It was almost like a preview of his upcoming Singapore gig in September.
Emil Chau belted out his songs, cracked a few jokes, and invited his protege, Lesley Li Du, to share the stage.
The Taiwanese singer lost her pitch as the applause that greeted her appearance drowned out the strains of the background music.
The gallant Chau came to her rescue, helped her sing the first few lines, and offered a pat on her back after they crooned their hit, "Tomorrow I Will Marry You."
But unlike his concerts, his fans, who kept calling out his name, were asked to restrain themselves.
"Throw down the money instead!" he exhorted.
The Taiwanese-based singer was helping the National Kidney Foundation raise funds for 1,000 patients on Sunday night.
It was the first time he was appearing in the annual television fund-raising show, which is into its fourth year.
Before the one-hour show, which marked the finale of the 18-day charity drive, Chau had pledged to raise $750,000 through 250,000 calls from the public.
The singer, who visited several patients while on a trip here at the end of April, said: "Seeing these patients, I can really identify with their difficulties, such as trying to make ends meet, worrying about supporting the family, and about their future."
When the telephone lines closed 15 minutes after the show ended at 8 pm, he had raised $877,470 through 292,490 calls.
Said the kidney foundation's CEO, Mr. T.T. Durai: "No singer has performed such an admirable feat...to command so many calls in one hour."
Chau's performance followed a two-hour show on June 25, which featured Leon Lai, Ronald Cheng, Grasshopper, Mavis Fan, Winnie Shin, William So, Richie Ren and Jonathan Li, as well as homegrown artistes Zoe Tay, Ann Kok and Christopher Lee.
The first show had brought in 495,045 calls and $1,485,135 in two hours.
There was also an extra line opened up for bigger donations between 8 and 11 pm on the night of the first show. It raised a total of $98,743.
The total sum of money raised by the foundation over the 18 days: $5,259,301 -- way over the $3 million it had hoped to raise.
Last year, the 22-day charity drive drew about $4 million.
Said Ms. Amelia Champion, the NKF's head of public relations: "This is our most successful NKF charity drive in all the four years. This is an achievement by all the artistes, sponsors and the public."
The foundation recognised that variety shows do play a useful role in bringing in the donations, she said.
"The stellar cast and their outstanding performances played a big part in raising the record-breaking figure," she added.
This is the first year the foundation has organised two charity shows.
While fans of Lai and Chau are happy with the arrangement, believing that the superstars should not be put on the same stage to outdo each other, Ms. Champion explained that the reason was that Chau could not make it here for the earlier show because of his tight schedules.