Veteran Taiwanese songstress Fong Fei-fei delivered a colourful evening of song, dance and delicious banter on Saturday night.

The theme of the evening was Rainbows and the evergreen diva performed some 30 songs with titles about rainbows and all things natural and seasonal during her concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Her song list included The Rainbow's Calling, Chasing The Rainbow, Warm Autumn and Summer Time.

In the 2 1/2-hour show, the 55-year-old also took a trip down nostalgia lane by singing evergreen songs such as When Will You Return by the famous late 1950s songbird Zhou Xuan, a song later covered by the late Teresa Teng.

These pleased the audience of nearly 9,000, made up mostly of middle-aged fans waving light sticks and nodding along to the tunes.

The crowd was mostly sedate except for an enthusiastic group of 120 Taiwanese fans who flew into Singapore for the concert.

They waved baton-sized light sticks, carried glowing plaques with Fong's name, responded enthusiastically to her questions and called out 'Fong Jie' (Sister Fong) repeatedly.

While the concert was an aural treat, the singer also provided her audience with a visual one.

She is known as the Queen of Hats and for her pantsuits, and she showed these off during her concert.

She opened the show in a boyish all-white outfit: a military jacket lined with rhinestones that she topped off with a silver sailor cap.

When she moved on to the cabaret numbers, she switched to a body-hugging black lace cheongsam top and shimmery black pants with a tassled skirt over it.

Some of her other outfits included a canary yellow 1950s-style dress with a black lace bustle.

The skirt was covered with stars at the hem and she completed the look with a yellow hat set at a jaunty angle.

The glitziest outfit was a powder-pink pantsuit, sequinned from head to toe, and topped with a pink trilby.

She also performed well-practised dance moves, including a routine involving benches.

But most of her dancing was basic, and it was clear that it was the back-up dancers doing most of the work.

Still, the lack in the dancing department was more than made up for by the sheer force of her personality and her golden voice.

Fong is skilful at banter, using her charm to entertain the audience.

She parodied her singing style when she was 18 years old, when she had an old-fashioned warble, singing hilarious and nostalgic versions of Summer Holiday Rose and Real Love Is Stronger Than Wine.

She then sang updated versions of both songs with new arrangements and in her creamier, more mature voice.

The funky version of Real Love Is Stronger Than Wine came with snapping drum samples and a groovy base line, prompting the singer to say: 'This is the first time I'm singing hip-hop.'

She also poked fun at her age by asking if there were any audience members below the age of five.

These children, she said, were the 'third generation of fans' and should call her Grandmother Fong, she said to laughter from appreciative fans.

Her 19-year-old son was not spared either, as she referred to him as her 'fat pup', whom she missed scolding after he went overseas for his studies.

'When parents think of our children, we often shed a tear. When children think of their parents, they often want money,' she joked.

She then gave a heartfelt rendition of My Sweet Baby, a tender song about parental love, to images of her plump son playing on the huge screens behind her.

In the later part of the concert, when she moved on to cheery and well-loved songs such as Love Me More, Hold On Time and Sparrow In The Forest, the audience was warmed up enough to clap and sing along.

Of course, no concert of Fong's would be complete without the majestic Here Comes The Applause, her signature tune, and she gave a soaring performance during which she cried.

And the applause did come, thick and fast. Hats off to a true artist.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Dec 29, 2008.