HK veteran Frances Yip raring to sing after pandemic break

Veteran Hong Kong singer Frances Yip was stuck in Australia for 27 months during the Covid-19 pandemic, but it turned out to be a bit of a blessing.

- Jan Lee

The 74-year-old, famed for her enduring hit Shanghai Beach, the theme song of Hong Kong drama The Bund (1980) starring Chow Yun Fat, tells Singapore media over Zoom from London in August that it gave her lots of time to slow down.

"From when I was 16 till now, I've never tried sleeping in the same bed for so many days," says Yip. "I have been singing for 52 years and have very rarely gone through a period of rest this long." Unable to travel or perform, Yip and her husband - Briton David Lomax - hunkered down in Sydney in 2020 and 2021 with her son and his family, including Yip's two grandchildren.

The Cantopop diva says in Mandarin: "It was a good time for me to rest and it forced me to live a life without stress. I never fell sick once in almost three years in Australia, but within one week of flying to London, my husband and I got Covid-19." The couple, who are based in Australia, were in London for three months this year to visit family.

Yip, who is vaccinated and boosted, says her bout of the coronavirus was short, with no lingering symptoms. "We were playing golf by day six," the spry singer remarks.

Golf and family were what got Yip and her husband through the isolation of Covid-19.