Local fans of Taiwanese veteran singer Tsai Chin may want to consider attending her upcoming concert here if they are still in two minds.

Tsai is currently on her Don’t Say Farewell World Tour, which kicked off in Taipei in June 2025. The Singapore stop will be held on May 31 at Sands Ballroom in Marina Bay Sands.

The 68-year-old dropped a bombshell during her performance at China’s Strawberry Music Festival in Dongguan city on May 3 that she will retire from the music scene at the end of 2027.

She elaborated in a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo late on May 5, writing in Chinese: “Next year will mark my 48th year holding a microphone. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time: I should thank my audience and bid them farewell while I’m still at my best.”

Tsai shot to fame overnight with the song Just Like Your Tenderness in 1979 and released her debut solo album Farewell My Country in the same year. She is also known for evergreen hits such as Forgotten Time (1979), The Last Night (1984) and Reading You (1984).

“The audience at the music festival that day was very young, and I guessed they probably didn’t know me very well, but I didn’t expect these young people to listen to me finishing my songs in the rain,” Tsai wrote on Weibo.

“It had been eight years since my last performance at the music festival. It was a rare and touching reunion, so I told everyone that I would be bidding farewell to the music scene by the end of next year.”

Tsai explained why she decided to announce her retirement so early.

“Reflecting on my singing career spanning so many years, I’ve built up an audience spanning four generations, with concerts almost always sold out,” she said. “I shouldn’t just disappear without a word, or wait until the final song of a concert to announce: ‘This is my last concert.’”

Tsai said doing so would have made her feel guilty and that she...