China grass-roots singer shoots to fame after saving delayed Hacken Lee concert with 2-hour set

A grassroots singer in China rose to fame after standing in for Hong Kong singer Hacken Lee, giving an impromptu two-hour set after Lee was delayed.

On the evening of September 26, the touring concert Hear Yourself, featuring six acclaimed singers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, was held in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, in northern China, Shenzhen TV reported.

Lee was scheduled to give the grand finale performance. But he did not arrive in time because his flight, originally bound for the nearby city of Hohhot, had to land in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, due to hail.

Lee and his colleagues took a taxi from Taiyuan to Baotou, a journey of 570km. Unfortunately, the electric car they were travelling in ran out of power along the way, forcing them to spend a long time finding another ride.

The concert’s director, Zhang, came up with a plan B: he asked his friend, singer Hou Lang, to perform for the 30,000-strong crowd while they waited for Lee.

Hou, a 33-year-old native of Guangdong, is a little-known singer who specialises in performing Cantonese songs.

When Zhang contacted him, Hou was eating barbecue with his friends at a restaurant in Baotou.

He took just a minute to agree to help Zhang and step in to save the concert.

Hou took a taxi and then rode a shared bicycle to reach the stadium. At about 10pm, he appeared on stage in his everyday clothes, after giving the concert’s sound engineer a list of the songs he would perform.

Without a rehearsal or an autocue, Hou – who had initially been asked to perform for half an hour – sang continuously for two hours.

At 12.20am, Lee finally arrived at the concert. He bowed and apologised to the audience nine times.

Lee then performed six of his signature songs on stage. After the concert, he hugged Hou for more than 10 seconds to express his gratitude.

Hou said Lee had been his idol for years. He recalled that in 2010, while working as an intern at a performance company and helping to build a stage in Shenzhen, he had taken a photo with Lee.

The Baotou concert audience enjoyed Hou’s performance, and very few people left the venue.

“Some audience members even asked Hou to rest or drink some water. The atmosphere was very moving,” a female attendee was quoted as saying.

Hou said he had felt nervous on stage because of the concert’s scale. Previously, he had performed only in front of audiences of up to 5,000 people.

“I didn’t think much at the time. I just sang every song with all my heart,” he said.

“I’m proud of myself for saving the concert and performing on the same stage as my idol, Lee,” Hou added.

He declined an internet user’s joking suggestion that he should receive half of the concert’s revenue. “One should not receive a reward without having earned it,” Hou explained modestly.

The number of followers on his social media account skyrocketed from fewer than 10,000 to 420,000 in the two weeks after the concert.

Hou said he was open to music-related business collaborations but not to live-streaming sales.

He asked the public not to focus on him, but instead to do more meaningful things.

“I am just an ordinary person who loves music,” Hou says in his social media bio.