Ugly Beauty World Tour


Ugly Beauty World Tour is the fifth concert tour by Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai, in support of her fourteenth studio album, Ugly Beauty. It started on December 30, 2019, in Taipei, Taiwan at Taipei Arena.

Background

In support of her album Play, Tsai embarked on her fourth concert tour, Play World Tour. The tour started on May 22, 2015 in Taipei, Taiwan at Taipei Arena and contended throughout Asia and North America before concluding on July 16, 2016 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at Stadium Merdeka. Tsai's manager Tom Wang described: "Tsai has grown up so much doing the tour, and later she will release a new album and prepare for a new concert tour." In February 2018, Next Magazine reported a pre-scheduled concert date in August 2018 was cancelled due to Tsai's physical condition. Tsai's manager Tom Wang commented that the concert tour plan cancellation was due to completion of the album was lagging behind the schedule, and he added: "Her album was scheduled to be released in late 2017, but it was postponed until summer of this year, since we can only go on a new tour after released the album, her new concert tour would not be started until 2019." In the same month, Tsai attended the Michelin Guide Taipei 2018 Gala Dinner, and described that she has started to think of ideas for her new concert tour. On May 18, 2019, Tsai said on a music sharing session for Ugly Beauty in Shanghai that she would embarked a new concert tour later this year. In August 2019, Apple Daily reported Tsai has planned to start her concert tour at Taipei Arena in late December of the year, and Tsai's manager Tom Wang described: "We will announce the good news after confirming the show dates." On September 20, 2019, Tsai announced her fifth concert tour Ugly Beauty World Tour would start on December 30, 2019, and all tickets would go on sale on October 12, 2019. The tour collaborated with Australian creative production house the Squared Division which has worked with singers including Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, and Taylor Swift. Tsai described: "This time I hope to break all rules, and bring a crazy sense to everybody", adding that: "This time I want to bring the complete visual effect of my album to the stage, build an incredible 'Ugly Beauty' magic world, and present the classic songs of my 20-year career in a different way, hope my fans feel the diligently of my production team in this 'another dimension'." On November 19, 2019, Tsai flew to Los Angeles to have a 12-day rehearsal with sixteen newly selected dancers. On December 3, 2019, Tsai announced the Kaohsiung dates of the tour, and the tickets would go on sale on December 15, 2019. On December 28, 2019, the media reported Tsai rented Hsinchuang Gymnasium for 5-day rehearsal which costed NT$40 million, and it said the performance at Taipei Arena would be documented for a video release. On December 31, 2019, China Times reported the Taipei dates of the tour costed NT$246 million, including NT$90 million of stage props design and NT$20 of six video interludes, became the concert with the highest cost at Taipei Arena in history. On January 5, 2020, Tsai announced two additional Kaohsiung dates for May 9 and 10, 2020. Since January 2020, a series of dates were successively postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commercial response

The Taipei dates' tickets were available for sale on October 12, 2019 at 11:28, and all the 66,000 tickets were sold out in three minutes. One of the organizers Super Dome said: "We confirmed no more Taipei dates." The ticket sales company tixCraft said: "All six dates' tickets were sold out at 11:31, after our ticketing system cleared those unpaid orders, we will rerelease the tickets around 14:00." At 14:00, those rereleased tickets were sold out within one minutes. On December 9, 2019, the Shenzhen date's tickets were available for sale at 15:00, and all tickets were sold out within 30 seconds. On December 12, 2019, the Zhengzhou date's tickets were available for sale at 10:18, and all tickets were sold out within two minutes. The Kaohsiung dates' tickets were available for sale on December 15, 2019 at 12:15, and all the 30,000 tickets were sold out within five minutes. On December 20, 2019, the Tianjin date's tickets were available for sale at 12:20, and all tickets were sold out within eight minutes. On December 25, 2019, the Nanjing date's tickets were available for sale at 11:00, and all tickets were sold out within one hour. On December 27, 2019, the Chengdu date's tickets were available for sale at 11:00, and all tickets were sold out within 30 seconds. On January 10, 2020, the Shanghai dates' tickets were available for sale at 11:00, and all tickets were sold out within 10 seconds. On January 13, 2020, the second date's tickets of Shenzhen were available for sale at 15:00, and all tickets were sold out within 10 seconds. On January 14, 2020, the Wuhan date's tickets were available for sale at 15:18, and all tickers were sold out within 1 minute. On January 18, 2020, the two additional Kaohsiung dates' tickets were available for sale at 12:16, and all the 20,000 tickets were sold out within 5 minutes.

Critical reception

Writing for the United Daily News, Tso Kuang-ping described: "There are not many singers who can make such large-scale singing and dancing performance in C-pop industry. Jolin Tsai is definitely second to none, but she has produced a set of work of a higher standard than expected. From everyone's reaction and word of mouth, there is no doubt about the good reviews."

Set list

The following set list was obtained from the concert held on December 30, 2019, in Taipei, Taiwan. It does not represent all concerts for the duration of the tour.
  1. "The Orphan"
  2. "Necessary Evil"
  3. "Sweet Guilty Pleasure"
  4. "The Spirit of Knight"
  5. "Miss Trouble"
  6. "Unconscious Desire"
  7. "Lady in Red"
  8. "Honey Trap"
  9. "Medusa"
  10. "Agent J"
  11. "Real Man"
  12. "Mr. Q"
  13. "Bravo Lover"
  14. "Unhinged"
  15. "The Great Artist"
  16. "J-Game"
  17. "36 Tricks of Love"
  18. "Overlooking Purposely"
  19. "I'm Not Yours"
  20. "Innocent Minds"
  21. "Sun Will Never Set"
  22. "Don't Stop"
  23. "Hubby"
  24. "Say Love You"
  25. "Karma"
  26. "Fantasy"
  27. "Disclosure"
  28. "Rewind"
  29. "Sky"
  30. "Can't Speak Clearly"
  31. "Romance"
  32. "Vulnerability"
  33. "The Smell of Lemon Grass"
  34. "Life Sucks"
  35. "Prague Square"
  36. "Love Love Love"
  37. "Heroic Emergence"
  38. "Dancing Diva"
  39. "Dr. Jolin"
  40. "Magic"
  41. "Play"
  42. "Womxnly"
  43. "Ugly Beauty"

    Shows

Postponed shows

Personnel

Adapted from the Ugly Beauty tour book.