They are two words that can strike fear into anyone’s heart — audience participation — and that fear was recognizable in the eyes of many attendees at the 2017 Jade Solid Gold Awards on Saturday, a TVB music award that has been held annually since 1984.
Notable winners of the evening included Cantopop veteran Hacken Lee, who won four awards, and indie pop quartet Supper Moment — who you may have seen on the main stage at Clockenflap last year — who walked home with three.
This year’s ceremony was hosted by actor Luk Ho-ming, and Miss Hong Kong pageant winners Crystal Fung (2016), and Louisa Mak (2015), who made headlines last year after posting a Facebook message under the #metoo hashtag alleging that she was sexually assaulted.
Things went off without a hitch and everything seemed on course to end on a high. That is, until Luk looked around the auditorium in awe saying: “There are so many singers here, why don’t we jam together?”
Then the music kicked in and the three hosts lined up, faced left and began rolling their shoulders in sync as the audience looked on, clapping to the beat while looking ever more perplexed.
And then it happened. The “rap” began, with each of the hosts introducing each other accompanied by a line or two on how one host “cannot really sing or dance,” or “thinks they look really handsome.”
At this point, the hosts began singling out the poor award-winning singers in the audience, insisting they bust out some freestyle rap. The snowballing awkwardness of the situation was helped not in the slightest by Luk offering such words of encouragement like “you can really dance” and “you can really sing.”
First up was singer Stephanie Ho with: “My name is Stephanie Ho, something something 6B.”
Luk later turned his attention to Joey Wong, also known as JW, who was clearly not expecting to be next and said: “F*** I didn’t think of anything. You’re asking me?”
She then valiantly gives it a go, rapping: “My name is Joey Wong… and I don’t know what else to say”.
A video of the rap was trending on YouTube in Hong Kong with more than 108,000 views but it was later removed.
Unsurprisingly, netizens have been quick to comment on the video, with comments such as “these guys can’t dance,” “crap crap crap,” “cringe,” and “do these guys think they are MC Jin?”
Fung later took to Facebook after the evening saying that hosting a live show for the first time was a challenge for her, and looking back on the evening there was a lot to learn. She ended her post by thanking her two co-hosts, the crew, and the award-winners for their help with the “Cantonese song.”
*A previous version of this story reported the video of the rap is currently trending on YouTube in Hong Kong.
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