hollywood billionaire

Chapter 403: The Billionaire Who Hides Nowhere (Part )
"I heard... he seems to be a prince of some Asian country or something."

"Southeast Asia."

“Yes, Southeast Asia.”

"It is said that there is oil everywhere in that country."

"It's everywhere."

"Is there some...trust fund or something?"

"Hundreds of princes, each with a trust."

"I really wish you could hear what you're saying."

Watching her two drunken girlfriends talking nonsense in a serious manner, McKinsey Jones, who had only followed the crowd and taken two or three shots so far, and had more than half of the bottle of Budweiser in her hand, tried hard to block out the frequent sidelong glances from the Saudi men wearing traditional red and white turbans at the other end of the booth, sighed awkwardly and helplessly.

Yesterday, Isabella Rodriguez led them to the booth area, and with her youthful girlishness and rave outfits that were hotter than those at the Moulin Rouge, she successfully sat in the most eye-catching booth No. 1. For Mackenzie Jones, who only wanted to enjoy Horch's music, listen to her idol's recognizable independent pop voice, and scream until she fainted, this was actually not something to be excited about, but instead added a less pleasant background to her Mad City trip.

Although she was a frequent partygoer at various fraternity houses in Sacramento and indulged in bounty hunter treasure hunts like her best friends, hoping to find a trust fund baby "exiled here" in the barren central California, it was just a boring pastime in daily life. As a die-hard fan of Holch, she really didn't want her pilgrimage to Las Vegas to have any other side effects.

No matter how rich a man is, he can't stop her from being infatuated with Holch.

Therefore, when she was dragged here by her bestie group, McKinsey was unwilling to do so. But soon, she was stunned by a surprise gift from heaven - the booth area of ​​Mad City was full of stars, gathering all kinds of celebrities that you can't see on TV on weekdays. Victoria's Secret supermodels, music stars, Hollywood actresses, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs... The most important thing is that with the help of Barbara Pavin, four ordinary girls were able to temporarily get into this social circle, which made McKinsey feel like a Beverly socialite.

Barbara Pavin was not the only one who showed a friendly attitude towards their arrival. The manager of Renyu Management who was more beautiful than a star and the protagonist of their gossip today brought McKinsey perhaps the most unforgettable experience in their lives, no doubt about it.

After hearing that McKenzie was a big fan of Holch, they brought the Sacramento girl directly to the latter. Even though 24 hours had passed, whenever Kenzie recalled this incident, every hair on her head would tremble with excitement.

Holshe, and the fantasy music kingdom behind her, like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, hidden from the public's sight, are what McKinsey is willing to explore and understand throughout her life. Therefore, unlike her three best friends, McKinsey was not confused by the gorgeous stars surrounding her. After the ecstasy of her first face-to-face conversation with Holshe subsided, she devoted some of her energy to silently pay attention to her manager Zhao Youzhen, who was standing aside, always looking down on her mobile phone to send and receive emails and handle official business, and her employer, Han Yi, the behind-the-scenes promoter of Holshe, Madison Beal, and many other potential newcomers this year.

"The buyer of this booth is the prince who owns oil and trust funds as you said. No, to be more precise, he is... the prince's servant." The information that Mackenzie-Jones overheard from the various whispers was obviously much more accurate. "Turki Al-Sheikh, the head of the Saudi Entertainment General Authority and a senior adviser to the royal family."

“Turki, I know.” Isabella’s eyes were half open and half closed, as if her mind had long wandered away, leaving only an empty shell here to mechanically answer, “He was the target yesterday... What a pity.”

"So who did you end up going with?" Emily Caldwell's voice was sticky and drawling, and she sounded even drunker.

"I don't know, some guy in a turban."

“Aren’t these all guys in turbans?”

"The one with the beard."

"They all have beards, too."

"Keep your voice down! Are you really not afraid that others will hear you?"

McKinsey rushed over and covered her two besties' mouths. She didn't care which sheik Isabella slept with yesterday, and she believed that with the Saudis' jaw-dropping generosity and Izzy's shrewdness, she must have received a rich reward far beyond imagination. McKinsey just didn't want them to raise their voices and use such unpresentable topics to attract the strange looks of the important guests who kept passing by and drinking.

To put it more clearly, after yesterday's dreamlike experience, Mackenzie-Jones has made clear her future life goals, which are to graduate as soon as possible, leave the deserted central California, drive south, and go to Hollywood to find her own star on the Walk of Fame.

It doesn't matter if you're on stage or behind the scenes, the closer you are to Horch, the better.

Under the subtle influence of this mentality, when McKinsey mentioned Han Yi, the tone was respectful and the wording was a little cautious.

"You were drunk last night and didn't hear the conversation between him, Turki... and Dr. Dre."

"Did you hear that?"

"uh-huh."

"Brother, you have committed the crime of industrial espionage." Isabella curled the corner of her mouth and jokingly said.

"I wasn't eavesdropping there, I just...slightly, I overheard a little bit." McKinsey cleared his throat and defended himself, "From what I heard, they are discussing a big project...a really big project. No, it should be said that it is a 'game changer' that combines several big projects. Yes, that's the word! A game changer. He is not some player who came to the United States with a trust fund to squander. He is a pioneer who can truly bring substantial changes to the music industry."

"When you talk about the music industry, you get as excited as if you were on drugs." Eva Martinez, who had been concentrating on taking selfies and hadn't spoken, also joined in the fun. She let out a long breath of alcohol, raised her eyebrows, and smiled.

"How can I not be excited?" McKinsey danced with joy. "Compared to the unchanging Wall Street, don't you think this industry is more worthy of anticipation and investment?"

"That's not what you told us," Isabella interrupted. "What did you say? 'With old, stubborn vampires like Universal and Sony controlling Hollywood, independent musicians will never have a chance to succeed.'"

"That was when Horch was still in Astralwerk," McKinsey continued. "The music industry was disappointing, but it's different now. New challengers have emerged, haven't they?"

"So why are you so optimistic about... him?" Eva raised her finger and pointed it at Han Yi, who was not too far away from them, holding a glass of iced cola that seemed to never get lower, and chatting and laughing with the guests. "Is it because he signed your Horch?"

“That’s just part of it.”

"What's the other reason?"

"Look at the stage."

McKenzie nodded, signaling her girlfriends to turn their attention back to the performers.

"Although I am a die-hard fan of Holch, I have to admit that when it comes to his most popular and commercially appealing artists... Ashley would hardly be at the top of the list."

"You are the light, and the night.

It's the color of my blood.

You are the cure for healing and the root of suffering,
You're the only one I want to touch.

I never thought that someone could be so important to me..."

McKinsey was referring to the many popular stars that Han Yi had recruited since he founded Han Music. They have more experience than Horch, have more works than Horch, and naturally have higher status in the industry than Horch. In this list that is not long but not short, Ellie Goulding, who was standing on the edge of the stage and leading the audience to sing her last single of the day, is the most representative female artist of Han Music who can currently surpass Horch.

That's right, "Closer" at the end of October is still continuing the miracle of consecutive championships since September 2016, 9. Next week, if this popular electronic dance music can still sit at the top, it will become the 3rd song in the history of Billboard to win the championship for ten consecutive weeks. If it can keep the momentum and stay in the first place for another seven days, "Closer" will surpass Drake's "One Dance" and become the longest-lasting champion single in 33.

In other words, in two weeks, "Closer" will undoubtedly win the title of single of the year.

Judging from the chart data alone, this single by Horch has already reached the pinnacle of commercial music. Even if Ellie Goulding polishes three or four more albums, it is almost impossible for her to hatch a masterpiece with the same performance as "Closer". However, "Closer" is a work led by the electronic music producer group The Chainsmokers. Horch's role in it is just to contribute to the vocal performance as a special guest. The most essential part of electronic dance music, the drop part, has nothing to do with her.

On the other hand, although Ellie Goulding's peak performance in the United States is far inferior to that of Horch, most of her hit singles that have reached the top ten of the charts are original works with her as the core and included in the official album. Moreover, if we only look at the popularity and distribution range, Ellie Goulding's representative work may not be inferior to "Closer".

For example, the farewell song "Love Me Like You Do" that is resounding throughout the venue at this moment.

"You are the fear that makes me risk my life.

It gives me an incomparable pleasure.

Follow me into the arms of darkness,
Let me take you to travel among the stars.

Teach you to see clearly the world you light up..."

Produced by Max Martin and composed by a Swedish all-star creative team including Savan Kotecha, Elia Salamand and Tove Lo, Love Me Like You Do is the most well-known single from the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack commissioned by Universal Pictures and produced by Republic Records under Universal Music. It can even be said that it is the only one. Earned It, which made The Weeknd famous, is inferior to it.

Adapted from an erotic romance novel that topped the New York Times bestseller list, Fifty Shades of Grey was a hot movie from the beginning to the end of 2015. Although it only ranked 11th on the Hollywood box office chart, it was not as good as the sci-fi-filled The Martian, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 20, which is also a novel adaptation, and even less comparable to the $4000 billion-level Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the $5.71 million production cost and the final global $2011 million in theater revenue can already show how much money this controversial work with a high online popularity has made. The old-fashioned plot of a domineering president falling in love with an innocent female college student, combined with the jaw-dropping gimmicks of SM games and slave contracts, and then covered with a layer of erotica, it is hard not to attract attention. In addition, the original work, which was released in , was a phenomenal novel that swept the English-speaking world. In less than a year after it hit the shelves, Fifty Shades of Grey sold more than million copies, more than any other single book in the Harry Potter series.

Some people joke that almost every housewife in the English-speaking world has a copy of "Fifty Shades of Grey" and uses this spiritual food, which is an alternative to Pornhub, to help them get through the eight hours when their husbands are not at home.

With such a high national popularity, the film version of "Fifty Shades of Grey" has attracted much attention since the project was launched. Although the film has been controversial, conservatives think it is too radical, and radicals think it is too conservative. The plot in the novel is completely worthy of an NC-17 rating. In the end, Universal Pictures cut the spicy level to R level considering the scale of the audience. In addition to those hot scenes, the actors' performances, scripts and rhythm have all been criticized, and the Rotten Tomatoes freshness is only 24%. Film critic Isaac Feldberg's article mercilessly reveals the background of the film: "It feels like two completely different movies are competing for screen dominance: one is a sentimental and fashionable romance, and the other is a vivid and realistic explicit clown movie. Unfortunately, the latter, the worse of the two, ultimately won."

But the overall quality of a film is never completely positively correlated with its box office performance. In terms of storyboard design, photography, set construction, and music, Fifty Shades of Grey is far superior to most Hollywood cinema films, especially the last part. Therefore, no matter how many bad reviews it gets, it cannot prevent Fifty Shades of Grey from surpassing Sex and the City Part II to become the fastest-selling R-rated movie in 15 years. In addition, Fifty Shades of Grey also broke a series of records, including "highest first-week opening box office in February", "Valentine's Day box office", "highest first-week opening box office for female directors", and "highest first-week opening box office for R-rated films overseas", raising the traditional non-golden period of President's Day by several levels.

The movie version, which became popular all over the world, not only helped the original book to increase its sales to an astonishing level of 1.25 million copies, but also made the soundtrack that slowly flowed out of the surround sound speakers along with the plot become a household name. "Earned It" sung by The Weeknd ranked third on the Billboard chart, becoming a breakthrough for this Canadian rising star. "Love Me Like You Do", which was released on January 2015, 1 as the first promotional single, not only achieved the best result of third place on the Billboard singles chart, but also topped 7 charts including the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Canada, and received platinum record certifications, which made Ellie Goulding, who had shown a downward trend after "Halcyon" in 2012, become popular again.

"So, love me in your own way,
Love me as you please.

Touch me in your own way.

Touch me in the way you like best.

What are you waiting for?"

Although not written by Ellie Goulding, this single produced by Max Martin caters to the singer's consistent style and vocal characteristics to the greatest extent. Combining pop electronic music with powerful folk songs, and mixing in the popular 1980s retro music elements, Max Martin and his creative team have found a perfect balance between classics and innovation for "Love Me Like You Do".

In order to enhance the appeal and spreadability of the music, Max Martin faithfully followed the KISS principle, namely "Keep It Simple and Singable", making the vocal melody as simple and easy to remember as possible. Any music fan can repeat the chorus word for word without a good voice and outstanding notation skills. The most clever thing is that in order to prevent the simplicity of the melody from becoming monotonous in the listening experience, Max Martin made many contrasting effects in the structure. For example, the first pre-chorus uses a full band accompaniment, while the second pre-chorus reduces the number of instruments to a minimum to achieve a quiet and alienated contrast effect. At the same time, the first chorus has a low voice, and the accompaniment is only a piano as the main lead, and the mood is soothing and stable, while the second and third choruses return to the big band accompaniment. All elements are intertwined and collided together, bringing the atmosphere to the strongest climax.

There are contrasts between chapters, and also between different paragraphs in the same chapter. Max Martin is worthy of the title of pop music master. He uses the simplest ingredients to cook up the freshest mainstream delicacy. Just by listening to the arrangement, people can feel the excitement and pleasure of watching Anna Steele and Christian Grey try out forbidden games.

"So love me like you do, la-la-love me like you do,

Love me like you do, la-la-love me like you do…

Touch me like you do, ta-ta-touch me like you do……

What are you waiting for? ”

After more than ten songs, Ellie Goulding's sheep-like voice sounded exhausted. When it came to the high notes, her breath was not steady enough and her vibrato was obviously out of control. However, the flaws in her singing had long been covered up by the audience's shocking chorus.

This is the most exciting highlight moment since the opening of Mad City today.

"Ellie Goulding is indeed a popular artist." Isabella nodded.

“Lana Del Rey is also under the same management company.”

McKinsey quickly added, as anxiously as if Han Yi was her boss and Han Music was the company she worked for.

"is it?"

"Yes."

"I really don't know that." Isabella's eyes moved back and forth between Han Yi and Ellie Goulding. "Ellie Goulding and Lana Del Rey are both his signed artists?"

"That's right. And it's not just them. At least half of the people at this music festival are from their own company."

"Half?" Eva on the side was a little surprised.

"Uh-huh, Madison Beal..."

"I know this."

"NERVO."

"That female DJ group?"

"Yes, and Marshmello who came on after them."

“Woo, I love Marshmello.”

"And Migos."

"I like this too."

“Diplo.”

"No way."

“Lil Yachty.”

"The one that sang Broccoli??"

"Nikki Romero."

"...So, all the DJs invited to this music festival are from his company."

“Including Major Lazer.”

"That's for sure. Diplo has signed, so how can Major Lazer not sign?"

"And Billie Eilish, Dylan Francis, G-Eazy, Snoop Dogg..." McKinsey counted on his fingers, "So, yes, there are a total of 24 groups of guests in Mad City, and 15 of them are his own people."

“This is… too crazy.”

Eva Martinez and Isabella Rodriguez passed by Emily Caldwell, who was drunk and always out of shape, and looked at each other, seeing complete shock in each other's eyes... and a rekindled passion.

"Kenzie, why didn't you tell us before that this music festival is actually... so great?"

"I did a lot of research from last night to this morning, and only then did I realize that the artist lineup he has is so strong."

"I see."

Isabella once again fixed her magnetic gaze on Han Yi and spoke softly, thoughtfully.

"I now believe half of what you said... I feel that he does have a chance to challenge the norm in this industry."

"Yeah, I told you so."

"But at the same time, there is one thing that makes me even more confused."

"what's up?"

"If he wasn't an oil prince from Southeast Asia..."

Isabella raised her finger and asked seriously.

"Where does he get so much money to do so many things?"

(End of this chapter)