A dream come true for Gin Lee: pop, jazz and tango battle it out in a Le French May concert in Hong Kong unlike anything she has done before

Cities of Light: A Love Affair Between France and Hong Kong will feature Hong Kong pop singer Gin Lee and South African jazz vocalist Talie Monin

Its blend of ‘jazz, tango and world music’ will make it ‘way more artistic and theatrical than a pop concert’, Lee tells the Post

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Hong Kong pop singer Gin Lee, who will join forces with South African jazz vocalist Talie Monin for two concerts in June. Photo: Universal Music

Published: 1:45pm, 13 Jun 2022Updated: 4:47pm, 13 Jun 2022

Canto-pop meets jazz in Cities of Light: A Love Affair Between France and Hong Kong, an upcoming concert at this year’s Le French May, the annual arts festival organised by the Association Culturelle France – Hong Kong.

For two nights, at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong pop singer Gin Lee will team up with South African jazz vocalist Talie Monin for a musical offering produced by award-winning composer Leon Ko Sai-tseung.

Billed as a “musical love affair” between Hong Kong and France, it will see Lee and Monin shuttle between genres and perform adaptations of gems from both regions, including Canto-pop diva Shirley Kwan Suk-yee’s Under the Starlight, a regional hit that was translated for French singer Elsa Lunghini’s Tout L’temps, Tout L’temps.

Born in Johannesburg, Monin’s success in Asia came quickly after she moved to Hong Kong, where she headlined the city’s International Jazz Festival in 2018. Having trained in Paris at the American School of Modern Music and the Bill Evans Piano Academy, she will be taking care of most of the French numbers.

Originally from Malaysia, Lee is a platinum-selling singer who has starred in Chinese talent shows The Voice of China and China’s Star. Cities of Light is her latest international collaboration – she has previously teamed up with British DJ Jax Jones, Italian singer Eros Ramazzotti and Hong Kong icon Jacky Cheung Hok-yau.

“There will be elements of jazz, tango and world music in the new renditions,” Lee tells the Post. She says the event is unlike anything she has done in the past and “way more artistic and theatrical than a pop concert”.

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