Fun but costly Saturday at Suntec City and Marina Bay Sands…and movie review for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

I have been working overtime for the past week and this weekend is the much needed time for me to rest and reduce my stress level. It looks like I’m going to be busy till the end of December and I can feel the pressure is building up to the point that I couldn’t sleep well lately. Fortunately, I have a nice outing with my friend yesterday in the city although it turns out to be quite costly (that’s due to my own fault).

Besides than going for a casual ‘sing k’ and a usual movie session at Suntec City, we have the urge to walk from the mall to the Marina Bay Sands through the popular Helix Bridge that offers amazing view of the city. Since we were already in Marina Bay Sands, it is super convenient to just drop by for a visit to its casino. ‘Itchy hands’ cause me to lost few hundred bucks there. So, what a costly weekend outing.

The highlight of this post is actually a review to the movie that I have watched; ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. It is a biographical film about the British rock band Queen, and it follows the life of the band’s lead singer, Freddie Mercury leading to the famous Queen’s Live Aid performance at Wembley Stadium in 1985. I always enjoy biographical films as they allow me to know more of the person these films are based on who are usually very popular and influential figures (despite some historical inaccuracies usual due to movie dramatization). Before this movie, I didn’t know much about the band and its lead singer, Freddie Mercury who died at age of 45 in 1991 due to complications from AIDS. I only knew the two famous songs the band have produced; ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champion’. He was before my generation.

I enjoyed the film and I was very impressed with Rami Malek’s performance as Freddie Mercury. His resemblance to the singer is uncanny. When I was watching the movie, I felt like Rami Malek is no longer there and all I see is the real Freddie Mercury in it. It shows how much Rami Malek had done to get into this iconic character. For me, he totally outshines Bradley Cooper from ‘A Star Is Born’ in the best actor race. I can’t get away from comparing this film with ‘A Star Is Born’ since both are music-centred. To be honest, I even find ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ better than ‘A Star Is Born’. It has higher IMDB score than ‘A Star Is Born’ and yet a much lower score in Rotten Tomatoes. Critics don’t enjoy ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ more but general audiences do. I find that ‘A Star Is Born’ has excessively emphasized on the love storyline that couldn’t hit me although it displays superb acting as well.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ does not attempt or pushing itself hard to be an Oscar film with a very nice flow of story added with strong performances and music sequences. I was very engaged with the storyline (interesting plot with not much of romance and some hilarious moments) that explores on Freddie Mercury’s relationship with the other band members and his former wife, his attitude, his unique style and his sexuality. The ending scene of the Live Aid performance is truly captivating and gave a high-note conclusion to the film. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ a total of 8.2. A dramatic and entertaining biographical film that will tell you more about this legend, Queen’s Freddie Mercury.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

 

Awesome show by Jacky Cheung at his concert ‘A Classic Tour’ in Kuala Lumpur.

I was very excited when my friend successfully helped me to buy tickets for Jacky Cheung’s concert during the ticket launch three months ago while I was in Australia. His tickets are so hard to get. I remembered I did try to buy the tickets myself through online purchase. However, the website kept crashing and the tickets were all sold out in twenty minutes. Fortunately, I have one friend who planned to queue at Quill City Mall for the ticket launch and he decided to help me along. That’s so awesome.

Jacky Cheung is a well-known Hong Kong Cantopop singer and is one of the four ‘Heavenly Kings’ in Cantopop music. He is also being known as the ‘God of Songs’ due to him having a lot of classic songs that won huge number of awards in the past and for having the best singing skill among the four ‘Heavenly Kings’. I have never watched his concert before and so I am very eager to watch it this time. He seldom return to Malaysia to organize one and we may not be able to see more shows from him in Malaysia in the future. So, this is like a golden opportunity for everyone. His ‘A Classic Tour’ in Kuala Lumpur took place for 3 days (26th, 27th and 28th January 2018) at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil and I attended the first one (yesterday’s evening).

Since it’s a Friday evening, quite a number of people were late to the venue due to the rain and traffic congestion. Many were not expecting (me included) that the show will start on-time at 8pm due to Malaysian culture of being late. I was wrong. The show started sharp at 8pm while I (and my parents) had just entered and were queuing to go to the washrooms. A lot of people were still queuing outside to enter the stadium. We rushed inside and had a hard time finding our seats in the fully packed stadium with all the lights already off. Hence, we missed out the first two songs by Jacky unfortunately.

The show was awesome. Jacky put a lot of effort in it. Usually, a singer who is performing oversea will usually slack down and deliver performance of lesser passion and quality. Well, that’s not the case for Jacky. The stage (it’s a four-side stage) is beautifully crafted with all the possible motions to allow for a creative animated display while Jacky is performing. The lights are fantastic and the state-of-the-art technology helped elevate the whole atmosphere into a very exciting and engaging nature. I didn’t expect that the standard of concert’s set design in Hong Kong’s famous Coliseum is brought into Malaysia for the very first time and I’m exceptionally delighted. Every audiences is also given a free light stick to make the whole stadium more electrifying and synchronizing.

Jacky delivered the songs and dances with huge passion. I can see that he was tired after half of the show (couldn’t blame him as he will be 57 years old this year already) but he insisted on performing with awesome effort and quality. His singing skill is still magnificent and his live performances are brilliant. There are also a lot of dancers and other performers on the stage in some parts, and it means that this is seriously a grand big-budget production. It is certainly worth the money of everyone who has paid to watch his concert. Totally deserving. Furthermore, the show is 3 hours long (started at 8pm and ended exactly at 11pm), which is more than I’m expecting earlier. The only thing that is not the best is that Jacky didn’t perform some of his hit songs. Well, this is forgivable since he has a lot of great songs and it’s impossible to sing all or most of them in a single show. At least, he still did covered most of his classic hits and I got to sing along too, indulging myself into the excitement. I am not his fans (I hardly hear his works) and I’m surprised that I can still remember some of his songs and their lyrics.

So, here’s some of the clips I have taken during the show…just a short clip…enjoy if you are into Jacky Cheung. There is one part when there was someone who is proposing to his girlfriend right near where I was sitting…wow…what a romantic way to propose but it’s really noisy that it’s impossible to hear a word from them:

His concert here for his worldwide ‘A Classic Tour’ (he did mentioned that this is his 132nd stop) is amazing! Now, that’s a top-notch show that other singers can learn from. I had an awesome time watching it and it was certainly a great experience! This is definitely my first highlight event of the year! The next one shall be my graduation early next month! Hopefully I will get to see more great events coming in for the rest of 2018!

(Copyrights reserved to all the images and clip in this post)

A tribute to two stars who passed away recently, David Bowie and Alan Rickman..

This week is filled with tragic news of passing away of two notable Hollywood stars. They are David Bowie on 10th January 2016 and Alan Rickman on 14th January 2016. In 14th January 2016 (which also happens to be my eldest sister’s birthday as well as her eldest son’s birthday), Celine Dion’s husband, Rene Angelil also passed away. That makes the count to three. What a bad week especially to the fans of these legends.

I have actually not heard of David Bowie until after his death that I started to see many paying respect and tribute to this man all around in social networking sites. Perhaps it is most probably due to that his fame as a singer peaked at the time when I’m not even born yet. I’m not in the generation that listen to his songs, and hence not knowing him much. Hence, I need to do a bit of research about him first. David Bowie was an English singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, painter and actor. He was a figure in popular music for over five decades, and was considered by critics and other musicians as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s.

Bowie’s songs and stagecraft brought a new dimension to popular music in the early 1970s, strongly influencing both its immediate forms and its subsequent development. A pioneer of glam rock, Bowie, according to music historians Schinder and Schwartz, has joint responsibility with Marc Bolan for creating the genre. At the same time, he inspired the innovators of the punk rock music movement. While punk musicians trashed the conventions of pop stardom, Bowie moved on again—into a more abstract style of music making that in turn became a transforming influence. Bowie’s impact was enormous; he changed the nature of rock music, and changed his own approach repeatedly. During his career, he sold an estimated 140 million records worldwide. In the UK, he was awarded nine platinum album certifications, eleven gold and eight silver, and in the US received five platinum and seven gold certifications. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

He died of liver cancer on 10th January 2016, at the age of 69.

Rest In Peace, David Bowie.

Next is Alan Rickman. I guess many would not know who he is by just calling out his name. Well, he is the one portraying as Professor Severus Snape in all eight Harry Potter films. Ahhaa…now you knew him. Besides than his iconic role in the Harry Potter film franchise, I didn’t watch any of his other films unfortunately. He had actually starred in over 50 films. Back to the Harry Potter films, I do remember well of how wonderful he portrayed Snape, a professor whom at first people hated him as he was too cool, mean and unfriendly towards Harry Potter. However, as the film series progresses, people loved very much on his character which is actually a good and a caring person ‘after all this time’ to Harry Potter. We will miss you, Alan Rickman…ALWAYS.

A little biography of this wonderful man; Alan Rickman was an English actor and director, known for playing a variety of roles on stage and screen, often as a complex antagonist. Rickman was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing in modern and classical theatre productions. His first big television part came in 1982, but his big break was as the Vicomte de Valmont in the stage production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 1985, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Rickman gained wider notice for his film performances as Hans Gruber in Die Hard and Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series. In 1995, Rickman earned a Golden Globe Award, an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his portrayal of the title character in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny. He won a BAFTA Award for his role in Robin Hood.

He died of cancer on 14th January 2016, at the age of 69 too.

Rest In Peace, Alan Rickman.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

 

Some beautiful movie soundtracks.

Listening to songs is great to reduce stress during work. It is also a good and simple form of entertainment at home. But sticking to songs everyday would still end up being boring especially when I have limited number of songs in my iPhone or in my laptop. This week, I switched to listening to music, with nobody singing. Just melody. And the first thing on my mind are movie soundtracks.

Many past movies were tend to be unforgettable and awesome, thanks to the inspiring beautiful score it had while the movie is playing. Here below are some very lovely movie’s original scores which have been haunting me this week. Few of my personal favourite below. Listening to these soundtracks will also remind you of those great movies.

Gravity. One of the best films last year and the score had just won Best Original Score at 86th Academy Awards held last Sunday. A truly intensifying and climax-reaching score.

Titanic. Still one of my most favourite films after so many years. Very saddening and touching score that melts everyone’s heart. Also not to forget the theme song ‘My Heart Will Go On’ by Celine Dion. Immensely memorable.

Inception. Heart-stopping soundtrack.

Also not forget this one from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, the final movie of the highly successful movie franchise. The soundtrack is spellbinding.

These soundtracks are cool especially when you hear them before you are going to bed. I’m not going to post a lot here as I think you won’t be listening to all too, right? You can just pick which ever you love to hear again. You must have heard them in those movies before, but it would gives you more feel when you are just listening to the scores without being distracted by anything. Enjoy and have a great evening!

(Clips in this post are from YouTube)

Celebrating Sammi Cheng’s 25 years in Hong Kong entertainment industry.

For those living in Asia, particularly the Chinese, you must have heard the name ‘Sammi Cheng’. In case you don’t know, she is a Hong Kong cantopop singer and actress who has been very successful in film and music industry. She has been always referred to as a diva and has been one of the most prominent female singers in Hong Kong since the 1990s, the golden decade of Cantopop music. When I was a kid (in 90s), she is one of my favourite idols. I love to listen to most of her songs and most of her movies are my favourite too. Even in present time, whenever she is coming to Malaysia to hold a concert, I wouldn’t miss it.

Her fame should not be questionable. It has come to my surprise that even some of my Malay and oversea friends recognized her. in 1990s, Cantopop music peak to fame throughout Asia-Pacific with many notable artists like the Four Heavenly Kings (Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, Leon Lai) while the females are represented by Faye Wong, Sammi Cheng, Kelly Chen, etc. Sammi Cheng has also been referred by media as Cantopop Queen till these days, furthering proving her popularity that never fades and cementing her position as one of the leading Hong Kong artists to date. She had also been famous for bringing in unique fashions to her dressings in her concerts.

Let’s look back at little bit of her history in the entertainment industry that spans approximately 25 years. Sammi entered the industry at a very young age of 16 by participating into a high profile new talent singing contest in 1988. Despite winning only third place in the competition, the sponsoring record company saw her potential and offered her a recording contract. From there on, her success began. She won her first major award, winning best new prospect award in 1990. In following years, she had been among the big winners of every annual music awards, having won ‘Best Sales’, ‘Best Cantonese Release’, ‘Best Hong Kong Female Singer’, ‘Most Favourite Asia-Pacific Female Singer’, ‘Gold Song Gold Award’, etc.

She also broke the record as being the youngest female singer to hold more than 50 accumulated concert nights in Hong Kong. To date, she had produced over 80 studio albums, 10 live concert albums, over 110 singles (songs) with over 30 covers and had hold over 130 concert shows. I personally like many of her songs (particularly romantic songs) and will frequently play her popular songs in present days too when current music couldn’t be compared to the previous 1990s Cantonese classics.

Well, she had been very successful in films too. Before involving in films, she had appeared in several TV series back in 1990s when she is still a newcomer. Her first film debut was in 1992, in ‘Best of the Best’ with Jacky Cheung. From there on, she had been actively involved in many films and had been paired with many other heavyweight stars like Ekin Cheng, Anita Mui, Leon Lai, Stephen, Chow, Andy Lau, Richie Ren, Louis Koo, Sean Lau, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Eason Chan, Cecilia Cheung, etc. Her most iconic and popular works are most probably ‘Needing You’, ‘Wu Yen’ (won her Best Actress Award in Hong Kong People Choice Award), ‘Love on a Diet’, Marry a Rich Man’, ‘My Left Eye Sees Ghost’, ‘Love For All Seasons’, ‘Yesterday Once More’, ‘Everlasting Regret’ (earns Best Actress nomination in Venice International Film Festival), ‘Romancing in Thin Air’ and most recently ‘Blind Detective’.

Despite not winning any Best Actress Award in annual Hong Kong Film Awards (she held record for being the female with most nominations but without single win in the category), her performance in movies is always complimented for being relaxing and entertaining. I like to see her in movies. On her recent performance in ‘Blind Detective’, she did another amazing job. All to best to her in future nominations. I hope she will win soon. She totally deserves it. On the other hand, now I wondered why there isn’t a wax figure of her in Madame Tussauds Museum in Hong Kong or a star (handprint) of her in Hong Kong’s Avenue of Stars, since her popularity is no doubt apparent.

She had also been actively involved into charity and community works too. Her 25 years of contribution to Hong Kong entertainment industry which has left an immense impact to the whole Asia Pacific should be recognized further. I’m taking off a bit of my time to highlight on that here. And one more thing, do you wonder why I suddenly wrote a post about her on this day? Today is actually her birthday. She turned 41 this year. Never looking old, and body fit all the time. Amazing. Most of the other singers coming out in similar period with her back in 1980s and 1990s had either settled down, married, or retired, but Sammi appears to have not given up, never rests and still standing high. All the best to her!

(All images and several information in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web).

April 1st, 2013…the 10th anniversary of Leslie Cheung’s death

On this day ten years ago, Hong Kong’s music legend, Leslie Cheung committed suicide by leaping to his death from 24th floor of Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the city. He left a suicide note indicating that the main reason for his sad departure is unbearable depression he had over his last few years. His sudden death in April 1st, 2003 shocked the Chinese communities not only in Hong Kong but also in around the world due to his immense popularity worldwide. And he was only 46 when he left the world. It was such a sad news and a big loss to Hong Kong.

Leslie Cheung initially rose to fame as a Canto-pop singer in the 1980s after studying at Leeds University in England. His acting career took off in 1986 when he starred opposite Chow Yun-fat in John Woo Yu-sen’s gangster movie A Better Tomorrow. Other film roles included Happy Together and Days of Being Wild, directed by Wong Kar-wai. But it was his decision as one of the few Asian stars who dared to play openly gay characters on screen that made his name. Besides than starring in many films, he also performed many songs that became golden hit during his era such as ‘The Wind Blows On’, ‘Monica’, ‘Who Can Be With Me’, ‘Catch’, and many more.

Affectionately known as Gor Gor, which means older brother in Cantonese, Leslie Cheung was considered one of the founding fathers of Cantopop whom also combines a hugely successful film and music career. In 2000, Cheung was named Asian Biggest Superstar by China Central Television, and voted/ranked the 1st as The Most Favorite Actor in 100 Years of Chinese Cinema in 2005. His achievements were incomparable with numerous awards he had won during his lifetime and extreme fame he had particularly in Asia Pacific, even until now, 10 years after his death. He remains as a superstar and a music legend in our hearts no matter how long he had left us. Even some of my Malay colleagues knew who he is. A very famous and talented artist indeed.

In 1997, he admitted to the public that he was bisexual and revealed that his mother and Daffy Tong were his most beloved. In the final years of his life, he was plagued with severe bouts of depression brought on by his fame and attacks on his sexuality, which eventually lead to his death. Despite the risk of infection from SARS and the WHO’s warning on travels to Hong Kong at that time, tens of thousands attended Cheung’s memorial service, which was held for the public, on 7 April 2003, including celebrities and other fans, many from other parts of the world such as mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, the United States and Canada. His funeral was on 8th April 2003.

In my generation, we started to have interest in songs beginning late 1990s when Hong Kong rules the Chinese music scene at that time. And so, Leslie Cheung’s era is a bit early to us (he rose to fame from late 1980s to early 1990s). However, I still do like some of his films (which are now classics) and songs particularly ‘Catch’ (video of the song below). His voice is soft and he was perfect for rendition of slow and moving songs like this one. Beautiful and moving song.

His departure was really a big loss to the entertainment industry of Hong Kong. In conjunction with the 10th anniversary of Leslie Cheung’s death, many memorial or tribute events are to be held in Hong Kong dedicated to this beloved music legend, with one particularly capturing my attention; a giant sculpture of the late Leslie exhibited in a mall with almost 2 million of origami cranes folded by fans around the world displayed inside a giant red cube behind the sculpture, which also broke the Guinness World Record as “the largest display of origami cranes”. Leslie Cheung, you will be forever remembered as an influential Chinese superstar we glad to have before.

(All images and information in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

London 2012: The closing ceremony was a lively musical farewell to the 30th Summer Olympic Games

After 17 days of great actions in competitions on variety of sports to the very best quality, London 2012, the 30th Summer Olympic Games finally came to an end with a lively musical-themed closing ceremony entitled ‘A Symphony of British Music’ on yesterday’s night. The closing ceremony is directed by Kim Gavin and began on 9pm,taking over three hours long and ended few minutes after 12am the next day.  I didn’t watch the live broadcast of the closing ceremony, but I managed to watch all the segments from the ceremony uploaded by the official Olympics page in Youtube just now to catch up on what I have missed several hours ago.

The ceremony commenced in an absolutely impressive way. The first impacting visual offered to the strong 80 000 audiences in the stadium and to around 1 billion people worldwide through broadcast is the ‘scaled-down London’, with famous landmarks of the city (London Eye, Big Ben, Royal Albert Hall, London Bridge, 30th St. Mary Aze Building, etc) made out of newspaper cut-outs featured in the center. Then the ceremony started with quite a remarkable opening sequence, from fireworks to countdown featuring numbers from around London and finally linking it back to the scaled Big Ben replica at the middle of the stadium. I do really enjoyed this part.

The theme of involving newspaper cut-outs is quite interesting and it is also applied to the street sets and vehicles that sought to show ‘a day in the life of London’. The newspapers were printed with words from British literary figures such as William Shakespeare, among others. Too bad that this part comes and goes off quite fast. Things aren’t much appealing to me after that opening segment that gives me some early high expectation to things later on. As soon as the showcase of British music for the past 50 years began which is the major theme of the night, I get really bored and find it very unconvincing to end such a successful games indeed.

I believe the director had a not-so-suitable theme for the closing ceremony. I’m not here to criticize the fame or glory of British music, but I’m sure that there must be many other better things for British to deliver to the whole world on this closing ceremony of the world biggest sporting event. You can present the many sides of British culture from the past till the modern days, not only emphasizing on music which isn’t that symbolic or meaningful to the host country either. It’s quite inappropriate to treat the closing ceremony something like a concert. Turning it like a concert definitely degraded the formality and quality of the closing ceremony. Furthermore, there had already been quite a heavy emphasis on British music in the opening ceremony, and now music again for closing. Boring, and lack of effort to treat the ceremony seriously.

I agree on the intention to bring on a party-like atmosphere to end the games in joyous mood, but there are many other ways or options for that rather than just delivering so much of music. Furthermore, the artists invited to perform aren’t famous and appeared to people not from Great Britain as unfamiliar faces. There isn’t any unforgettable impact delivered on this closing ceremony from the theme of British music since there is no performance visible in massive scale or proportion which I would love to see and I believe would captures the attention of the world. Similar to the opening ceremony, there isn’t any large stunt that would easily steals the show. Luckily, there is some humour presented in the middle of the closing ceremony that gave us some little surprises…I mean only ‘little’ and it’s very minimal. I’m suggesting like presenting all the Olympic sports contested in some creative ways that would engage the athletes themselves and the audiences. That should be a good addition to the show. Just my suggestion…

Well, all the things aren’t that bad either. I like the lighting effects all over the stadium, particularly from the lights illuminating the stadium’s roof and the LED installed at side of each of the 80-000 seats in the stadium so that all the LED would sum up as a huge screen to project captivating visuals. I also like the stage set on after the newspaper cut-outs segment that featured the national flag of Great Britain with the white areas allocated for performances later on and the blue and red surrounding it for the athletes later on. The parade of athletes arrived in between, with something different this time, as athletes were moving to the center from all around the stadium, passing through the audiences. This was to try to engage the athletes to the audiences in the stadium and that is good.

The Chairman of London 2012 organizing committee and the President of International Olympic Committee gave their speeches which received several applause from the crowd. The national anthem of Great Britain (the present host country), Olympics, and Brazil (the next host country) are played. The flag handover ceremony was also conducted and the Olympic flag was then handed over to Mayor of Brazil from Mayor of London passing through hands of President of IOC. The next edition of the games would be in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016, four years from now. As usual there is an eight-minute segment for Brazil to deliver their introductory performance. It’s quite messy but in the end, it turned out to be quite colourful, in match with Brazil’s popular culture particularly on dances. The flame is then extinguished in a very beautiful moment after a flame-inspired and gymnastically-choreographed performance.

Unappealing music is kept on delivered until to the point I can’t take it anymore, but luckily the ending fireworks arrived and put the end of the ceremony to a spectacle. The wonderful fireworks saved the climax of the ceremony. I enjoyed the fireworks but I was hoping for more. But anyway, that amount is good enough. Hmm…the music appeared to bring the whole stadium to life, to noise, but for me, the musical content which formed major part of the show wasn’t interesting and was underwhelming. Well, it’s still a lively musical closing to the games.

To be honest, this is one of the worst closing ceremony I have ever seen. I know the budget is very limited and is restraining a lot of things. But once the theme selection gone wrong, then the ceremony is ruined. Furthermore, this concert-like closing ceremony would be easily forgotten, unlike the Beijing 2008’s memorable and over-the-top ceremonies that still kept us in awe after so many years. I’m not heavily criticizing on the quality of the ceremonies but I’m just trying to give my point of view on this matter. Anyway, London still staged a very good and successful games eventhough for me, their opening and closing ceremonies are quite poorly delivered. Hmm…we will now have to wait for four years long for the next games, Rio 2016, the 31st Summer Olympic Games, and Brazil would be the first South American country to host the games. Goodbye, London 2012!

(All the images in this post are from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2187586/London-2012-Closing-Ceremony-Awe-inspiring-shots-fantastic-fireworks-show.html. Click on this link for more stunning images)

A look into the past and present waves in Asian music industry

Every decades from 1980s onwards, there is a very obvious change in wave or I should say, popular trend in music industry, particularly in Asia. There is certain time for a certain wave and it usually took a decade for one to go and another to come. In 1980s before I was born, I knew that in that decade, western classic songs are favourite in Asia.  Then, extreme impact occurred when there came a rising star which was now the most iconic singer ever in our generation despite he has passed away. He is Michael Jackson. Everyone knows this name, and he brought pop music to another extreme level, added with his breakthrough and thrilling dance performance.

In 1990s onwards, Cantonese songs rise to fame, and Hong Kong turned out to be the place where almost all famous and nice songs are from! There are a number of successful and popular singers discovered from that region, learning from their seniors like Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung whom both have passed away in the decade. Dubbed as the Four Heavenly Kings, Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai are the best-of-the-best in the decade in male category. While for female, the outstanding ones are Faye Wong, Sammi Cheng and Kelly Chen. That decade also saw the rise of new singers like Eason Chan, Joey Yung, Leo Ku and Miriam Yeung. Even some of my oversea friends knew them and have heard their songs before. Cantopop definitely ruled 90s. Some Chinese who don’t understand Cantonese are also influenced to the point, that they now knew a bit of that spoken dialect.

A new millenium arrived. From 2000s onwards, the wave has turned to Taiwan, where Mandopop stands out above the rest. Jay Chou, Wang Lee Hom, Jolin Tsai, A Mei, and some others rise to fame in superb speed, thanks to the numerous awards presentations in those years that caught the most attention. The singers are now not only treated as superstars, but also turned into idols for widespread fans all over Asia. Some Hong Kong singers even went to Taiwan to expand their popularity and also involved themselves into Mandarin  songs as well. So, that’s time for me to start to listen to Mandarin songs and now, I was able to speak simple Mandarin! Yeay…

2010s onwards. Another decade came, and it’s the current decade. No doubt K-Pop overwhelmed the others. Korean music wave hit over the entire Asia, and caught my surprise for having such a successful record beyond South Korea itself. Media and social networking sites like Facebook turned to be important tools in bringing music to hits, and particularly helping to spread Korean songs to the point that most of us accept and love them despite not knowing the language. Usually having a group or band is much more successful in this case, for instance; Super Junior and Girls’ Generation. However, there is still an exception like Rain.

K-Pop didn’t influence me but I knew it leaves great impact among us, and I can feel it as well. Just take the yesterday’s concert from Malaysia GP in front of Petronas Twin Towers as an obvious example. The place is crowded to the limit and all the people went there just to see Girls’ Generation. Some living 3 kilometres away from that venue could also hear screaming from the fans, and that is really extreme!

However, in this time, I started to miss those lovely Cantonese songs back in 1980s and 1990s. Those are truly great songs. Some Mandarin songs in the past are also of my favourites, and I hope those will not be forgotten despite their wave is over. I don’t understand why people nowadays are so crazy and madly in love with those Korean music groups and songs when they don’t even understand a word from them. Well, beauty or physical appearance came into consideration of course. Ahhaa…that country is famous for plastic surgery, guys! Hmm…so I’m guessing what would be the new wave for 2020’s decade? Arab songs? Oh my God…I couldn’t imagine that!

 

A bit of comments on the concluded 3rd MY ASTRO Music Awards 2012

The 3rd MY ASTRO Music Awards 2012 was held yesterday’s night in Arena of Stars, Genting Highlands. The awards held annually, is organized to honour the songs that topped the MY FM radio station’s music chart for the past year. The awards was now reaching the third year, and I still see not much popularity from it looking at the number of artistes present. The theme for this year’s award show is Music Factory. I didn’t watch the whole show, and I only listened some parts of it live from the radio station.

I remember there are still at least some very famous oversea singers attended the earlier editions of this awards presentation like Eason Chan, Wang Lee Hom, Jolin Tsai, etc. But for this year’s awards presentation, none of them came back. Why? Because the singers themselves also would realize how ‘cheap’ the numerous number of awards presented to them without the sense of competition at all. Once the singers attends the show, they must be awarded, with high possibility of even grabbing more than one award easily.

So, fewer famous oversea singers attended this year’s awards presentation. The two most famous (I mean not in the whole Chinese music industry, only the most famous of the night in the show), Wilber Pan and Ding Dang won the most as expected. On the other hand, this awards presentation is also brought up to give more recognition to local Chinese singers like Nicholas Teo, Z Chen, Fish Leong, and so the three of them won a lot of awards on the night too (and that’s similar every year), since some awards are separated into international category and local category. So, the only few number of Malaysian Chinese singers present could also never escape from those awards. Andrew Tan rise to stardom recently with his ‘Tian Hou’ song again in which there are even covers for that song from other singers including even a Cantonese version to it…but I still can’t find that version.

The number of artistes present is very limited, and so the result released is also very limited to mainly songs sang by the artistes attending the presentation. This is disappointing. I knew there are several other good songs from last year that would top the chart easily, but since the singers of those songs didn’t attend the presentation, mostly there are nothing given to them. The very few attending artistes are even bored of returning so many times to the stage to take numerous awards, and their speeches show that clearly. And there are like 50 awards presented last night. Crazy amount!

I really hope the awards presentation would gain more attention from the artistes from all over China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. There is no point giving so many awards without the presence of more good and much deserving singers.

A quick highlight of 54th Grammy Awards…Adele is the biggest winner

The music’s biggest night in 2012 is over, which is the 54th Grammy Awards that honours the best on music for the past year. The biggest winner for this year’s Grammy, which is the most prestigious awards for the Western artists, is Adele who would only turn 23 this year.

She had won all the six categories she is nominated. Basically, she grabbed all the major awards of the night, stealing the limelight of the show. The six awards she have won are Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Short Form Music Video for her hit song, Rolling in the Deep, Album of the Year and Best Pop Album for her 2011’s album entitled 21, and Best Pop Solo Performance for another of her song, Someone Like You.

Other artistes that also received some awards from the night are Bon Iver, Foo Fighters, Kanye West, Kirk Franklin, Chris Brown, Taylor Swift, etc. It appeared that Lady Gaga won nothing for her ‘Born This Way’ album. Back to the top awards that goes to ‘Rolling in the Deep’ by Adele, I have heard of this song several time, but I don’t really attach to the song quite well. But it is no doubt that ‘Rolling in the Deep’ is a good song, a song with quality, a song that can deliver fame to the singer, which is finally proven from the awards it has obtained. The way she hit the every notes in the song is fantastic!

There is also a part during the awards presentation that is dedicated in memory of Whitney Houston who had passed away on the Grammy’s eve. The music world is certainly shocked by the news of her death, in which the cause is still unknown. For me, Whitney had a great voice, a very powerful voice that could stun the world. Her death is a great loss. Now, the music’s biggest night is over, and two weeks later, it would be time for movies’ biggest night, the 84th Academy Awards.