Wang Leehom

Leehom Wang - Harbin Film Festival (January 16, 2011)

Leehom Wang - Hong Kong (December 2008)

Alexander Leehom Wang ( Chinese  王力宏 , Pinyin Wáng Lì Hóng ; born May 17, 1976 in Rochester , New York ) is an American musician , record producer , director and actor .

While he was only known in Europe for his role in Ang Lee's Danger and Desire , he is best known as a singer in China and other parts of Asia . Leehom Wang also works in China as an advertising figure for numerous companies such as COACH, Seiko, Garnier Men, Nikon, SONY Ericsson, McDonald's and Fossil.

Wang attended school at the Eastman School of Music , Williams College and Berklee College of Music . His style of music is known for fusing Chinese elements (e.g. Peking Opera, traditional styles of the ethical minorities, as well as classical music) with hip-hop and R&B. Leehom Wang started his career in Taiwan in 1995. He won the Golden Melody Award four times , the "Grammy" of Taiwanese-Chinese music.

On April 14, 2012 Leehom Wangs was a guest on his world tour with his current program Music Man II - Open Fire in the National Stadium in Beijing . It was the first ever pop concert by a solo artist to be held in this stadium, which was built for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Acting career

Wang took part in several musicals during his high school and college years. In 2000, he starred in his first major action film China Strike Force , a Hong Kong production, alongside Aaron Kwok, Norika Fujiwara, Ruby Lin and Coolio . In 2001 the Avenging Fist (SciFi-Action) followed with him in the lead role and stars like Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao in the supporting roles. Wang also starred in the Japanese films Moon Child (2003) and Starlit High Noon (2005). His big acting breakthrough came with Ang Lee's film Danger and Desire .

In 2009, wang played the young general alongside Jackie Chan in Little Big Soldier . Chan had originally written Wang's role for himself, but it took about 20 years for the project to come true, so that Chan slipped into the role of the aging soldier. With Love In Disguise , Wang went behind the camera for the first time in 2010. He directed, wrote the screenplay, the movie songs (all of which appeared on his album "The 18 Martial Arts") and starred alongside fellow actors Liu Yifei and Joan Chen . Love In Disguise became the top grossing film by a debut director in Chinese history with total grossing over 60 million RMB (over 6 million euros).

Life and music career

Wang learned to play the violin as a child ; later he taught himself piano , guitar , drums , bass , erhu , xylophone and other instruments. It is not uncommon for him to single-handedly record his albums in his home recording studio.

Childhood and career start (1976–1997)

Wang was born in Rochester, New York , the second of three sons to an immigrant family from Taiwan with mainland Chinese roots. His father, a pediatrician , and his mother moved for their continued leading university in the early 60s in the United States . With his older brother Leo, who had been taking violin lessons since he was seven , as a model, Wang himself developed a great interest in the violin at the age of three . He asked his mother for violin lessons with his brother, but his mother objected at this young age. When Wang was six years old, he was finally allowed to attend class. In his teenage years he took his first piano lessons and taught himself to play the guitar . He also earned money with various small jobs to buy used drums .

He attended Jefferson Road Elementary School , Pittsford Middle School and graduated from Pittsford Sutherland High School in Pittsford, New York . Because of his passion for music, he enrolled in Williams College , majoring in music and Asian studies . He joined an a cappella group called The Springstreeters , which recorded some demo pieces.

In the summer of 1995, while on vacation with his grandparents in Taiwan, Wang signed his first recording deal with BMG . The record company had become aware of a self-organized talent competition in which Wang participated out of whim. In order not to miss such an opportunity, he immediately began to prepare his debut album Love Rival, Beethoven , which was released in December. The album received little attention and Wang had to leave the label. The following year he was signed to Decca Records . Decca was known in Taiwan at that time for his "particularly powerful singers" (實力 派 派). The label originally planned Wang as "romantic mainstream - Idol " to market. However, when those responsible recognized Wang's extensive musical talent, they instead advertised him as a “super idol” (優質 偶像). Wang released his second album If You Heard My Song in the first half of 1996, which also included some of his own compositions . He was the co-author of the theme song of the same name, which received positive feedback from the audience. The album, as well as the following third and fourth albums, had moderate success and Wang was hailed as a "rising star". During this time, Wang was asked to drop out in order to pursue his singing career full-time, but he insisted on wanting to finish his studies. During the semester he studied and composed at home in the USA; During the semester break he stood in the studio or promoted his music in Taiwan.

Promotion (1998-2000)

Wang's contract with Decca Records ended after the release of the fourth album, White Paper, in the summer of 1997. That same summer, he graduated from Williams College with a bachelor's degree with honors. In August 1998 he released his first award-winning album Revolution under Sony Music Entertainment . The album gave him his final breakthrough and sold over 10,000 records in the first week after its release. Critics also praised the album in high tones and Wang won two Golden Melody Awards (the Taiwanese Grammy ) for "Best Producer" and "Best Mandarin Singer". Up until then he was the youngest artist to be awarded in both categories. Since the success of “Revolution”, Wang has been nominated annually for “Best Mandarin Singer”. The singles from Revolution achieved similar success: The title song of the album Revolution was Leehom Wang's first "number 1" and was in the "Top 20" of the annual charts of the music channel Channel V Taiwan.

He continued his master's degree at Berklee College of Music , with "singing as his main instrument". Wang's sixth album Impossible to Miss You was released in 1999 and combined the catchy pop melodies of Revolution with a whimsical style of the newly discovered dance pop . It became his best-selling album to date with over 1 million records. All single releases from the album reached higher places on the karaoke and annual music charts, especially the upbeat Julia and the ballad Crying Palm (Liu Lei Shou Xin) . Now Leehom Wang has also gained international attention - Wang won the “Best Singer” award three times at three different awards and was also rewarded for his musical merits on the current album at the 1st Asia Chinese Music Awards.

At the turn of the millennium, Wang began filming several Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong blockbusters , which inspired him to learn the Cantonese language. He released the Cantonese song Love My Song (Ngoi Nog Dik Goh) as a bonus track on the Hong Kong version of his seventh album Forever's First Day (2000) . Unlike his previous two albums, Forever's First Day turned mainly to melodic R&B pieces. The single of the same name is a tragic, romantic ballad about the separation of two individuals. Although Wang grew up in New York, he felt his Chinese roots since moving to Taiwan. Forever's First Day turned this newfound pride into a cover version of Descendants of the Dragon , the song with which his uncle had been successful a few decades earlier. Wang completely rearranged the song with stronger rock and dance elements. The song also contained a new English rap bridge that summarized his parents' experiences as Chinese migrants in New York.

International success (2001-2003)

Wang's next album, The One and Only (2001), achieved phenomenal international success. It sold over a million copies in Asia alone, and the rock-inspired work won over seven different awards in 2001 and 2002. The theme song The One and Only (Wei Yi) topped almost all Taiwanese music charts and was over one Number one on the domestic ringtone download charts for the year, making the song Leehom Wang's flagship. The One and Only found its followers in Japan, which encouraged Wang to release his first Japanese long-playing record The Only One on May 9, 2003. The album had only one single, a Japanese version of The One and Only , but it did not achieve the expected success on Japan's Oricon charts . Meanwhile, Wang began making several Japanese films, which boosted his popularity in Japan.

In 2003 Wang started his first major Asian tour, The Unbelievable Tour , just a few months before the release of his ninth album Unbelievable . The concerts received very good reviews from fans and music critics; one was impressed and at the same time shocked by his new hip-hop image. His R&B / Hip Hop-inspired album Unbelievable included new numbers with Hip Hop influences from different styles of pop music, such as indie pop and urban pop . The album marks a milestone in his music career; his new image received international critical acclaim and was a chart-topper with over 1.5 million units by 2004. A special edition (celebratory version) of the album came out three months later and was just as successful. The single releases, especially the ballad You're Not Here (Ni Bu Zai) , also celebrated international success. You're Not Here has been at the top of various music charts for over 10 weeks. In 2004 , Wang received the Golden Melody Award for "Best Producer" for the second time with Unbelievable .

Chinked-out (2004-2006)

With his newly established status as one of the most influential and productive Chinese artists in Chinese music, Wang continued to work on inventing and experimenting with new sounds and voices. For much of 2004, he traveled to remote villages in China to collect unheard tribal sounds of indigenous Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian music. With his younger brother Leekai as his assistant, they carried 15 kg of music equipment with them to let him record these sounds and record and produce his album on the go. He integrated the collected sounds into R&B and hip-hop and called this self-created style "chinked-out". Despite the originally derogatory meaning of the term "chink" (similar to the German expression "Schlitzauge"), Wang wanted to make the word socially acceptable and "cool" again with this name. Shangri-La was released on New Years Eve 2004 and sold 40,000 copies in the first ten days. Shangri-La became an international music sensation, particularly appealing to Asia's youth. Within a month, the album sold over 300,000 times and ultimately brought a total of over 1.5 million records to the man.

Wang also processed his chinked-out elements in his following album Heroes of Earth (2005), in which, in contrast to the tribal music of “Shangri-La”, “Heroes of Earth” experimented with mixtures of Peking opera and Kun opera . To express the album's “Heroes concept”, he brought in artists such as Ashin from the Taiwanese band Mayday ( Beside the Plum Blossoms ), the Chinese-American rapper Jin and opera master Li Yan ( Heroes of Earth ), and K-Pop Artists Rain and Lim Jeong-hee ( Perfect Interaction ) into the studio. Heroes of Earth was the fastest selling album in 2005 and 2006, with sales over a million in the first ten days of its release. The album then stayed at the top of the charts for the next six weeks and stayed in the charts for another 23 weeks. It became the third best-selling album of 2006. As of 2007, around 3 million CD units had gone over the counter and to this day it is Wang's most commercially and critically successful album. With Heroes of Earth , Wang won the Golden Melody Award for "Best Mandarin Singer" for the second time. Three months after the album was released, he began his Heroes of Earth Tour , his first major world tour. The tour began with two concerts in one evening at the Taipei Dome in March 2006, breaking record attendance in Taiwan.

Professional breakthrough (2007 to present)

Wang paused in relation to work on his music and began filming Ang Lee movie Lust, Caution (2007), a spy - thriller . On June 20, 2007, he released the single Falling Leaves Return to Roots (Luo Ye Gui Gen) on Hito Radio , a Taiwanese radio station, a month before his twelfth studio album, Change Me , should be in stores. Falling Leaves Return to Roots contained Broadway influences with classical instrumental accompaniment such as the violin and piano. When asked about his sudden change of musical style, Wang said that he owed the inspiration for the song to the influence of his portrayal of the Kuang Yumin in danger and desire . “In the past, I've only released mainstream pop and chinked-out hip hop. Danger and desire brought me back to the Shanghai of the 1930s and let me relive the moment. "

Change Me was released on Friday July 13th. Change me mainly focused on Broadway-influenced pop rock ( Falling Leaves Return to Roots ) and old school Taiwanese pop ( You Are a Song in My Heart ). With this album, he addressed global warming and called for better environmental awareness . Only recycled paper, without plastic, was used for the packaging of the album. He believed that even the smallest changes made by anyone could save the world. "To change the world, change yourself first." Reviews of the album were generally positive and described it as "ripe". However, an online album survey by China's Sohu found that audience expectations were not fully met. Netizens said that Wang's chinked-out productions were more impressive, although the genre itself also received criticism. Still, over a million units were sold on the first day of release. The album broke the 2 million mark and became one of Wang's best-selling albums.

August 2008, Wang asked Indian composer Pritam to pay $ 320,000 in damages . A song from the Bollywood film Race (2008), composed by Pritam, was apparently a plagiarism of In the Depths of the Bamboo Forest (Zhu Lin Shen Chu) , a single from Leehom Wang's Shangri-La album. In November of that year, Wang was chosen to conduct the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra for their grand 2008 annual finale. He was the first Asian pop musician to receive this honor. The Hong Kong Music, Leehom Wang (港 樂 ‧ 王力宏) concert was performed at the Hong Kong Cultural Center on three evenings with four shows and was given extensive coverage by CNN International .

In the last few months of 2008, Wang started his second world tour, the Music-Man Tour . The tour began as usual in Taipei with two concerts per night at the Taipei Dome in September, three months before the release of the thirteenth album Heart.Beat , which was released on December 26th and immediately entered the weekly G-Music chart at number 3. The album reached number one in the charts in the seventh week and stayed on the lists for a further 17 weeks. Like Wang's last album, Heart.Beat had a similar emphasis on rock influences. The sound of acoustic and electric guitars was dominant, which Wang also used for his performances in the music videos . To continue the chinked-out element, he used What's Up with Rock ?! Elements of western rock music with Chinese influences. For the track, he worked with pipa player Liu Fang .

On 15 April 2011 Leehom Wang won the awards for "Best singer of Hong Kong & Taiwan", "Best Album" for his fourteenth album The 18 Martial Arts (2010), and "Best Director-Newcomer" for his directorial debut Love in diguise at the Global Chinese Music Awards .

On November 5, 2011 Wangs started his third world tour under the title Music-Man II - Open Fire .

Private life

On November 27, 2013, Wang married his Japanese-Taiwanese friend Jinglei Lee in New York.

Filmography

• 2000: China Strike Force ( 雷霆 戰警 )
• 2000: From Ashes to Ashes - Against Smoking ( 煙 飛 煙滅 )
• 2001: The Avenging Fist ( 拳神 )
• 2003: Moon Child ( Mûn chairudo / ム ー ン チ ャ イ ル ド )
• 2005: Starlit High Noon ( Mahiru no hoshizora / 真 昼 ノ 星空 )
• 2007: Danger and Desire ( Lust, Caution / 色 ， 戒 )
• 2010: Little Big Soldier ( 大兵 小将 )
• 2010: Love In Disguise ( 戀愛 通告 )
• 2011: The Founding of a Party ( 建黨 偉業 )
• 2013: My Lucky Star ( 非常 幸運 )
• 2015: Blackhat
• 2015: Forever Young / Wu Wen Xi Dong ( 無 問 西 東 )
• 2016: Stan Lee's Annihilator

Discography

Albums

• 1995: Love Rival Beethoven (情敵 貝多芬, BMG Music , Language: Mandarin, English)
• 1996: If You Heard My Song (如果 你 聽見 我 的 歌, Decca Records, Language: Mandarin, English)
• 1996: Missing You (好想 你, Decca Records, Language: Mandarin, English)
• 1997: White Paper (白紙, Decca Records, Language: Mandarin, English)
• 1998: Revolution (公 轉自 轉, Sony Music , Language: Mandarin)
• 1999: Impossible to Miss You (不可能 錯過 你, Sony Music , Language: Mandarin, English)
• 2000: Forever's First Day (永遠 的 第一 天, Sony Music , Language: Mandarin)
• 2001: The One and Only (唯一, Sony Music , Language: Mandarin)
• 2003: Unbelievable (不可思議, Sony Music , language: Mandarin)
• 2004: Shangri-La (心中 的 日月, Sony Music , language: Mandarin)
• 2004: Hear My Voice ( Sony Music , Language: Japanese)
• 2005: Heroes of Earth (蓋世 英雄, Sony Music , language: Mandarin)
• 2007: Change Me (改變 自己, Sony Music , language: Mandarin)
• 2008: Heart.Beat (心. 跳, Sony Music , language: Mandarin)
• 2010: The 18 Martial Arts (十八 般 武藝, Sony Music , language: Mandarin)
• 2015: Your Love (你 的 愛, Homeboy Music, Language: Mandarin)

Compilations / EPs / Greatest Hits

• 1998: Good Lee Hom Compilation (好 力宏 精選, Decca Records, language: Mandarin; incl. 2 new songs)
• 2001: Leehom Music Century (王力宏 創 世紀, Sony Music , language: Cantonese, Mandarin; EP with 3 new songs)
• 2002: Evolution - New & Best Selection (王力宏 的 音樂 進化論 - 新 曲 + 精選, Sony Music , language: Mandarin, English; incl. 2 new songs)
• 2003: The Only One ( Sony Music , language: Mandarin, English, incl. 1 new song in Japanese)
• 2011: Open Fire (王力宏 火力 全開 - 新歌 + 精選, Sony Music , language: Mandarin, English, Japanese; incl. 2 new songs)

Live albums

• 1999: Revolution Live Concert (繞著 力宏 轉 音樂會, Sony Music )
• 1999: Impossible to Miss Leehom Wang (不可能 錯過 王力宏 演唱 會, Sony Music )
• 2006: Heroes of Earth Live Concert (蓋世 英雄 Live Concert 演唱 會 影音 全記錄, Sony Music )
• 2009: 2008 Music Man World Tour ( Sony Music )

Download singles

• 2012: 12 Zodiacs (十二生肖, Homeboy Music, language: Mandarin; theme song for Jackie Chan's film CZ12: Chinese Zodiacs )
• 2014: Lose Myself feat. Avicii (忘我, Homeboy Music / Avicii Music, language: Mandarin; theme song for the Storm Music Festival 2014 in Shanghai)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Andrea Park: Springstreeter turns Chinese superstar (English) , The Williams Record. April 16, 2008. Archived from the original on October 5, 2014 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved September 21, 2012.  
2. ↑ Mark Small: West Meets East (English) , Berklee Today. October 19, 2009. Retrieved September 21, 2012. 
3. ↑ ^{a b} If You Heard My Song intro (Chinese) . August 1996. Retrieved September 21, 2012. 
4. ↑ Beijing evening report: Leehom Wang wants quality, not perfection (Chinese) . In: Sina.com , August 17, 2009. Retrieved September 23, 2009. 
5. ↑ Yujun Ma: Leehom Wang holds Japan concert on October 21st . Lianhe Zaobao . August 24, 2006. Archived from the original on February 20, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 3, 2008. 
6. ↑ Leehom Wang's Secret Limited Album Edition (Chinese) . In: Sina.com , September 26, 2008. Retrieved September 21, 2012. 
7. ↑ Descendants of the Dragon lyrics on absolutelyrics
8. ↑ Savior Leehom Wang: Music and Tactics (Chinese) . In: CRI Online , September 17, 2009. Retrieved September 21, 2012. 
9. ↑ Leehom Wang brings brother to Golden Melody Awards (Chinese) . In: Sohu , June 9, 2006. Retrieved September 21, 2012. 
10. ↑ CNN TalkAsia TV interview transcription (English) . In: CNN , June 16, 2006. Retrieved September 23, 2012. 
11. ↑ Leehom Wang controls all of Asia, "Heroes of Earth" to battle Taipei first . In: Sohu , February 7, 2006. 
12. ↑ "Shangri-La" becomes a revolution . In: ewen.cc , March 1, 2005. 
13. ↑ Leehom Wang creates "Heroes of Earth", performed with masters of Peking Opera (Chinese) . In: Sohu , February 23, 2006. Retrieved September 21, 2012. 
14. ^ G-Music Charts, Week 5, 2006 . In: G-music . Retrieved September 25, 2009. 
15. ↑ Top 20 albums of 2006 . In: G-music . Retrieved September 25, 2009. 
16. ^ "Heroes of Earth" surpasses 1 million copies . In: Ewen , January 9, 2006. 
17. ↑ Leehom Wang's album sales (Chinese) . In: 163 . Retrieved September 21, 2012. 
18. ↑ Celebrity PK (Chinese) . In: Sohu , September 28, 2008. Retrieved September 21, 2012. 
19. ^ "Change Me" Review (Chinese) . In: Douban . Retrieved September 27, 2009. 
20. ↑ Change Me's Worse Sales (Chinese) . In: G-music . Archived from the original on August 16, 2011 Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved September 27, 2009.  
21. ↑ ^{a b} Leehom Wang returns to the music industry. Composed song for the Olympic Games (Chinese) . In: Sohu , July 13, 2007. Retrieved September 26, 2009. 
22. ↑ Premiere of Leehom's new single on HitFM (Chinese) . In: Hito Radio . Archived from the original on September 8, 2007. Retrieved September 26, 2009. 
23. ↑ Online (Top Upcoming Albums of 2007)
24. ↑ Leehom Wang changes his image: tattoos and piercings (Chinese) . July 11, 2007. Retrieved September 26, 2009. 
25. ↑ ^{a b} Change Me press conference, Leehom Wang calls for more environmental awareness (Chinese) . July 13, 2007. Retrieved September 26, 2009. 
26. ↑ ^{a b} Over 1 million pre-orders of “Change Me” (Chinese) . July 13, 2007. Retrieved September 26, 2009. 
27. ↑ ^{a b} Review of Leehom Wang's new album "Change Me" (English) . Archived from the original on December 28, 2008 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved September 23, 2012.  
28. ↑ What's Up with Rock?!. What's wrong with Leehom Wang? (Chinese) . November 9, 2008. Retrieved September 23, 2012. 
29. ↑ MUSIC28 MAR 2013 My Favorite Foreign-Language Track: Wang Leehom - Hua Tian Cuo . In: AHTV . Archived from the original on March 29, 2013 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved October 9, 2015.  
30. ↑ Race Song ein Plagiat ( English ) In: NDTV . August 8, 2008. Retrieved September 23, 2012.
31. ↑ Leehom Wang conducts the great 'Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra' annual finale (English) . In: AsianBite , November 10, 2008. Retrieved December 6, 2008.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   
32. ↑ Leehom Wang works with Hong Kong Orchestra, receives three CNN interviews (Chinese) . In: Sohu , December 18, 2008. Retrieved September 29, 2009. 
33. ↑ Album: Leehom Wang "Heart Beat" (pre-sale version) ( Chinese ) In: Sina.com . December 8, 2008. Retrieved December 10, 2008.
34. ↑ G-Music Charts (Chinese) . In: G-Music . Retrieved September 29, 2009. 
35. ↑ Leehom Wang World Tour Countdown (Chinese) . In: Sohu , September 16, 2008. Retrieved September 29, 2009. 
36. ↑ Leehom Wang big winner at the 15th Global Chinese Music Awards . Asia Pacific Arts. April 18, 2011. Retrieved September 26, 2013.
37. ↑ Leehom Wang becomes new boss and announces wrong concert dates ( English ) CPopAccess. April 18, 2011. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
38. ↑ Focus Taiwan: Leehom Wang and wife in family photo
39. ↑ Focus Taiwan: Leehom Wang talks about his bride

Web links

• Official website (English / Chinese)
• Official Facebook page (Engl./chin.)
• Official blog (chin.)
• Leehom Wang's music videos on Viva.tv
• Leehom Wang on MyVideo.de (more than 80 music videos)

Commons : Lee-Hom Wang  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Leehom Wang in the Internet Movie Database (English)