HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 146 [146] The second album sold 600 million copies in Asia, one of which is equivalent to several copies of a veteran superstar's album.
According to information released by Alpha.

Jay Chou's first self-titled album, "Jay," is based on R&B and hip-hop, cleverly blending classical Baroque and Spanish strings. The entire album is filled with Jay Chou's whimsical ideas.

Like Qi Yuan, Zhou Jielun is responsible for producing, composing, writing lyrics, and arranging her albums, making her another creative genius newcomer.

The key point is R&B and his role as a producer, which is very similar to Qi Yuan.

People are wondering if this is another case of a minor Qi Yuan.

This year, Wang Lihong, who goes by the nickname "Little Qi Yuan," has successfully transitioned to an R&B style.

In the Taiwanese music scene, many professionals have noticed that after Qi Yuan and Tao Ze popularized R&B, more and more singers have started to incorporate R&B elements into their new albums this year.

Zhou Jianhui keenly sensed this signal.

He immediately instructed his public relations team to buy numerous press releases in Hong Kong and Taiwan, promoting Qi Yuan as an innovator in the Chinese music scene and a leader in Chinese R&B.

Because of Qi Yuan, R&B, a niche musical element, has become popular and even mainstream music.

This wave is to enhance Qi Yuan's marketing status and prestige.

Zhou Jianhui had informed Qi Yuan beforehand.

Zhou Jianhui originally wanted to market Qi Yuan with the titles of "Godfather of Chinese R&B" or "Godfather of Chinese R&B," which would have given him a higher level of prestige.

Qi Yuan found it all too cheesy. His reply was, "I'm only twenty years old. Isn't it a bit much to give me the title of Godfather? Can we use this title in ten years?"

Zhou Jianhui thought it made sense. Currently, the recognized music godfathers in the Chinese music scene are Luo Dayou and Li Zongsheng. They didn't dare to wear the godfather hat after only one or two years in the industry.

So he changed "Godfather of R&B" to "Leader of R&B".

After spending more than a year in the United States, Tao Ze and his record label, Xia Ke Records, finally returned to Taiwan to produce a new album and felt a chill run down their spines when they saw the overwhelming press releases.

"???"

Last year, wasn't it said that Qi Yuan and Tao Ze together brought the Chinese music scene into the R&B era, and that the two of them were pioneers?

By North!

Just because you're famous doesn't mean you can exclude us. What about Tao Ze's name? Why isn't Tao Ze's name included?

Warner, you've gone too far!
Xia Ke followed suit with a press release, stating that Tao Ze, who was leading the R&B trend, was also involved.

Theoretically speaking, Tao Ze's debut album was released four or five days earlier than Qi Yuan's debut album.

In terms of leadership, Tao Ze was four or five days ahead of Qi Yuan.

Zhou Jianhui naturally saw the struggle of the knights, and he simply made a silent call to the public relations department: "Increase the efforts and completely bury their voices."

Do you heroes think this is South Korea? This glory can only be enjoyed by Qi Yuan alone; no one else can change it.

……

The music scene in Taiwan is bustling with activity.

Qi Yuan's concert tour in mainland China is also in full swing.

On December 25th, at the Shanghai Stadium with a capacity of 12, approximately 4.5 people attended.

In Shanghai, Qi Yuan didn't use "Yellow Race" to open the show, but instead used "Serious Snow".

"In the stillness of the night, love secretly controls my heart, reminding me to be ready to love you at any time. The music is quiet, but it's still love, slowly devouring my heart... The snow falls so deep, so earnestly, reflecting the wounds I bear lying in the snow..."

Fans in Shanghai especially love this song because it was written by Qi Yuan specifically for the city and its fans, giving it special meaning.

At Qi Yuan's concert in Shanghai, a male fan with the same hairstyle as Qi Yuan came to the venue. After Qi Yuan became famous, many boys started to have the same hairstyle as him, which is quite normal.

The key issue is that this fan's hairstyle is really too jarring. If Qi Yuan can be called a handsome man with medium-length hair, then this guy can only be called a "punk" because his name is Hu Yanbin.

Hu Yanbin started learning music at the age of 13, and at only 15 years old this year, he has already formed his own band and serves as the lead singer and songwriter.

Today, he came to see Qi Yuan's concert in Shanghai with his mother.

Last year, Qi Yuan's self-titled debut album opened a new world for him, who had only recently started learning music.

After listening to that album, he realized that music could be so trendy, and he found his direction—this was the music he wanted.

Starting last year, he became a die-hard fan of Qi Yuan, and he listened to every one of Qi Yuan's songs many times.

He often sang Qi Yuan's songs when participating in various music competitions.

After the concert, Qi Yuan was surrounded by countless fans as she left, and it took dozens of security personnel to protect her before she could leave.

Seeing this scene, Hu Yanbin knew that getting Qi Yuan's autograph was definitely out of the question.

At this moment, a fan shouted, "Qi Yuan, you're so handsome! Can you call me Qi Yuan?"

Qi Yuan turned around, pointed at the fan, and shouted with a smile, "Qi Yuan!"

The atmosphere was filled with joy.

This is what a man should do.

Seeing this, Hu Yanbin made up his mind. He would participate in the singing competition held by Shanghai TV and debut as a singer. Qi Yuan was his role model.

Qi Yuan, who had just gotten into the van and left, had no idea that one of his fans had been silently watching him and had even taken him as a role model to debut as a singer.

This is just a small episode.

Qi Yuan's concert tour in mainland China consisted of six shows, which lasted until January 15, 1999.

The concert with the largest attendance was in Beijing, while the one with the smallest attendance had fewer than 20,000 people.

It can only be said that ordinary people in mainland China are not very wealthy these days, so the market for concerts is not large.

These six concerts will definitely be profitable, but with low ticket prices, they won't earn nearly as much as concerts in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Sales of the official CDs have increased somewhat. Currently, the official CD sales of "Qi Yuan" in mainland China are close to 450 million copies, the vast majority of which are cassette tapes.

Its sales across Asia exceeded 600 million, meaning that one album sold more than three albums by other superstars.

Qi Yuan is so busy right now that her legs are about to give out.

The Spring Festival Gala production team has already urged him to return to Beijing to participate in rehearsals.

Others start rehearsing in September and need to go through at least three rehearsals before they can perform on the Spring Festival Gala.

The production team was very lenient with Qi Yuan, only urging him to hurry up in January.

This is also related to Qi Yuan's special status. He is the pride of mainland pop music. His album was just released in September and it swept across the Hong Kong and Taiwan music scene.

Back in mainland China, last month he returned and launched a large-scale concert that broke records for mainland singers.

Qi Yuan has been doing great things that have inspired the people of mainland China in the past few months, so the production team gave him face and only started to summon him a month before the Spring Festival Gala.

At the same time that the Spring Festival Gala called for him, Zhang Hao also told him that the Hong Kong Top Ten Golden Songs Awards would be held on January 24, and the organizers had already invited Qi Yuan.

After entering 1999, Qi Yuan had only one feeling: busy!
(End of this chapter)