Liverpool's Canto-pop trailblazer singing for big break

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2007

MACAU (AFP) — Barry Cox's journey from working-class Liverpool to a nightly performance at a giant Macau casino all began in a chip shop.

It was there that the youngster, headed for a series of unremarkable jobs in supermarkets and at call centres, made the unlikely decision to start learning Cantonese.

It was a move that has taken him all over the world, seen him triumph in Chinese-language singing competitions and flirt with the closed world of Canto-pop stardom. It may even result in a film being made of his life.

Now, the 30-year-old befuddles tourists and gamblers every night at the gargantuan Venetian resort singing his favourite songs in immaculate Cantonese, occasionally slipping into Mandarin, or his hometown Liverpool twang.

"I was doing a...