Worth his weight in gold

NT$250 million. That's how much accident insurance promotion company MN Wingman (大國翼星) took out on Canto-pop crooner Eason Chan (陳奕迅) for his one-off concert at Zhongshan Soccer Stadium (中山足球場) tomorrow.

The company felt it was necessary because at Chan's last performance in Taipei, the Hong-Konger fell from a set and injured "an important area" of his body, said Kimmi Lin (林宜君), an MN Wingman spokeswoman.

Like many Canto-pop stars, Chan got his start in 1995 after participating in and winning an International New Talent Singing Competition (新秀歌唱大賽), an annual event held in Hong Kong by Television Broadcasts Limited. He signed with Capital Records and since then has fully committed himself to music.

Unlike many of the saccharine stars discovered by Taiwanese "talent" shows, however, Chan does actually have talent. In addition to being a skilled singer and songwriter, he plays the piano, drums and guitar among other instruments.

Chan, who in 2003 won the Best Male Performer Golden Melody Award is the second non-Taiwanese singer to earn an accolade at the ceremony (the first was Jacky Cheung, 張學友). He has also won Hong Kong's Most Popular Male Singer Award for the past two years. His 2005 album, U87, was hailed by Time magazine as one of Asia's top five CDs worth buying (his most recent is Listen to Eason Chan).

Tomorrow will be the singer's first major concert in Taiwan - he's played at small venues and shared stages with other celebrities in the past - and tickets are going fast.

It's expected to be a lively performance. "He's known to move around quite a bit onstage," Lin said. "He puts on a really frenetic show and never stops moving."

Perhaps it's fitting that more insurance has been taken out on him than any other singer - he beat Sammi Cheng's (鄭秀文) previous record of NT$200 million, which was set seven years ago.