1990: Starting from Baojia Street

The reason why Zhang Guorong was idle was not because he couldn't get any work, but because he felt a little tired in the past two years and wanted to take a break.

Speaking of which, Zhang Guorong is over 40 years old this year. Although only a few years have passed since he filmed "Farewell My Concubine", his energy is already far different from then.

When he was filming Farewell My Concubine, he felt that he had endless energy, but over the past few years, he obviously feels not as good as before.

In order to play the role of Cheng Dieyi well, he not only practiced Mandarin hard every day, but also practiced Peking Opera desperately, with very little time to rest.

But now, if he were asked to play a role that required the same effort as Cheng Dieyi, he might be willing, but he might not have the confidence to do so.

For some roles, if you don’t fight hard when you are young, you won’t be able to fight hard when you are older.

Zhang Guorong felt that he could no longer fight, but fortunately he had already fought as hard as he should.

Since Zhang Guorong said he had time to come, Zhou Yan did not ask any more questions. He just smiled and said, "I will definitely keep the ticket for you, but you have to take care of yourself when you come. I will be busy those days and will not have much time to take care of you."

Zhang Guorong laughed, "You are not the only acquaintance I have in Yanjing. Besides, there will be several of us together, so no one will have to worry about us. Don't worry."

Zhou Yan nodded. Zhang Guorong had stayed in Yanjing for quite a long time and knew a lot of people, so there was really no need for him to take care of him.

"Okay, you can make your own arrangements then, but you can always contact me if you need anything."

"no problem."

After hanging up the phone with Zhang Guorong, Zhou Yan took out a notebook from the drawer and wrote down Zhang Guorong's two tickets.

When Zhou Yan holds a concert in Yenching, it is almost inevitable that someone will come to ask for tickets.

Moreover, this time it is held in the Temple of Heaven, so it has attracted a lot of attention and there will definitely be more people wanting tickets.

However, they planned to set up 3,000 seats at the Taimiao this time, which means 9,000 seats for three consecutive shows, so it would not be a heavy burden to distribute tickets.

They had originally planned to arrange more seats, but after comprehensive consideration, they decided to only have 3,000 seats, otherwise the effect would be greatly reduced.

The budget for building the stage in the Taimiao this time was higher than Zhou Yan had expected, about 12 million yuan, which was spread over three shows, with each show costing 4 million yuan.

This is just the cost of on-site arrangement, there are also costs for ticketing, publicity, personnel, etc.

Of course, ticket sales can be ignored, not to mention publicity. This time, CCTV has contracted all the publicity work for the concert, and the studio does not need to spend a penny on publicity.

Nowadays in the country, no propaganda channel can compare with CCTV.

Therefore, the bulk of other expenses is the appearance fees of personnel.

Although the performance team was all from Zhou Yan's own studio, he would not give less money at all. Zhou Yan would give the same amount of appearance fee as other bands would give them for performances.

The ticket revenue per show is only about 300,000, less than one-tenth of the cost.

So in this case, it doesn't matter whether there are more or fewer seats.

After writing down Zhang Guorong's name, Zhou Yan called Xu Xiangjie again.

Normally, Zhou Yan would not call them at this time, but today the situation was special, and he knew that Xu Xiangjie must not have slept yet, so he made this call.

The main purpose of making this call is to ask about Wang Lihong's situation.

Jeff Brown invited Wang Lihong to participate in the Backstreet Boys' performance today. This is also Wang Lihong's first appearance in Europe and the United States, so Zhou Yan paid special attention to it.

It is still morning in Los Angeles and there is still some time before the performance. Xu Xiangjie has been paying attention and everything is normal.

After hearing that everything was normal, Zhou Yan hung up the phone without asking any more questions.

It was impossible for him to stay up all night just to follow Wang Lihong's movements. He could just ask about the specific situation tomorrow morning.

……

Backstreet Boys' performance today is held at the Hollywood Bowl. Although the venue is not very large, with less than 20,000 seats, due to Hollywood's special geographical location, performances here are usually very popular.

Today, Backstreet Boys are definitely the most popular male band in North America. They don't have to worry about box office performance wherever they perform, especially in a venue with less than 20,000 people, especially in Hollywood.

As fans of Zhou Yan and Backstreet Boys, Jessica and Hardison naturally could not miss this concert.

They bought the two front row tickets for this concert when the tickets were first released.

This afternoon, they also came early and were the first group to check in and enter.

After entering the venue, Hardison looked around and smiled, "I heard that there will be a special guest coming today. I wonder who it will be."

"Really?" Jessica asked curiously.

Although she is a fan, she rarely pays attention to the news.

Hardison smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I heard a lot of people say that, but the official hasn't announced who the special guest is. Some people speculated that it might be Mariah Carey, because Mariah Carey appeared in Los Angeles a few days ago... But Mariah Carey already has a house in Los Angeles, so it's not surprising for her to appear here."

"It would be nice if it was Y." Jessica smiled.

Although she said this, she knew in her heart that this was impossible.

Y has never appeared in anyone's concert... Even Mariah Carey, who has worked with Zhou Yan the most, has never invited Y.

In fact, Y rarely comes to the United States. Every time he comes, it is basically to perform a concert or promote a movie. He rarely appears in other occasions.

Moreover, if Y could really be invited as a guest, why not publicize it in advance?
With Y's current popularity, it will definitely be good for Backstreet Boys.

A few days ago, the new song "all of me" written by Y for Celine Dion became popular again in the United States. This song can be heard everywhere during this period, and there have been many covers.

On the way to the Hollywood Bowl today, Jessica and her friends heard a street artist singing "All of Me".

Y is like a legend in the North American music scene. Every song he writes is a big hit, not a single one of them is a small hit.

Hardison also knew that Jessica was just talking casually, and he didn't believe that Y could come to the scene.

"The media reported that there are many songs in About Time. I wonder if the Backstreet Boys can sing any of them. Up to now, we have only heard All of Me. It's so worrying."

Jessica nodded, "We could have heard the second song yesterday."

When "All of Me" first became popular, news came out that a singer named Leehom Wang was about to release a new song "How Long Will I Love You", which is the theme song of "About Time".

The original announcement said that the song would be released on the 15th.

But some time ago, there was an announcement that the release of the song would be delayed, and no reason was given. The good news is that the delay is not long, only two days, and they can still listen to the song on the 17th, which is tomorrow.

Hardison smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. It's only delayed for two days. You can listen to it tomorrow."

"Yeah." Jessica nodded, and they didn't talk about this topic anymore.

After about half an hour, the concert finally began.

As the Backstreet Boys get older, their stage performance is getting better and better. Their performances are very exciting and everyone likes the songs they sing.

Especially the popular songs "We Are Young" and "Yellow", these two songs are basically must-sing in every concert.

The atmosphere was great and the audience really enjoyed themselves.

When the concert was coming to an end and "Yellow" was finished, they did not start the next program immediately. Nick took the microphone and said with a smile: "From everyone's chorus, I heard your love for this song. I believe that many people here know us through this song."

When Nick said this, many people at the scene couldn't help but nod.

"Yellow" can definitely be said to be the Backstreet Boys' famous song. It was because of this song that they came into the public eye.

As of now, among their many songs, "Yellow" still ranks first in terms of playback volume.

You know, "We Are Young" is New Balance's advertising song. The brand promoted it heavily at the time and the song could be heard everywhere. New Balance is still using this song today.

In addition, some sports programs and inspirational programs also like to use "We Are Young" as background music.

But even so, the number of views of "We Are Young" still cannot compare to that of "Yellow".

Although "Yellow" did not win the North American number one single that year, its subsequent performance was very good and it has been a hit song for many years.

As Nick said, the first song many people at the scene heard from the Backstreet Boys was "Yellow".

After seeing the responses from the audience, Nick smiled and continued, "This is the first song Y wrote for us. Interestingly, the first letter of this song is also Y, haha... I still remember when I first heard the melody of this song, my tears almost flowed down. At that time, I couldn't even believe that we could actually sing this song..."

Nick spoke sincerely, and the audience felt a little sad. Many of them have watched the Backstreet Boys grow step by step to where they are today. Obviously, Y is an indispensable noble person in their growth path.

Jessica looked at Nick who was emotional on the stage. Although she was moved, she felt confused.

Why did Nick suddenly confess his love to Y today? There was no such segment in his previous concerts.

The members of Backstreet Boys are grateful and they often mention Y's name on TV shows and thank him for his help.

But in an occasion like a concert, they wouldn't say these things, and it might even be... a little weird.

But soon, Jessica found out the reason.

Nick didn't talk for too long. After chatting for a while, he smiled and said, "Next, I will invite a mysterious guest to bring you a good song. Let's give him a round of applause - Leehom Wang!"

When the name "leehom wang" appeared, the audience had different reactions.

Some people didn’t pay attention to the news about the new song and are very unfamiliar with this name, so they are wondering: Who is this person?
Some people may have heard related news before, but can't remember it clearly. They just feel that the name sounds familiar, but they just can't remember where they heard it.

Some others knew about the new song, so they were very surprised to hear the name.

That was what happened to Jessica and Hardison, who both almost stood up.

"Are you singing a new song?!" Hardison asked loudly.

Many people have the same question as him, will Wang sing new songs when he comes on stage? If he does, it means they can hear the new songs in advance.

Nick stood on the stage with his members. After a while, a young man with a guitar ran up.

"Hello everyone, I'm Leehom Wang." Wang Lihong briefly introduced himself without saying much.

Nick smiled and said, "Wang, can you tell us what the name of the song you are going to sing next is?"

"The name of this song is "How Long Will I Love You", I hope everyone likes it."

Nick helped introduce it, "This song is the theme song of Y's new movie "About Time", and Wang is the original singer. Okay, let's not waste time, let's get started."

Wang Lihong nodded and walked to the front holding his guitar.

After a simple solo, Wang Lihong started singing.

"how long will i love you?"

When Wang Lihong opened his mouth, the members of Backstreet Boys were not idle either. They all helped Wang Lihong with the harmony.

The version they sang today was the one sung by the street performers in the movie Subway. It sounded a little more lively, and with the harmony of the Backstreet Boys, it added a special flavor.

The most memorable part of this song is "how long will I love you", and this sentence is placed at the first sentence, so the song can catch people's ears from the first sentence.

So, when the first sentence came out, many viewers got goosebumps.

Some people even exclaimed.

"Wow!"

The melody, lyrics and emotions of this song are all very direct. The audience does not need to think deeply at all. They can directly feel the emotions of the song and get caught up in it.

Moreover, although the lyrics and melody of this song seem simple, the layers are still very rich. The more you listen to it, the more you feel a sense of urgency to grasp happiness.

Jessica sat in her seat, slightly dazed. She passively emptied herself, but the moving melody still drilled into her ears.

She felt like she had to say sorry to "Yellow". At least tonight, her favorite song was "How Will I Love You".

Also want to say sorry to Backstreet Boys, her favorite singer today is Leehom Wang.

She originally thought she would have to wait until tomorrow to hear the new song, but she didn't expect to have such a surprise at the Backstreet Boys concert.

And Y did not disappoint her, this song was no worse than "All of Me".

She has said before that it is worth watching "About Time" just for the song "All of Me".

Now she wants to say that by watching "About Time", she can at least earn an extra song. (End of this chapter)