The opening of China Entertainment Group gave Jay Chou a head-on confrontation

Chapter 637 Football Benefits Zhou Yi

All tickets for the China-Japan Song Festival are free——

In other words, they are all free tickets.

Zhou Yi's Japanese fan club will naturally receive some free tickets, but the number should not be enough to overwhelm the fans.

This can be considered as artificial score control in a sense.

After all, everyone who comes to participate is a star, so they have to consider their face.

But what is happening now has the Japanese organizing director team, led by NHK TV, scratching their heads - this is not right.

"Did Warner secretly collect tickets for Zhou Yi's fan club?"

"It doesn't look like that. Look at that area over there. There's a fan sign for Kimura Takuya next to it. They should be fans of Kimura Takuya, but Zhou Yi came out and shouted along with them."

"..."

Pretty smart, he knows to ask people to put down their fan cards.

The CCTV program crew members were delighted.

Regardless of whether NHK TV will edit this footage into the show, they will definitely edit it into the show when they return to CCTV.

"The Japanese song was sung first, right? What song did Zhou Yi sing?"

"I don't know, I haven't heard it. I think it's called something like 'The Real Folk Blues'. It seems to be a jazz song?"

"jazz?"

Several Chinese staff members who didn't know much about this were confused by the song title they had never heard of. However, the Japanese program members cheered when the dense drum beats and saxophone played in the prelude.

"Yes! I love Zhouyi!"

“He sang my favorite song!”

"It's incredible. I didn't expect Zhou Yisang to know and sing this song. I couldn't believe it when I saw the title of the rehearsal song."

"Spike, Spike, I bet he's seen Cowboy Bebop!"

"..."

"Cowboy Bebop" is one of the pinnacle works produced by the Japanese animation industry at the end of the last century. It is an extremely romantic space highway fantasy animation benchmark. Every second is an explosion of funds. It has influenced generations of animation practitioners and jazz lovers.

It is a work that will never go out of style no matter when or how old you are.

It was broadcasted in 1998, ended in 1999, and won the Nebula Award at the Japan Science Fiction Convention in 2000.

Let’s put it this way, in the field of original animation that is not adapted from comics, “Cowboy Bebop” is recognized as a member of the pinnacle series.

Because of its science fiction elements, this animation is more popular in Europe and the United States than in China. Later, Netflix even tried to make a live-action version of this animation.

In the local Japanese vote, this original animation was even able to compete for the first place, and the director Shinichiro Watanabe also rose to fame in the industry with this "Cowboy Bebop".

Of course, in Zhou Yi's heart, "Cowboy Bebop" is his favorite original Japanese animation, no doubt about it.

That’s why he chose the song “The Real Folk Blues” because it’s the ending song of “Cowboy Bebop”.

"爱してたと sighくには (sigh once loved)
"It's time to pass by (even though time has passed for a long time)~"

The lyrics were marked with Chinese phonetic symbols on the on-site prompter. After coming on stage, Zhou Yi twisted his body casually, showing the rhythm of jazz music in every move, and raised his hand to point at the cheering and surprised fans in the audience——

His fan base is young people.

As we all know, young people in Japan today have a nice name - Heisei otaku.

No matter how sweet the past was, it is always bitter when you recall it - separation is the end of the past, and separation is not sweet; reunion is the beginning of memories, and reunion is always bitter.

People who live in the past will eventually walk out of the dream-like illusion.

This is a work created by Shinichiro Watanabe, who has supported Zhou Yi many times in Japan. At this moment, both chefs were ecstatic!

“The Real Folk Blues!”

When Zhou Yi sang the last chorus, the Japanese fans were so moved that they even followed Zhou Yi's fingers and sang along -

"I want to know the true sadness of the original sadness."
"A life stuck in a muddy river is not a bad thing either."
"Once it ends, it ends (if it can end only once)~~"

The finish is long.

The unique feeling of jazz music lingered in the hearts of everyone present. When the camera swept over, some male and female fans, who were probably fans of the music, had tears in their eyes, which showed how strong their emotions were.

“The Real Folk Blues, I hope you enjoy it.”

After the performance, Zhou Yi, who stayed on the stage, took off his earphones to give the band time to prepare. He smiled and greeted the audience, saying jokingly, "If your Japanese is not standard, it's not my fault. It should be the fault of Ms. Nagasawa who taught me Japanese."

Under the stage, Masami Nagasawa, a super popular new star whose popularity has soared in the past year, laughed and waved her hands after seeing her face appear on the big screen.

"Well, if everyone knows how to sing the next song, can we sing it together?"

After chatting for a while, Zhou Yi put on his earphones again after receiving the notice, and the sound of his voice that seemed to be singing a cappella rose -

"A mistake made in a flower field!"

"A mistake made in a flower field!"

The neat but out-of-tune lyrics amused Zhou Yi, who was singing "Hua Tian Cuo" on the stage. Zhou Yi, who was standing on a tripod, spread his legs, hung an electric guitar on his waist, and raised his index fingers to point at them.

"A mistake made in a flower field!"

"A mistake made in a flower field!"

A Chinese singer, standing on the official stage of Japan, directed tens of thousands of Japanese people to sing Chinese songs happily. Even Japanese celebrities including Masami Nagasawa, Shizuka Kudo, and Nakamori Naka were singing along.

One can imagine how shocking that was to the Chinese singers at the scene.

"It's so late at night, why is there a light in the paper window?
"That's not the candle you lit for me all night long

"It was just a chance encounter, a dream in the Red Mansion
"My landscapes have all faded, as if washed by heavy rain~"

Singing back in the familiar Chinese language, Zhou Yi's voice, which had been under control before, suddenly exploded. The various inflections and changes in pitch made the fans have an orgasm in their heads, and they kept screaming when they couldn't keep up with the singing!

Roar!

Still roaring!

With just one person and a guitar, Zhou Yi turned this party into his own concert, satisfying the wish of Japanese fans who have always wanted to watch his concert live.

After "Hua Tian Cuo", the more soothing and elegant "Blue and White Porcelain" was sung, which gave the fans who had screamed throughout the entire Chinese song a more soothing step to slowly calm down their excited emotions. Even after the recording ended and they left the stage, fans could still hear Zhou Yi calling out to them.

"Thank you! I love you guys!"

Zhou Yi blew a kiss to the audience, turned around and walked backstage.

After waiting for the China-Japan Concert to be recorded, all the singers attending our party gathered together for a group photo. Then they said goodbye to each other and returned to their hotel under the moonlight.

The complete success of the first China-Japan Song Festival after the restart also received overwhelming praise from the Japanese media the next day.

"The China-Japan Concert ended successfully, and the stars among stars shone brightly in the audience!"

《China-Japan Zhouyi Song Exchange Meeting! 》

"Zhou Yi, one person's song was covered half the time"

"Cover authorization obtained, cover team expanded again!"

"Zhou Yi's first concert with 10,000 people in Japan?"

"..."

Among them, Zhou Yi's concert behaviors that caused the whole audience to sing along also caused a lot of discussion -

After all, Zhou Yi has never sung in a theater with tens of thousands of people in Japan. The fans who went to the scene showed their feelings one after another, and directly made the members of Zhou Yi's Japanese fan club explode with jealousy. The official website of Warner Japan was once again attacked by the jealous Zhou Yi fans...

"What do you guys do? Urge Zhou Yi-kun to hold his concert in Japan!"

"Isn't this a world tour?! What kind of world tour is it if it doesn't go beyond China!"

"Don't go, Zhou Yijun. My sister wants to see you before she dies. Is that okay?"

"..."

The chaotic comments drowned out all other voices. Just as Zhou Yi was about to catch the plane, he received an unexpected notice -

"Ayi, don't leave yet. Warner Japan has a fan letter. Would you like to take a look?"

Qian Jiang, with a sad expression, walked over with an envelope.

"Letters from fans? Aren't those handled by people from the company?" Zhou Yi, who was eating breakfast, wondered. He stuffed the special sushi into his mouth and took the envelope.

Fan culture in Japan can be said to be extremely popular. In addition to various handshake meetings and fan meetings, fans write letters to their idols - and the idols then write back to the fans or do something else. This is a common practice to retain fans.

It's just that Zhou Yi's volume was too large, and all of his letters were opened by company employees pretending to be him. They would then pick out those that were worthy of a reply, imitate Zhou Yi's tone, type out a reply on a computer, pretending that it was written by Zhou Yi, and then send it back.

People like Ayumi Hamasaki and Hikaru Utada all handled it this way, but many fans won’t admit it at all, thinking that thinking this way is tarnishing their idols.”

"This one is a little different. It's about a woman with a terminal illness. She's your biggest fan. Her brother wrote to me and said that her sister had leukemia and was dying. Her last wish was to see you..."

Leaning against the dining table, Qian Jiang sighed: "The company has confirmed it, it's true."

There is a popular fan culture in Japan - if a fan gets a terminal illness or something, and by chance the letter he writes and sends out is not thrown away or drowned, but is actually seen, then many stars will actually come to meet the fan.

In this situation, Zhou Yi knew the most about the Japanese special effects industry in his previous life.

There are news reports that many actors from Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and Super Sentai have met seriously ill fans by visiting them in their wards and offering them encouragement and comfort.

"..."

After opening the envelope and reading it, Zhou Yi was silent for a while, and then took a deep breath: "I know, I will go. Anyway, the Oscars are at the end of the month, there are still 5 days, no rush."

"Ah."

Qian Jiang nodded, feeling the impermanence of the world. After seeing Zhou Yi take back the letter, he talked about the next thing: "There is one more thing, it's not urgent. Someone from the Asian Football Confederation contacted me and wanted to invite you to write a song. Do you want to talk?"

"Huh? Me? AFC?" Zhou Yi was a little confused when he heard this combination.

"The 2004 Asian Cup was our home Asian Cup and we were the host."

Qian Jiang shrugged and said, "The commercial song you wrote for Coca-Cola in the 02 World Cup was so popular that it was considered the theme song of the 02 World Cup by people in many countries. So this time, the Asian Football Confederation wants to invite you to write the official theme song for our local Asian Cup.

"Of course, because we need to take into account other countries in Asia and even expand publicity around the world, the official theme song to be released by the AFC must be an English song. So, it depends on whether you have time."

"Then why didn't the Football Association come to me?" Zhou Yi was a little curious when he heard it.

In 04, it was the Asian Cup in China. Shouldn't the Football Association have come to him?
"Someone from the Football Association asked me first, but it was just a test to ask if I had written the eight-minute song for the Athens Olympics. I said no, and that was it."

Qian Jiang spread his hands and said, "You know, the status of domestic football is not that important, especially in front of the Olympics, so the people from the Football Association dare not disturb you at all.

"But the AFC doesn't care about that. They only care about your influence around the world and want more fans outside of Asia to know about the Asian Cup."

"..."

I almost forgot about this.

Zhou Yi slapped his forehead.

In order to achieve its Olympic gold medal strategy, China chose to stab Japan and South Korea in the back in the AFC, which wanted to nominate China to be the leader. China was willing to give up football and push people from West Asia to the top in exchange for the support of West Asian countries for some projects to be prevented from being removed from the Olympics.

Doing so can be said to be a direct betrayal of the interests of the entire East Asian football at the time, and it also betrayed the Japanese and South Korean Football Associations who supported China at the time.

Since then, the East Asian Football Federation has fallen apart.

It can be said that football during this period was a state of disarray. It is understandable that the Football Association did not dare to disturb Zhou Yi, who was ostensibly preparing for the Olympics.

"The people in the Football Association are also very smart. They know that the Asian Football Confederation will definitely come to you. If you write an official English song, they can directly contact you to discuss whether it can be translated and used as the domestic theme song.

"It doesn't matter whether you sing it yourself or give it to someone else or designate someone else to translate and sing it. Anyway, they just want a song with your name on it."

Qian Jiang sees everything.

Zhou Yi stroked his chin and thought for a while, then smiled: "How can someone who can sit in this position not be smart? It just happened to be the eight minutes of the Athens Olympics. They still know what is important and what is not."

His impression of the Football Association is just that, neither good nor bad.

As for whether the Football Association is corrupt or not, to put it bluntly, the level of corruption in the Football Association is not even ranked high in the world.

Yes, I’m not kidding, I really can’t get a number.

Even FIFA itself is the leader of corruption. The famous scene of Blatter being thrown dollar bills is still vivid in our minds.

"Let's see how much the AFC is offering. These West Asian oil guys have plenty of money. Give them a good bet."

(End of this chapter)