Key Takeaways
- Local singer Hou Lang stepped out of the crowd and performed nearly 20 songs for 30,000 people when Hacken Lee's travel delays left the Baotou concert without its headliner.
- Lee arrived around 12:30 A.M. after an 18-hour journey disrupted by hail, a diverted flight and a powerless shuttle, then repeatedly apologized and expanded his set from four songs to 10.
- Reports said no fans left or demanded refunds, and Lee later found Hou backstage for an embrace lasting more than 10 seconds.
A Hacken Lee fan who bought a ticket to see his idol perform earlier this week ended up stepping in for him and singing to a crowd of 30,000.
On Saturday (Saturday 26), the Era Echoes concert took place at the Baotou Sports Center in Inner Mongolia, with a bill that included Anita Yuen, Chyi Chin, Meng Tingwei, Zheng Zhihua, Li Lifen and Hong Kong Cantopop veteran Hacken Lee. After all five of the other billed acts played their sets. Lee still had not arrived, and the stage sat empty.
According to China Times, organizers made the call on the spot and pulled local singer Hou Lang, a spectator, up from the crowd. He had no rehearsal, no script and no teleprompter, and was told to sing whatever songs he could. He got through nearly 20 of them across roughly two hours, keeping the crowd singing along until his voice went hoarse.
Hou describes himself as a grassroots singer, the non-famous kind, and he had come to Baotou as a paying fan. He said the biggest rooms he had played before topped out around 5,000 to 6,000 people, making the sports center his first crowd of 30,000. Helping the show continue alongside his idol, he said, was an honor he was proud of.
Lee's day reportedly started at 6 A.M. in Shenzhen. He flew to Xuzhou, then boarded a flight for Hohhot that hailstorms pushed into a diversion to Taiyuan, in Shanxi.
He landed there around 5 P.M. and set out for Baotou, but the electric shuttle carrying his group lost power partway and everyone switched to a taxi. That leg covered roughly 600km and ate about seven hours on its own, capping a door-to-door trip of some 18 hours, according to Shanghai Observer. He had not eaten since 5 P.M. and did his makeup in the back seat.
The 7:30 P.M. start had already been pushed to 8 P.M. Lee finally walked out at roughly 12:30 A.M., bowing deeply and apologizing six or seven times as he explained the day. Scheduled for four songs, he sang 10, adding six as a thank-you to the fans who waited. The show ended after 1 A.M.
According to reports, nobody walked out during the wait, and no one demanded a refund. Backstage afterward, Lee went looking for Hou, and the two held an embrace for more than 10 seconds.
