously uplifting and clubby Mardi Gras medley, and the stark folk-pop acoustica of Paper Plane. Radiating an all-woman aura, she is living proof that you do not need huge deep-set eyes, big breasts and revealing clothes to be sexy. Of course, baring her well-scrubbed back to the audience ever so often did help generate some excitement. Still, what shone through at the end of her 2 3/4-hour set of old and new songs was the feeling of love she conveyed and, in turn, got from the 8,000-strong audience. 'I feel so much love from you,' she gushed after singing her hit song, Scar, in the third encore. The emotional outpouring crystallised an evening made up of the two elements best summed up in her surname: L-A-M = Love and Magic. http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/mnt/media/image/launched/2002-11-24/L21125.jpg LOVE AND MAGIC: Lam sums up the elements of the night last Saturday. -- WANG HUI FEN -- ┌┌┌┌ Origin: 小鱼的紫色花园 <fpg.twbbs.org> 140.112.200.214 ───┐┐┐┐ └└└└ From : telnet.hinet.net ──────────────────┘┘┘┘