The opening of China Entertainment Group gave Jay Chou a head-on confrontation

Chapter 878 The song is nice, right? It was paid for with a fine.

This is the first time the Tokyo Dome has hosted such a large influx of people since it was built and opened to the public in March 1988.

To ensure the safety of the venue, police officers from the Metropolitan Police Department were everywhere, maintaining order under the scorching sun.

Even though they usually slack off and do little work, in this situation where a single misstep could easily trigger a high-risk situation, the police officers were still on high alert.

Not to mention the 67,000 people who entered the venue by ticket inspection, there was also a large group of people who didn't buy tickets but were unwilling to leave. They gathered together outside the venue, holding their support items and sitting on the ground, indulging in their own self-pity.

If a stampede were to occur here, it would be on the international news headlines tomorrow.

Many foreign media outlets are closely monitoring and reporting on Zhou Yi's concert.

"Wow, so many people!"

Amidst the crowd, Nakagawa Aoi, waiting in line to have her ticket checked, fanned herself, her soft, round face still bearing traces of weariness.

As a working professional who had graduated from university less than a year ago, she thought that the VIP3 package she bought with a lot of money would be enough to save her from having to spend too much time checking tickets, but it turned out that she was wrong—and very wrong.

Behind her, her college roommate, who had come with her, was beaming with excitement: "No wonder it's Zhou Yijun's concert, Kui! There are so many people. I need to take pictures quickly. Can you hold my bag for me?"

"Hi hi."

After queuing for a while, Nakagawa Aoi, whose legs were aching, responded weakly, "If I had known that the VIP3 package would take this long to queue, I would have just switched to a regular VIP ticket."

"That's different from Aoi! We're sitting in a private S-stand! The best seats in the entire stadium! Plus, we get exclusive gifts, it's a great deal..."

The Tokyo Dome's VIP tickets are divided into three levels, with the highest level, VIP3, providing the front row seats closest to the stage in the first-floor stands.

In addition to getting up close and personal with their idols, participants will receive a set of four limited-edition printed posters from the Zhouyi World Tour, limited-edition souvenirs from the Zhouyi World Tour that are not available on the market, and an exclusive Armani tote bag.

Pins, badges, postcard sets, and other items are packed in a custom Armani tote bag, along with a 1:1 replica of an exclusive concert ticket plaque specially made for collectors.

VIP exclusive passes and lanyards can be taken home, and so on.

Thanks to Japan's world-renowned fandom culture and its music consumption power second only to the United States, Warner Music prepared the most small items for the Tokyo show.

Don't worry about the actual cost; as long as it looks like a lot, a large quantity, and shows sincerity, that's enough.

Put an Armani logo on it and a seat number from Zhou Yi's Tokyo concert, and it becomes a one-of-a-kind luxury item in the world!

For example, as one of the brands endorsing the I Ching, Coca-Cola even placed two cans with unique packaging on every seat in the venue, while Porsche and Cadillac provided parasols and water bottles for the VIP seats.

Of course, they all bear their respective brand logos and the Zhouyi Concert logo.

Theoretically speaking, everyone can claim to be unique.

"There's even perfume? Has Zhou Yijun ever signed a perfume endorsement?" After passing through the VIP channel and entering the venue, Nakagawa Aoi, who took the fast track to her seat in the front row, subconsciously checked the bag placed on her seat and asked in surprise.

She was still familiar with the Chanel logo.

"I've never heard of that. Zhou Yijun has very few endorsements. Apart from the Chinese brands he signed early in his career, the rest are all top international brands. If he really signed a perfume endorsement, he would have announced it long ago."

The two weren't the only ones pleasantly surprised.

Everyone who purchased the VIP3 package was surprised to find perfume inside the bag—a moment that was followed by a deep sense of emotion.

The idol doesn't endorse any perfume brands, but now they're giving away perfume samples – it's like the idol is paying for them out of their own pocket.

What does "going both ways" mean?

This is what we call a two-way journey!
The scalped tickets I bought at an exorbitant premium suddenly felt like a steal!
Zhou Yi sama has us in his heart!
At 5:45 PM, all 67000 seats at the Tokyo Dome, allocated after stage planning, were completely filled.

The large screens at the venue played footage from Zhou Yi's music videos from each album over and over again, with clips of his highly popular songs playing in a loop through the venue's sound system.

Some of them are even Japanese songs—to be precise, they are Japanese versions of songs that were covered after the copyright of Zhou Yi's songs was bought by the Japanese side.

Each segment, led by the live DJ, sparked a massive sing-along from the entire audience.

Wang Lihong, Zhang Huimei, and others who received guest tickets and sat in the VIP section have all held concerts abroad before, but Zhou Yi's concerts, which are 95% attended by foreigners...

They had never seen it before.

Even when Zhang Xueyou, who currently holds the largest concert market, goes abroad to hold concerts, more than 90%—no, more than 99%—are Chinese, of Chinese descent.

This is an unprecedented miracle in the history of Chinese pop music, and it's hard to say whether it will ever happen again.

Writing English songs is not easy.

Even someone as talented as Wang Lihong, whose native language is English, wrote English songs that were only at a very ordinary level, and Sony simply blocked their release.

"According to the embassy's records, there are approximately 60 Chinese people in Japan as of this year. Leaving aside those who are simply there to make money, among the rest, only a small number of wealthy international students are probably willing to spend a lot of money to see Zhou Yi's concert..."

When Wang Lihong released his Japanese album, he held a fan meeting in Japan. Apart from the people Sony hired to promote him, the Japanese girls who became fans of him were basically there for his looks, and they didn't really care about his songs.

This is why most Chinese singers, including Jay Chou, can only hold shows for two or three thousand people in Japan. For Wang Fei in her era, being able to hold a show for ten thousand people at the Nippon Budokan was a significant achievement, surpassing all her female Chinese singer contemporaries and propelling her to the top.

"According to Jaylen, the New York show was even more terrifying; basically, apart from their group of guests, you couldn't see any Chinese faces." Looking at that spirited face on the big screen and listening to the DJ introducing the I Ching, Zhang Huimei's emotions were somewhat complicated.

As a founding member of Warner Music's Queen of the Palace, she should theoretically have been able to benefit from Zhou Yi's influence. However, due to well-known reasons, Zhou Yi completely ignored her.

Even though the higher-ups had forgiven her and let bygones be bygones, allowing her to participate in the China-Japan Song Festival as a new beginning, Zhou Yi still ignored her.

It was precisely for this reason that she gave up her last hope of cooperating with Zhou Yi and terminated her contract with Warner ahead of schedule.

Rather than staying at Warner and continuing to flop, it's better to leave and start over.

She figured that if it weren't for the fact that the China-Japan concert was being restarted, she probably wouldn't have gotten this guest ticket.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Star World Tour - Tokyo Station!"
"Next, let's give a warm round of applause to:"
"A miracle in the history of Chinese pop music, the emperor of Asian pop music, a holder of multiple Guinness World Records, a legendary singer whose second album topped the Billboard charts five times; the person who ranked first in total record sales in the world for four consecutive years, the perfect hexagonal warrior, the phoenix of the empire!"
"Zhou! Yi!"

Waves of cheers drowned out the Japanese DJ's increasingly enthusiastic opening remarks, and the flashing lights inside the venue, accompanied by the pounding drums, instantly transformed the enormous Tokyo Dome into the world's largest nightclub ocean—

Hey everyone!

Zhou Yi's image didn't appear on the big screen, but his voice was already transmitted through the speakers to the ears of everyone present—

As soon as the catchy intro to "Yeah" started, all 67,000 people instantly jumped onto the dance floor!
"Peace up, A-Town down (We're in the city center)"
"Tokyo! Come on!"

Neon lights dazzle the eyes, and a sense of rhythm sweeps through the crowds!
"yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah~"

As the song began, Zhou Yi, who hadn't appeared anywhere on stage, suddenly appeared before his fans in a white suit, dressed in a kind and gentle manner, when the staff pulled open the entrance door to the audience area.

Behind them were eight dancers who moved in sync with the rhythm.

"I'm in the club with my homies, trying to get a little thrill."

Zhou Yi took off the white baseball cap he was wearing and tossed it directly to the nearest scantily clad female audience member. He then grinned mischievously as he twirled to the rhythm of his dance, pointing at her.

"Keep it down on the low key, because you know how it feels."

Completely taken aback, Nakagawa Aoi was momentarily stunned when her idol suddenly appeared from the audience aisle and casually tossed her the hat he had been wearing.

But her best friend's scream quickly brought her back to her senses!

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

The sisters unleashed their battle cry, the sharpness of which seemed to pierce eardrums!

Nakagawa Aoi, who quickly clutched the hat to her impressive bust, was instantly overwhelmed with excitement. Seeing this, more fans stood up, reached over the railing, and reached out to Zhou Yi, who was singing and dancing. Even if they couldn't get anything from him, at least they could shake his hand—

The bright lights of the nightclub only made the atmosphere more ambiguous. Because of the close proximity, Zhou Yi himself didn't know how many hands had touched him.

The song "Yeah" is over four minutes long, and Zhou Yi, with his incredible energy, danced and walked all the way through the front aisles, finally showcasing his physical prowess at the very end of the song.

Like a spring rising from the ground, he leaped up from below the stage and stepped onto the main stage on the last, fading drumbeat, leaving the 67,000 audience members with a frozen pose of pointing one finger to the sky with his back to them.

"Tokyo!"

After the outro completely faded away, Zhou Yi, having finished striking a pose, turned around, looked around, raised the microphone, and shouted with his left hand raised high—

In return, the audience erupted in roars of Tarzan-like cries from the crowd.

Especially those in the VIP front row who had been visited by Zhou Yi at the beginning of the event, completely lost all manners and started shouting at the top of their lungs.

It is actually quite dangerous for artists to crawl out of the audience seating area, especially for a large concert with nearly 70,000 people. If things go wrong, a performance accident can easily occur.

Therefore, you can see that this kind of thing is not allowed at concerts in mainland China, for safety reasons. While it is allowed outside of mainland China, relatively few singers would apply to do so. Even if someone does it, they only dare to do it once or twice.

Too many of them won't be enough to withstand any unexpected events.

"Although this is not my first time in Japan, I am still very grateful for the support of all my fans."

Zhou Yi spoke in his Japanese, which had a distinct Chinese accent: "Minna-san, arigato!"

It's not perfect, but it doesn't matter, as long as I can understand it.

The only people in the world who would nitpick a Chinese superstar's accent in English, Japanese, or other languages ​​would be found on a large scale on the Chinese internet.

A foreign singer can receive rave reviews and high praise for singing a half-baked Chinese song. In reality, if you cover up the lyrics, you can't even hear what he is singing. His singing technique is also unchanging and makes people tired of it.
A Chinese singer singing foreign language songs only gets frequent online calls from police officers because of their accents.

Oh, even Chinese people speaking foreign languages ​​can get them called out online by police officers based on their accents.

This phenomenon remains mainstream even in the mobile internet era. "I love you! Zhou Yijun!"

The electronic light board was lifted up by the fan club members working together. The bright words and heart icon on it made Zhou Yi smile and raise his hand in their direction, then pound his left chest.

"The next song is from my latest album, and it's called 'The Nights'—"

Before he could finish speaking, his introduction was interrupted by irregular screams. After standing on the stage for more than a minute, Zhou Yi, with a smile on his face, put his index finger to his lips: "The inspiration for this song, I believe, is something you are all familiar with."

"Although the Muse is not here now, I still hope that you will all remember this wonderful night."

"Okay, come on."

After opening his arms in greeting, the song "The Nights," which had also swept the globe, immediately resounded throughout the Tokyo Dome as the melody began.

Compared to the United States, this song is actually more popular in Asia.

Hey, once upon a younger year.

When all our shadows disappeared

"The animals inside came out to play (the wildness within was beating)..."

After plugging the microphone into the tripod, Zhou Yi, who had been walking around for a while, began to act as the conductor: "Can you sing the next chorus? To the left?"

As Zhou Yi pointed with both hands, the fans on the left who were singing along all roared at the top of their lungs: "He said, one day you'll leave this world behind!"
So live a life you will remember.

"Hey, you guys on the right!" Zhou Yi turned around and started the military training march—

My father told me this when I was just a child.
These are the nights that never die.

The camera panned across the fans, their eyes brimming with tears of excitement.

Everyone appearing on the big screen was waving glow sticks, cherishing the perfect moment of meeting their idols that night, singing along, and celebrating their youth.

Four years, four globally popular English albums—

If we include Zhou Yi's initial meeting with Japanese fans when she hitched a ride on Jackie Chan's film "Rush Hour 2," that would be five years.

Five years have passed, and the first batch of college students who heard the Zhouyi songs have already graduated and entered society, not to mention those graduates who went to work right after graduating from high school.

It can indeed be called youth.

Zhou Yi also took great care of his longtime fans at the Tokyo concert, performing as many of his hit songs as possible, from his first English album to his latest fourth.

Due to performance time constraints, he had to cram some songs together into a medley to maximize the fans' desire for a sing-along, while the opportunity for some less popular songs to be performed was directly and indefinitely reduced.

There's no way around it, there are just too many songs that are popular all over the world.

Not to mention that some songs are popular in Asia but not so much in the United States, which also needs to be taken into account; considering that there are more than two thousand Chinese people in the audience, Zhou Yi also needs to insert a few Chinese songs.

With the back-and-forth exchanges and the interactions at each stage, even with prior rehearsals, Zhou Yi inevitably went over time.

There are so many hit songs that we have to go overtime.

This is the first time for the I Ching.

"Just now backstage, my agent reminded me that I'm likely to be fined tonight."

21:00 minutes.

On stage, Zhou Yi, who had changed into his seventh outfit for the show, was panting heavily as he adjusted his in-ear monitor. He joked, "But I told him it was okay because I still had a Japanese song to sing. So what if I get fined? It doesn't matter."

Because of its location in Tokyo, Tokyo Dome is very strict about the contract dates for concerts. Even for superstars like Zhou Yi, the dates that need to be written into the contract still have to be specified.

Tickets are checked at 4:30 PM, the show starts at 6:00 PM, lasts for three hours, and ends at 9:00 PM.

Around 8:50 PM, Zhou Yi left the stage, and the fans, thinking the concert was ending, started shouting for an encore. What was initially just a routine call actually brought Zhou Yi back on stage, now dressed in casual clothes.

"Japanese song? What does that mean? When did Zhou Yijun ever write a Japanese song?"

"I do not know."

"Is it a cover song?"

"Could it really be one of Masami Nagasawa's songs? Is that what the newspapers said?"

Having been excited all day, Nakagawa Aoi suddenly thought of the numerous media reports about Nagasawa Masami's new song and subconsciously speculated.

But she immediately dismissed the idea.

If the show ends now, it won't be considered a fine. But if it's really to get Masami Nagasawa to perform, then it means Zhou Yi would rather be fined than not help Nagasawa.

"Although it's a bit late, let's give a warm round of applause to our guest: Japan's super popular beauty – Ms. Masami Nagasawa!"

Finally, Zhou Yi, who had simply changed into a T-shirt and jeans, loudly called out the guest's name. Masami Nagasawa, in a pale yellow dress, slowly rose onto the stage from the rising platform, greeting the surging crowd of over 60,000 people with a sweet smile.

"Mina-san!"

This……

Wang Lihong and Zhang Huimei, who were both about to leave, exchanged a glance and saw surprise on each other's faces.

Are you really going to use your own concert to promote Masami Nagasawa's new song?
Are you so confident?

"As everyone knows, I wrote a song for Ms. Yami, and I am very grateful for her help in translating it, which corrected my grammar and vocabulary, which is only so-so in Japanese. Without her, this song probably wouldn't exist."

Zhou Yi, in a gentlemanly manner, took Masami Nagasawa's hand and led her to the front of the stage, introducing the new song with a smile.

"I'm very grateful to Yi-jun for giving me this opportunity. I hope this song can bring you all a good mood all night long." Nagasawa Masami's voice trembled slightly as she spoke to nearly 70,000 people at once for the first time.

She thought she was already used to the big scenes in the entertainment industry, but now it seems that the big scenes in the past were just not big enough.

Sixty-seven thousand people—the sheer number of them alone is enough to make many celebrities nervous.

To be honest, she had already decided not to appear when the time was up.

After all, she didn't advertise that she would definitely appear.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Yi was willing to pay a penalty for exceeding the time limit to ensure she performed as scheduled, which increased her psychological pressure even more.

Anxious about gains and losses.

I can't help but wonder if I'll have wasted the opportunity the I Ching has given me if I make a mistake...

The main problem is... the fine for the Tokyo Dome is too expensive!

Just thinking about that number made Masami Nagasawa's heart tremble, and she subconsciously turned her head to look at Zhou Yi, who was giving his presentation as if nothing was wrong—

"Everyone here should listen to this song carefully, after all, it was very expensive to produce."

——?
What the hell?
How high can the production cost of a song be?
Are you kidding me?
Nakagawa Aoi initially thought her idol was joking, until Zhou Yi explicitly said, "I hope this high-cost song can bring you a perfect memory."

At the same time, the title of a song that no one had ever seen before appeared at the top of all the large screens in the venue—

Fireworks (Uchiage Hanabi):
Composer: Zhou Yi

Lyrics by: Zhou Yi

Translation by: Masami Nagasawa

Singer: Masami Nagasawa/Zhou Yi.

The overall style of the stage shifted to midsummer as the pleasant intro began. Encouraged by Zhou Yi's gaze, Masami Nagasawa took a deep breath to calm herself, and listened to the sound in her in-ear monitor as the verse began precisely on time.

"あの日(ひ)见多(みわた)した渚(なぎさ)を" (The coast I looked at that day)
"This (いま)も思(おも)い出(だ)すんだ" (I can still think of it to this day)

"Sand(すな)の上(うえ)に carved(きざ)んだ言叶(ことば)" (words carved on the beach)

"Jun(きみ)の后(うし)ろ子(すがた)(and your back)~~~"

The song "Uchiage Hanabi" is undoubtedly dominated by female vocals, with male vocals serving only as supplementary parts and harmonies, making them a good supporting role. This is also why Masami Nagasawa's name appears before the Book of Changes.

The healing power of the female vocals played a crucial role in its success.

Zhou Yi, who had already sung and danced all day, naturally stepped in to support the audience, using his soothing voice to calm the restless hearts of the 67,000 people.

Moved by the melody, Nakagawa Aoi stared blankly at the two people on stage and the lyrics displayed on the big screen, and remained in a daze until the song ended...

This song...

"Does it sound good?"

On stage, after gently pushing the embarrassed Masami Nagasawa to the front and back of the stage to receive applause, Zhou Yi turned the microphone towards the audience, asking for their opinions.

"It sounds amazing!!!!"

Zhou Yi grinned: "It's good-sounding, that's all. It was changed after the fine."

(End of this chapter)