CHASING LIGHT
DING YI X DICK LEE 70
Ding Yi Music Company
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (26 July 2026)
This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 July 2026 with the title "Ding Yi celebrates Dick Lee's wide-ranging musical legacy in birthday tribute".
National Day is around the corner, and one is guaranteed to hear more than a few performances of Home (1998) in its various versions. However, did one know that its composer singer-songwriter Dick Lee wrote far more than that, besides his iconic musicals in English, Beauty World (1988), Fried Rice Paradise (1991) and Forbidden City (2002)?
This special concert by Ding Yi Music Company conducted by Dedric Wong celebrated Lee’s 70th birthday with a programme wholly dedicated to his songs in Cantonese and Mandarin. Many of these do not even have English titles. Arrangements for Chinese instrumental ensemble by eight composers from Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China were songs “reimagined”, and have never been previously heard by Lee himself.
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| Photo: Ding Yi Music Company |
Concert director Jet Ho’s conception of the evening was a chronological one, built around a sequence of filmed interviews with Lee, detailing a life story when he began writing songs in Chinese. His 1990 relocation to Japan was pivotal, as he was soon ushered into the world of Hong Kong Cantopop by Sandy Lam. He was introduced to the “Four Heavenly Kings” - Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai – and he composed songs for all of them.
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| Dick Lee with Sandy Lam, 1991 |
Attended by a full-house of mostly the boomer demographic, this was more than an evening of nostalgia. It was a journey through the “Golden Age of Cantopop”, before the British colony’s handover to mainland China, and viewing the genre through new lenses.
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| Jessie Yeong & Skye Sirena Photo: Ding Yi Music Company |
The concert was fronted by four singers, Jessie Yeong (from Malaysia), Lennerd Lim (Malaysia), Skye Sirena (Singapore), Wysom Wong (Singapore), each bringing their own style to the songs. Yeong exuded sensuality in songs sang by Sandy Lam, Dawn and Ye Hua (Night Flower). Skye shined in Anita Mui’s slow ballad Ru Yue (Like Night) and Kit Chan’s Den Le You Den (Still Waiting).
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| Lennerd Lim & Wysom Wong Photo: Ding Yi Music Company |
Lim exuded “pretty boy” vibes as he roused the audience in Jeff Chang’s Mandopop Duo Xiang (Longing). It was Wong’s crooning and more leisurely manner in Andy Lau’s Jue Dui Zhai Hu Ni (Absolutely Care For You), however, that gained the most traction. Together, the two men courted and rocked the house in Love Is Cha Cha Cha.
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| Photo: Ding Yi Music Company |
Besides accompanying, there were ample opportunities for Ding Yi’s musicians to shine as soloists. In Tracy Huang’s Everything I Know, Koh Yu Jie (erhu) and Yvonne Tay (guzheng) stole the show with purely instrumentals, while Lyu Sih-Ying’s dizi was always on hand to lend soloistic colour to the songs.
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| Photo: Ding Yi Music Company |
After the Snow.Wolf.Lake Medley, it was the man of the hour Dick Lee himself who came forward to sing and tickle the ivories, In Jacky Cheung’s Love Is Eternal and Leslie Cheung’s Zhui (Chase), he exhibited a voice still in full fettle and an irrepressible presence. An encore of the ubiquitous Home, sung by all the singers and the audience, closed the evening on a nationalistic high.
Dick Lee is Singapore’s Paul McCartney, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Elton John all rolled into one.
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| Photos: Ding Yi Music Company |
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| Happy Three Score and Ten, Dick Lee! |
