Fans gear up as stars descend on Singapore

SINGAPORE — It is going to be a star-studded next few days in Singapore, with three big names — Gordon Ramsay, Lee Joon Gi and A-Lin — passing through the country.

Korean actor-singer Lee has already reached our shores. The star made it in on Thursday night, and will be headlining the HSBC Women’s Champions music festival on Saturday, which is part of the ladies’ golf tournament that runs until March 5.

The festival will also feature performances by American band Thirdstory and Singaporean acts Gentle Bones, Jack and Rai, and Bounce Squad.

It is the first time the star has been to town, and Lee’s Singapore fans headed to the airport last night to welcome him with banners and a surprise song.

Cheryl Wong, who is in her late 30s, even took leave from work on Thursday and Friday, and plans to keep her weekend free in order to catch him, too.

“Seeing him on (my) home ground will be totally different from seeing him overseas,” said Wong, who has travelled to Seoul, Guangzhou, Osaka, Nagoya and Yokohama to see 
Lee perform.

“I expect (he will perform) the cover-version medley of Big Bang songs that he did for his fans in other countries, but I ... can’t wait to see what songs he has prepared (for Singapore),” said Wong.

Other fans will head to his concert with gifts. One group has prepared a surprise birthday pack for Lee, who will celebrate his 35th birthday on April 17. They also prepared 500 fun packs to hand out to fellow fans attending the concert, and 40 staff packs for Lee’s crew.

Speaking to TODAY, Fiona Goh, 34, who runs the Lee Joon Gi Singapore – jgstylesg fan page on Facebook, said the fun packs consist of handheld banners, fans, LED rings and fake tattoos, while the staff packs contain local snacks and coffee, and towels. What the birthday pack for the star contains is a surprise.

It took her and a dozen other fans more than a month to get all the items ready, and two weekends to put the packs together for Lee, best known for his roles in films and TV dramas such as Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo and The King And The Clown. He recently made his Hollywood debut in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.

“Many fans have been waiting for him to come to Singapore for (a long time),” said Goh, who has been a fan of Lee’s since catching him in The King And The Clown in 2006.

“We have been waiting for 10-over years for him to come here ... we want to give him a very memorable treat,” she said.

LOOK OUT FOR RAMSAY, A-LIN

There is no word on when British chef and restaurateur Ramsay, who has a Bread Street Kitchen outlet here, will fly into town — but he will definitely be here on Friday.

Ramsay was most recently in Hong Kong, and posted pictures of himself posing with his staff at the Bread Street Kitchen at Hotel LKF on Monday. He also posted pictures of dishes from the restaurant on Wednesday.

In Singapore, he will be part of a judging panel at the inaugural Marina Bay Sands Culinary Olympics, held at the Bread Street Kitchen there.

The culinary competition for food and beverage industry personnel at Marina Bay Sands is a chance for them to showcase their culinary skills and creativity. They will be tasked to create and showcase a dish made with sustainable ingredients.

Ramsay, who is famous for his trademark quick-fire staccato comments on television shows such as Kitchen Nightmares, Hell’s Kitchen and MasterChef US, previously visited Singapore in 2015 and 2013.

In 2013, he participated in the Hawker Heroes Challenge at Newton Food Centre, where he famously lost to the local hawkers after an intense night spent cooking and serving three quintessentially Singaporean hawker dishes — chicken rice, laksa and chilli crab.

In 2015, he was here to open his Singapore branch of Bread Street Kitchen, which also has an outlet in London, and serves up what Ramsay describes as “traditionally British fare with an Asian twist”.

Taiwanese vocal powerhouse 
A-Lin, whose real name is Huang Li Ling, will perform at a sold-out show at The Star Theatre on Saturday.

The singer, who performed at the same venue in 2015, is best known for her Mandopop ballads, as well as for appearing on the third season of Chinese reality singing competition, I Am A Singer.

“I am attending her concert because I think her live singing is good, as evident in her performance in I Am A Singer,” said Michelle Low, 28, who is attending the concert on Saturday with a friend.

“I hope she will sing her better-known songs, because to be honest I am not entirely familiar with all her songs, but I (am looking forward to) her live singing.” ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY REENA DEVI

Lee Joon Gi will perform at the 
Lee Joon Gi Thank You concert at the HSBC Women’s Champions music festival from 7pm on Saturday. Tickets, from S$148, are available at Apactix (www.apactix.com). 
A-Lin’s Sonar concert will be held at 
The Star Theatre at 8pm on Saturday. 
Tickets are sold out.