SINGAPORE, June 23 — It was a simple but memorable night with Taiwan’s Jonathan Lee. There were no pyrotechnics, no dancers and no flashy green lasers at his concert, which was held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Saturday night. Lee simply captivated his audience with his guitars, band and songs he had written in an impressive 30-year career in Mandopop.

As his fans should know, Lee, who began performing solo gigs only in recent years, is first and foremost a songwriter and record producer. Even so, Lee performed his works masterfully. “Singing is just my hobby,” he grinned. “I let the real singers make my songs famous and then borrow them to sing on stage and earn some applause.”

And if the 55-year-old’s Since Youth Is Fleeting world tour was as contemplative as its name suggests, it is only because most of his songs are that way. Many of them speak of loneliness, ordinary life, women and the transience of love in a manner that is both plain and poetic. Through the night, Lee serenaded his quietly appreciative audience of 5,000 in his trademark speak-singing fashion, with mega hits such as Jeff Chang’s I Really Love You, Winnie Hsin’s Realisation, Emil Chau’s Let Me Be Happy, Let Me Be Sad, Sandy Lam’s No Need To Care Who I Am, Sylvia Chang’s Because Of Loneliness and Karen Mok’s 12th Floor. Explaining how some of his most famous songs were written, Lee candidly admitted that some of his biggest hits, including Jeff Chang’s Love Like The Tides, had been written in a hurry. “I am embarrassed by some of these lyrics,” he said.

Towards the end of the concert, Lee performed one of his newer songs, Hill, to cheers and applause. “There is so much I would like to say but haven’t said,” he sang. “I collect them because I want to write songs with them. People may sing these songs softly or faintly remember them. It’s worth it, even if these songs are eventually forgotten.

But it’ll be a long time before that happens. ― Today