Irish 'uncle' band Westlife wows online audience
The WeChat streamed concert attracted 20 million Chinese fans.
Popular Irish boy band Westlife held their first virtual concert on Friday night, which was streamed on WeChat, sending Chinese fans into ecstasy.
The concert, which took place in London, was watched by more than 20 million Chinese fans who were amazed at their beautiful voices that seemed not to have aged at all.
Westlife is one of the Western pop bands which gained huge popularity in China around the turn of the millennium. For a lot of Chinese fans born in the 70s and the 80s, the band was their first access to Western pop music.
The band performed dozens of hit songs including Season in the sun, My love, Uptown girl, and You raise me up, bringing an outpouring of old good memories.
But what surprised Chinese fans the most was their performance of a Chinese song 平凡之路, originally sang by Chinese singer Pu Shu. Their standard Chinese pronunciation deeply impressed fans. They also learned several Chinese buzzwords from the MC.
"Boys have become uncles," a Netizen exclaimed. "But their voices have never aged a bit. It's so wonderful."
Beijing 2019 in signature green overcoats.
The last time the band visited China was in 2019 when they came to attend a New Year concert in Beijing. There was a strong cold turn to the weather and the four singers donned 军大衣, puffy, dark green overcoats popular during the 70s and 80s.
During last night's concert, they said they liked the overcoats very much as they looked like designer brands. They were so comfortable that they even brought them back to Ireland.
They said they are looking forward to coming to China again.
