HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 420 [420] One album, four crowns! The highest achievement ever by an Asian artist!
Qi Yuan's support for "Rush Hour 2" and "The Princess Diaries" has now yielded a high return.

Needless to say, Rush+ beat Planet Ape to become the box office champion in its opening week.

The Princess Diaries can never compare to Rush 2.

The film's total investment was only 30 million US dollars, a figure that includes marketing and distribution costs; the actual production costs were even lower.

However, the film did not perform badly either. It was released on a Friday, August 3, and grossed about $20 million over the weekend.

For a film with a low budget and newcomers as the lead actors, this is a great success.

Anne Hathaway became an overnight sensation across America with this film, her elegant princess image stunning countless viewers.

Then, the rumors about Hathaway and Qi Yuan were stirred up again by Warner Music (USA).

Qi Yuan has piggybacked on three of the hottest topics in the American entertainment industry recently: "Rush 2," "The Princess Diaries," and Anne Hathaway.

In addition, Warner Bros. invested several times more resources to help Qi Yuan promote "See You Again".

Finally, on Thursday, August 9th, the long-awaited "See You Again" climbed from number two to number one on the Billboard Hot 8.

Another chart-topping single for Qi Yuan has been born.

By this day, Qi Yuan had entered the European and American markets for less than a year, accumulating five number-one singles and the album "23" achieving four number-one hits.

Warner Music directly compared Qi Yuan's achievements to those of Whitney Houston, the top American pop diva. Houston was the first female singer to achieve four number one hits with one album, while Qi Yuan was the first Asian singer to achieve four number one hits with one album.

……

[With one album and four chart-topping hits, Chrissy has conquered the American music scene with his genius!]

[A historic moment! The highest achievement record for an Asian musician in the Western music scene!]

What's wrong with the American music scene? We should reflect on this!

……

Countless singers, musicians, and music critics in the American music scene were devastated.

Jim Franklin, editor-in-chief of Pitchfork magazine, known for its harsh music reviews, directly criticized Warner Music, saying, "Warner will stop at nothing to elevate Asian singers to stardom, resorting to chart manipulation, data manipulation, and underhanded marketing tactics."

Billboard, out of fear of being labeled as racially discriminatory, actually condoned Warner's data manipulation, allowing Asian musician Chris Qi's music to top the Hot 100 singles chart four times.

This is an insult to the American music scene. *23* is a terrible album! It doesn't deserve such an honor. In my opinion, this album only deserves a 2.9.

This magazine is known for its sharp criticism, with extremely strong subjective and personal biases! It has a poor reputation in the American music scene.

However, this editor's assessment may represent the views of a segment of Americans.

Not all Americans approve of Qi Yuan; deep down, they don't believe that Asian artists can achieve such success in the American music scene.

So there's something fishy going on, absolutely something fishy going on! Warner Music, an American company, is promoting an Asian artist to dominate the American music scene. Warner Music has no shame when it comes to making money.

And Billboard, how could they possibly get four singles from one album by an Asian singer to the top of the charts? How much dirty money did they take?

Immediately, disgruntled musicians and music critics turned their criticism towards Warner and Billboard.

American netizens who disliked Qi Yuan and other Asian artists went to Warner and Billboard's websites to leave a barrage of insults and abuse.

Warner's attitude is indifferent; as long as they can make money, they're fine with it. They're not afraid of being criticized.
The bulletin board, however, felt it was being unfairly accused!

Holy crap! What did we at Billboard do wrong? Why do we get criticized no matter what we do?
We did adjust Chris's chart data a while ago, and Warner and Chris's fans criticized us.

We didn't make any technical adjustments this time, and now it's your turn to criticize us? What did we do to deserve this?

Those American media outlets and some people in the music industry who wanted to suppress Qi Yuan felt a sense of frustration.

They had clearly kept Chris's album below the three-time chart-topping mark just a few months ago.

Logically speaking, several months later, the potential of these songs has been partially exhausted. Unless a special event occurs that boosts the popularity of a particular song, it will be difficult for them to climb back to the top of the charts.

Chris, unfortunately, was lucky, riding the wave of popularity from "Rush Hour 2" and "The Princess Diaries," and also benefiting from a series of major events such as China's successful bid for the Olympics. Without a suitable reason, Billboard couldn't make technical adjustments.

Multiple factors combined to propel "See You Again" to the top of the charts as a number one single.

People in the American music scene are also wondering if this guy is really some kind of chosen one, a prodigy? Warner Music just said the same thing to Qi Yuan a few days ago, saying that the box office success of "Rush 2" and "The Princess Diaries" was because of Qi Yuan's good luck.

Of course, some experienced and senior top producers and superstars believe that Warner Music is forcing growth.

While achieving four awards with one album is certainly impressive, one album alone cannot make someone a superstar.

Whether it's the American music scene or the Chinese music scene, if an album suddenly appears and dominates the market, even if that person gets hit by a car tomorrow, no one will call him a superstar; at most, they'll be called a genius musician who was envied by the heavens.

If Chris wants to continue to succeed in the American music scene, he needs to release even better albums.

They were all worried for Chris and Warner. Their first album was already so strong, with four number-one singles and projected global sales of 2000 million copies.

Tell them how Chris's second English album should be produced to surpass this achievement.

If you were to bring together a bunch of top producers and songwriters from the American music scene and ask them to collaborate on an album that surpasses "23", none of them would dare say how confident they were.

They believe that Chris's album was both a success and a failure.

Success is naturally due to brilliant achievements.

It failed because it's so hard to surpass.

If the second album is of lower quality than the first, American music critics and media will not hold back in their criticism of this Asian musician.

The enhanced version of the "running out of ideas" label will be firmly pinned on Chris's head, and his career will begin its downward spiral.

All they can say is that Chris and Warner were too short-sighted and too eager for quick success.

If it were split into two albums, Chris would at least be a top-tier artist in the West.

……

On August 11, the filming of "Hero" began in Dun, Gansu Province.

A reporter asked Qi Yuan how she felt about achieving four championships in one album.

Qi Yuan replied casually, "I'm not in the mood, isn't that what I should do? I said when I first went to America that I'm a top star in China, and I'll be a top star in America too. I've never liked lying!"

reporter:"……"

When it comes to showing off, you're the one who knows how.

(End of this chapter)