TRIBUTE TO ELVIS

Johnny Babor

Date and Venue 22 Dec 2006 @ 22.00 Radisson Hotel (Richmond)

Reviewer Ed Farolan

As part of the 9th Anniversary Christmas Dance Party of the Chinese Realtors Association, Johnny Babor was invited to do his Elvis impersonation, his Elvis "tribute" singing Elvis's top hits such as "Hound Dog", "Sorrento", "Blue Suede Shoes", and other favourites.

But Dance Party it was. The almost 100% Chinese who participated in this occasion danced to Elvis's songs, not paying too much attention to Johnny. Now this might be the culture, one might say, and perhaps it was. I observed that this was really the kind of party it was meant to be-- a dance party.

I think Johnny enjoyed it too. I noticed he sang better when no one was minding him. He felt quite relaxed when he sang "It's Now or Never". I swear I was hearing Elvis as I closed my eyes and listened. He was hitting the notes just right.

At the start, when he entered with the usual 2001 Space Odyssey intro typical of all of Elvis's grand entrances, he was a bit nervous, as the Chinese audience simply sat there with no enthusiasm. He warmed up a bit with "CC Rider" and after that, the dancers started trickling in.

But I think what happened here was that the audience cared more about dancing than seeing Johnny on the spotlight. The dancing couples wanted to be the center of attraction, and so they started dancing away, gyrating more than Johnny, alternating with the foxtrot, samba, rock 'n roll and waltz, as though they were competing in a ballroom affair.

Obviously, these couples studied ballroom dancing just from their postures alone. In fact, after around half an hour, the emcee started saying "Thank you Elvis". She probably said it three times, but Johnny, I was told, was contracted for 45 minutes, and why was he not finishing his repertoire of Elvis songs? I was waiting for the last song, "My Way".

Well, Johnny finally got the message and gave in after the third TY. He certainly had a dramatic entrance, but his exit wasn't as he hoped it to be. It wasn't Johnny's fault. It just so happened that this occasion was meant to be a dance party and Elvis's music didn't quite fit into the program.

© 2006 Ed Farolan