Play World Tour (Chinese: Play世界巡迴演唱會) was the fourth concert tour by Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai. It started on May 22, 2015, in Taipei, Taiwan at Taipei Arena and continued throughout Asia and North America before concluding on July 16, 2016, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at Stadium Merdeka.[1][2] It grossed NT$1.5 billion from 34 shows and 600,000 attendance.[3]
| World tour by Jolin Tsai | |
 | |
| Location |
|
|---|---|
| Associated album | Play |
| Start date | May 22, 2015 |
| End date | July 16, 2016 |
| No. of shows | 34 |
| Attendance | 600,000 |
| Box office | NT$1.5 billion |
| Jolin Tsai concert chronology | |
Background and development
On October 29, 2014, Tsai revealed that she would start preparing for her fourth concert tour after the release of Play, and the new tour would pay more attention to music.[4] On February 15, 2015, she announced that she would embark on the Play World Tour in Taipei, Taiwan at Taipei Arena on May 22, 2015.[1] On February 29, 2015, she flew to Los Angeles, United States to start a two-week dance rehearsal. At the same time, all the personnel of the tour flew to Los Angeles to begin the pre-production work. It was revealed that Tsai and all the dancers would rehearse on a one-to-one simulated temporary stage in Taipei, Taiwan two weeks before the start of the tour.[5] On February 31, 2015, she released the promotional poster for the tour, which was shot by Chen Man, with Wyman Wong as the stylist. At the same time, she revealed that the tour would cooperate with the Live Nation Entertainment and would be co-directed by Travis Payne and Stacy Walker.[6]
It was revealed that the cost of the tour exceeded NT$100 million, and all the stage design teams came from all over the world. At the same time, Jet Tone Film Production was invited to create five video interludes for the tour. In addition, Live Nation Entertainment held three dancer auditions in Los Angeles and finally selected 12 dancers.[6] Live Nation Entertainment also invited 14 choreographers for the tour. On June 1, 2015, Tsai held a press conference in Beijing, China and announced a number of shows that would be held in China.[7]
Commercial reception
The ticket sale for the Taipei dates began on April 12, 2015, and all the 33,000 tickets were sold out within 18 minutes. Therefore, it was announced that an additional Taipei show would be held on May 25, 2015.[8] The tickets for the additional Taipei show went on sale on April 15, 2015, and all the 11,000 tickets were sold out within six minutes.[9] On May 24, 2015, Tsai announced that the tour would be held in Taipei, Taiwan on November 7 and 8, 2015.[10] On June 13, 2015, the tickets for the Taipei shows on November 7 and 8, 2015 went on sale, and all the 22,000 tickets were sold out within 17 minutes.[11] On August 15, 2015, she announced that an additional Taipei show would be held on November 6, 2015.[12] On August 28, 2015, she announced that an additional Taipei show would be held on November 5, 2015.[13] On September 5, 2015, the tickets for the Taipei shows on November 5 and 6, 2015 went on sale, and all the 22,000 tickets were sold out within 13 minutes.[14]
Critical reception
Taiwanese media personality Kevin Lee commented: "The level of this concert is completely beyond my surprise, the content, costume, singing, dancing, and stage design, they are completely at the international level, even surpassing it. This made me very proud that we have such outstanding and successful Chinese artist. It is full of sincerity and is totally worth the ticket price! And Jolin's flawless and precise stage performance has washed away my previous impression that artists who can dance but can't sing and artists who can sing but can't dance. I see that Jolin is one of the very few solid talents who can both dance and sing. In one of the parts, her opera performance made me moved and amazed by her singing ability who is good at dancing." Writing for PlayMusic, Shau commented: "In this concert, Jolin Tsai not only proved that she has the real ability to sing, but also showed her more and more comfortable side, winking playfully, declaring loudly that she is a 'barbie doll', she is not afraid of being alone on the stage, she picked up the microphone, and the audience held their breath for it. Jolin Tsai is the imprint of the youthful time of a group of people, however, the author believes that her trend will continue to spread, and the youthful time of another group of people will also be branded with the hot and unlimited charm of the queen."[15]
Writing for ETtoday, Aping commented: "In this Play concert, even though Jolin Tsai has changed from being cool to full of jokes. She boldly took away the talking time, and removed the pommel horse, rings, and pole dance; but it doesn't mean that she didn't practice dancing seriously. All the songs were re-arranged, all the old dance moves were discarded, and six complete parts were used to give fans all of her. Jolin Tsai fully understands that even if the difficult moves were removed, she can still be a great artist on stage."[16] BeautiMode commented: "It may be exaggerated to say so, but compared with the previous Myself World Tour and Dancing Forever World Tour, this time Jolin is indeed more comfortable and more like a superstar on the stage than before. When the curtain fell, Jolin, with the special decoration of robotic snakes on head, reappeared like the mythical Medusa, using her singing and dancing to petrify all the fans."[17]
Video release
On January 30, 2018, Tsai released a live video album Play World Tour for the tour. It includes the performances in Taipei, Taiwan at Taipei Arena during May 22–25, 2015 and four We're All Different, Yet the Same documentary films directed either by Hou Chi-jan or Gavin Lin, and one behind-the-scenes footage.[18] The album was directed by Leo Hsu and post-produced by 3 Aqua Entertainment.[19] In addition, Warner revealed that the concert video was filmed with a total of 26 ground and aerial cameras, and edited from 400 hours of material, and Tsai supervised the post-production of video for three times.[20]
The physical format of the album was only released in Taiwan. It peaked at number one on the weekly video album sales in Taiwan, including Chia Chia, Eslite, Five Music, G-Music, Kuang Nan, PChome, Pok'elai.[21] In 2018, it reached number one on the yearly video album sales chart of Pok'elai,[22] number one on Kuang Nan,[23] number seven on Chia Chia,[24] and number five on Five Music.[25] In addition, it reached number two on the yearly video album sales chart of YesAsia.[26]
Set list
- "Medusa"
- "Real Man"
- "Honey Trap"
- "Bravo Lover"
- "I'm Not Yours"
- "Agent J"
- "Butterfly"
- "Love Love Love"
- "Prague Square"
- "I Love, I Embrace"
- "Exclusive Myth"
- "The Great Artist"
- "Mr. Q"
- "Rewind"
- "The Smell of Lemon Grass"
- "I Know You're Feeling Blue"
- "Sky"
- "Butterflies in My Stomach"
- "Miss Trouble"
- "Queen of the Night Aria"
- "Sunshine in the Rain"
- "Nothing Left to Say"
- "You Gotta Know"
- "J-Game"
- "Fantasy"
- "36 Tricks of Love"
- "Phony Queen"
- "Dr. Jolin"
- "Dancing Diva"
- "Magic"
- "We're All Different, Yet the Same"
- "Out on the Street"
- "The Spirit of Knight"
- "Play"
- Since the second concert in Taipei, Tsai performed "The Third Person and I", but didn't perform "I Love, I Embrace".
- During the second concert in Taipei, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "Lucky Number", and "Don't Stop", but didn't perform "Rewind".
- During the third concert in Taipei, Tsai performed "Mosaic", "Blame It on the Age", "Alone", "Pretence", and "Marry Me Today".
- During the fourth concert in Taipei, Tsai performed "I'm Not Yours" with Namie Amuro, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "Mosaic", "Blame It on the Age", "Alone", "Good-Bye", "Overlooking Purposely", "Say Love You", and "Don't Stop".
- During the concert in Guangzhou, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "Missing You", "Accompany with Me", and the Cantonese version of "Pretence", but didn't perform "Out on the Street".
- During the first concert in Beijing, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "Love in the Shape of Heart", "Priceless", "Good-Bye", "Because of You", and "A Wonder in Madrid".
- During the first concert in Shanghai, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "Greek Girl by the Wishing Pond", "Fall in Love with a Street", "Can't Speak Clearly", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the concert in Singapore, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "Encounter", "Living with the World", "Can't Speak Clearly", "The Prologue", "The Finale", and "Take Immediate Action", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the concert in Changsha, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "Color Photos", "Because of You", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading" or "Out on the Street".
- During the concert in Tianjin, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "I Am What I Am", "Living with the World", "Heard That Love's Ever Been Back", "Be You for a Day", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading" or "Out on the Street".
- During the concert in Chongqing, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "Moonlight in the City", "The Moon Represents My Heart", "Singlehood Plague", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the concert in Hohhot, Tsai performed "Are You Happy", "Say Love You", "Don't Stop", and "Pretence", but didn't perform "Lip Reading" or "Out on the Street".
- During the concert in Dalian, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "Color Photos", "Kaleidoscope", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "You Gotta Know", or "Out on the Street".
- During the fifth concert in Taipei, Tsai performed "Devotion", "Fragrance of Roses", "Evening Primrose", "Heard That Love's Ever Been Back", "Good Thing", "Hot Winter", and "Say Love You", and Tsai performed "We're all Different, Yet the Same" with Sandy Lam, but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the sixth concert in Taipei, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "The Phantom of the Opera", "Priceless", "Feel You Presence", "Pretence", "Black-Haired Beautiful Girl", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Rewind", "Lip Reading", "Queen of the Night Aria", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the seventh concert in Taipei, Tsai performed "The Phantom of the Opera", "Overlooking Purposely", "Fake Confess", "Marry Me Today", "Pretty Pretty Day", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Queen of the Night Aria", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the eighth concert in Taipei, Tsai performed "Viva Love" and "The Great Artist" with Mayday, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "The Phantom of the Opera", "Disappearing Castle", "Under the Sea", "Attraction of Sexy Lips", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Rewind", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the concert in Hangzhou, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "Habitual Betrayal", "Marry Me Today", "Can't Speak Clearly", "Do You Still Love Me", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Queen of the Night Aria", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the concert in Nanjing, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "The Phantom of the Opera", "Greek Girl by the Wishing Pond", "Reluctant", "Fake Confess", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Queen of the Night Aria", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the concert in Fuzhou, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "Disappearing Castle", "Love in the Shape of Heart", "Love Is Near", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Queen of the Night Aria", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the first concert in Hong Kong, Tsai performed "Wedding Invitation Street", "The Phantom of the Opera", "Accompany with Me", the Cantonese version of "Pretence", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Queen of the Night Aria", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the second concert in Hong Kong, Tsai performed "Wedding Invitation Street", "Do You Still Love Me", "Singlehood Plague", "Priceless", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading" or "Out on the Street".
- During the first concert in Atlantic City, Tsai performed "Heard That Love's Ever Been Back".
- During the second concert in Atlantic City, Tsai performed "Wedding Invitation Street".
- During the concert in Hefei, Tsai performed "The Phantom of the Opera", "Love in the Shape of Heart", "Kaleidoscope", "Alone", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Queen of the Night Aria", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the concert in Shenzhen, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "Mosaic", "Missing You", "Heard That Love's Ever Been Back", and "Black-Haired Beautiful Girl", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the concert in Wuhan, Tsai performed "The Prologue", "Fall in Love with a Street", "My Choice", "The Finale", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the concert in Macau, Tsai performed "Brink of Love and Pain", "Marry Me Today", "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "Be You for a Day", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the second concert in Beijing, Tsai performed "Disappearing Castle", "Love in the Shape of Heart", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the second concert in Shanghai, Tsai performed "Agent J" with Chris Lee, Tsai performed "The Smell of Lemon Grass", "Priceless", "A Wonder in Madrid", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the concert in Zhengzhou, Tsai performed "Little Child", "The Phantom of the Opera", "Manual of Youth", "I Am What I Am", "Take Immediate Action", "Marry Me Today", "Feel Your Presence", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Queen of the Night Aria", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the concert in Chengdu, Tsai performed "Little Child", "Are You Happy", "I Am What I Am", "Can't Speak Clearly", "Disappearing Castle", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the concert in Taiyuan, Tsai performed "Little Happiness", "Under the Sea", "Wandering Poet", "Living with the World", "Are You Happy", and "Say Love You", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
- During the concert in Kuala Lumpur, Tsai performed "Little Love Song", "Journey", "Pretty Pretty Day", "Don't Stop", "Fake Confess", and "A Wonder in Madrid", but didn't perform "Lip Reading", "Out on the Street", or "The Spirit of Knight".
Shows
| Date | City | Country | Venue | Attendance | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asia | |||||
| May 22, 2015 | Taipei | Taiwan | Taipei Arena | 44,000[27] | NT$120 million[28] |
| May 23, 2015 | |||||
| May 24, 2015 | |||||
| May 25, 2015 | |||||
| July 4, 2015 | Guangzhou | China | Guangzhou International Sports Arena | Unknown | Unknown |
| July 11, 2015 | Beijing | Capital Indoor Stadium | |||
| July 18, 2015 | Shanghai | Mercedes-Benz Arena | |||
| July 25, 2015 | Singapore | Singapore Indoor Stadium | |||
| September 4, 2015 | Changsha | China | Hunan International Convention & Exhibition Centre | ||
| September 19, 2015 | Tianjin | Tianjin Arena | |||
| September 26, 2015 | Chongqing | Chongqing International Convention & Exhibition Center | |||
| October 10, 2015 | Hohhot | Inner Mongolia Arena | |||
| October 24, 2015 | Dalian | Zhongsheng Center | |||
| November 5, 2015 | Taipei | Taiwan | Taipei Arena | 44,000[29] | NT$120 million[29] |
| November 6, 2015 | |||||
| November 7, 2015 | |||||
| November 8, 2015 | |||||
| November 11, 2015 | Hangzhou | China | Yellow Dragon Sports Center | Unknown | Unknown |
| November 28, 2015 | Nanjing | Nanjing Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium | |||
| December 5, 2015 | Fuzhou | Straits Sports Centre Arena | |||
| December 11, 2015 | Hong Kong | Hong Kong Coliseum | |||
| December 12, 2015 | |||||
| North America | |||||
| March 26, 2016 | Atlantic City | United States | Borgata Casino Event Center | Unknown | Unknown |
| March 27, 2016 | |||||
| Asia | |||||
| April 2, 2016 | Hefei | China | Binhu International Convention and Exhibition Center | Unknown | Unknown |
| April 16, 2016 | Shenzhen | Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre Arena | |||
| April 23, 2016 | Wuhan | Hongshan Arena | |||
| April 30, 2016 | Macau | Cotai Arena | |||
| May 14, 2016 | Beijing | LeSports Center | |||
| May 21, 2016 | Shanghai | Mercedes-Benz Arena | |||
| June 11, 2016[a] | Zhengzhou | Zhengzhou International Convention and Exhibition Centre | |||
| June 18, 2016 | Chengdu | Sichuan Gymnasium | |||
| July 2, 2016[b] | Taiyuan | Shanxi Gymnasium | |||
| July 16, 2016 | Kuala Lumpur | Malaysia | Stadium Merdeka | ||
| Total | 600,000[3] | NT$1.5 billion[3] | |||
Cancelled dates
| Date | City | Country | Venue | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 31, 2015 | Nanning | China | Guangxi Sports Center Arena | Stage collapse[30] |