HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 364 [364] Breaking Records! Four Grammy Nominations!
In just three days of its open beta launch, "Legend of Mir" achieved tens of thousands of simultaneous online users, a remarkable feat in the dial-up internet era.

The fact that such an outstanding performance can be attributed in large part to Qi Yuan, the spokesperson for QQ.

With the Qi Yuan brand constantly driving traffic to QQ, the number of QQ users is much greater than in 01.

Tencent acquired the license for "General" and used it as the game's theme song, gaining significant exposure.

The Little Pony team advertised QQ login without registration, and many QQ users tried it out of curiosity, which led to a surge in popularity.

In its previous life, this game took ten days to reach 10,000 concurrent online users during its public beta test; in this life, it only took three days.

While it's impossible to say that all the credit belongs to Qi Yuan, Xiao Maju and his team would have no doubt that most of the credit goes to him.

Furthermore, Qi Yuan is not the game's spokesperson; he did not write a theme song for the game. Tencent merely purchased the license for "General" and capitalized on his popularity.

The little pony wanted to ask Qi Yuan to be its spokesperson, but Qi Yuan declined.

It was 2001, and parents in China viewed video games as a monstrous threat.

Endorsing online games will almost certainly get you criticized.

Getting scolded is something the Little Pony team excels at, so Qi Yuan didn't want to get involved.

Good news has arrived from the open beta of "Legend of Mir," and this isn't the only piece of good news.

In late January, the nominations for the 43rd Grammy Awards were announced.

"22" was nominated for four awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Male Pop Singer, and Best Newcomer.

Qi Yuan received three of the four major Grammy Awards: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist.

The Best Pop Male Artist award sounds impressive, but it's actually a genre-specific award and its prestige is significantly lower than the other three.

The moment the shortlist was announced, the country was in an uproar!
From China to the world, Qi Yuan uses music to build bridges, and his artistic achievements are recognized by the Grammys.

[A historic breakthrough! A Chinese singer becomes the first to receive four Grammy nominations – a remarkable achievement]

Foreign media have hailed Qi Yuan as a 21st-century Eastern miracle and a beacon of light for the Eastern music scene!

State media outlets adopted a cautious approach. For example, the *China Daily* and *People's Daily* only mentioned that Chinese superstar Qi Yuan had received four Grammy nominations, breaking the record for Grammy nominations for a Chinese person. They were unsure whether Qi Yuan would ultimately win, and therefore couldn't make any definitive statements.

Qi Yuan's fans and Chinese netizens didn't have many concerns; they were all thrilled.

A Chinese singer has broken into the American market and received four nominations, including three major awards. This is truly a source of pride for the country and an inspiring achievement!

Last year, when Li Wen received a nomination, Sony even dared to call her a shining example of Chinese people worldwide.

Moreover, Qi Yuan's nomination is more prestigious than Li Wen's.

"Is this the most Grammy nominations for a Chinese person ever? Four nominations! Awesome!"

"Those who dream of surpassing Qi Yuan can try sending an English major to the Grammys and see if the Grammys will even pay attention to them."

"I'm starting to look forward to Qi Yuan's English album. If his EP is this amazing, I can't even imagine how powerful his whole album will be."

"I declare that this is the true glory of the Chinese people."

……

Compared to the excitement outside, Qi Yuan and his Warner team were not so optimistic. As soon as the nomination list was announced, Qi Yuan knew that his chances of winning were slim.

With three nominations across the four major general awards, isn't that obvious? The nominations are all the Grammys have to offer Qi Yuan.

The Grammys require public relations, especially for top-tier awards like the four major general categories.

Qi Yuan has only been in the American music scene for three months. Warner Music (USA) has just begun to see his commercial value. His achievements are not yet strong enough, so Warner Music will not go all out to help him with public relations. There is also no time to spare.

Zhang Hao said seriously, "Your foundation in the United States is not solid enough. We shouldn't have too high expectations this year. It would be great if we could win, but if we can't, it won't affect our record sales. President Zhou is actively contacting the US headquarters, and we will try our best to get it."

Qi Yuan spread his hands and said calmly, "I don't care. I told you this EP was just a trial run, so it's not bad to have achieved this result."

They gave me an award, and we used the popularity of the award to sell records.

"They won't give me the award, so we'll hype it up as racial discrimination, deliberately suppressing me by not giving me the award, to gain sympathy from North American fans, and maybe my record sales will be better."

Zhang Hao stared in disbelief: "..."

You're really good at playing the game, aren't you? You're not losing out either way, are you?
Objectively speaking, this doesn't count as hype.

It's blatant that Grammy and Oscar hold regional prejudices; they discriminate against not only Asians, but also white Canadians and white British people.

The year after Avril Lavigne released her debut album, she went to the Grammy Awards ceremony full of confidence, thinking she could win an award. However, she was a runner-up and didn't win a single prize.

Such examples abound.

Qi Yuan had already decided that whether he won the award or not didn't matter; what he cared about most was how well the album sold. The money he earned from selling records was what truly mattered.

Furthermore, if his first album sells well again, he will become Warner Music's most commercially valuable artist, and Warner Music will naturally do everything in its power to help him with public relations for next year's Grammys.

If he continues to refuse to receive an award from the Grammys next year, and continues to play the racial discrimination card, he will pull out an even more explosive masterpiece and dominate the Billboard charts.

With a three-pronged attack of discrimination, a powerful and unconventional strategy, and a strong Guan Gong (a legendary Chinese martial arts master), he was confident he could defeat the Grammy judges.

Zhang Hao told Qi Yuan something else: "When you went to the United States for promotion, the Heroes of the World Tour was interrupted for a while. Now, with the momentum of the Grammy nomination, we can restart the concert."

Several cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, want to invite you to hold concerts there. All these cities are the same; they'll give you the green light.

As the most popular top-tier pop star in mainland China and even the entire Chinese music scene, it's no exaggeration to say that when Qi Yuan holds a concert in a city, he can boost the consumption of that city.

In an era of vigorous economic development, it's no wonder that cities were vying to invite Qi Yuan.

After some hesitation, Qi Yuan finally decided to hold the first stop of his mainland concert tour in Guangzhou.

Guangzhou is his hometown, and he has returned home in glory to give back to his hometown.

Guangzhou authorities immediately opened the largest venue for Qi Yuan's team, Tianhe Stadium, which can accommodate 6 spectators.

……

[Four-time Grammy Award nominee and China's top superstar, Qi Yuan, will hold a 60,000-seat concert at Guangzhou Tianhe Stadium on February 14, 2001. Tickets will go on pre-sale soon!]

The moment the concert news was released, it excited fans across the country, especially those in mainland China.

The 6 tickets sold out incredibly quickly!
(End of this chapter)