Following the smash hit "Cold Joke", Fiona Sit releases her new single "Farewell", which is burning up the charts!
Over the last year, Fiona has made great strides in her musical career. Her vocals as well as musical style have sharpened and matured, showing she will be the star and diva of tomorrow. This latest plug joins the streak of great singles Fiona has been releasing.
"Farewell" is a beautiful and phenomenal ballad. Its musical composition is lovely and pleasing to the ears, with a sound that is slightly reminiscent of 90s Cantopop. The instruments and musical elements blend together beautifully. The lyrics, which talk of falling in love with someone you know you will have to say goodbye to, are emotionally sung and executed gracefully by Fiona. The pacing of the song is very nice, as it is neither too slow for a ballad nor too fast. "Farewell" also gives a more sophisticated musical direction and image to Fiona.
In addition, the music video is nicely executed with tasteful artistic direction, and as a result compliments the song very well. There is a melancholic feel to it, allowing the song to touch you more. Everything about the song comes together so effortlessly and beautifully.
Overall, "Farewell" is a heartfelt and stunning song, and one of the more memorable ballads I've heard. It continues to show how Fiona is improving and maturing, as well as on her way to becoming one of the brightest and biggest singers in Cantopop. This is definitely my new favorite song from Fiona (which I seem to say every time she releases a new single nowadays?), and I'm sure there is more great material to come.
Ella Koon is back with "So In Love", her first single under Warner Music HK! "So In Love" is written and composed by none other than her fellow Warner label mate, popular singer songwriter Khalil Fong.
Although "So In Love" possesses a relatively simple melody and lyrics, it is catchy, fun, and sweet. There's nothing extraordinary about "So In Love", but it is such a feel good song that easily makes you smile, especially if you are feeling "so in love" yourself. The sound is fresh and upbeat with its blend of synthetic pop beats and musical instruments, and makes you want to just get up and dance around your room.
The music video lets Ella's bubbly and sweet personality shine! The colorful backdrop, outfits Ella wears, and various props allows the video to be a little creative and fun. It looks like Ella herself was able to customize the set to her liking, which slightly resembles the inside of a doll house. Instead of looking too silly or random, the set and Ella playing around shows the happiness, good mood, and positive outlook of a girl sweetly in love.
Am I blown away by "So In Love"? No, but that doesn't stop me from loving this song. It's not impressive, but nevertheless a very fun and sweet song that shows Ella's lovely personality and warm vocals. It also possesses a fresh sound (most of Warner Music HK's music does) that is sure to be a hit with radio viewers and young HK people. I'm very happy to see Ella part of the Warner family now, and I'm sure this will only help her to finally win the popularity and recognition she deserves!
I've wanted to write a post on Terry for a while now, but I wanted to wait until his album was released and yay! It's finally here ^_^.
As of right now, one of my favourite Hong Kong singers is Terry Zou. I'm aware that not a lot of people know him because he is still relatively new but here goes...
Terry Zou Man Jing (鄒文正) is a Hong Kong singer who debuted back in 2011. He's back with his second album this year in 2013 called "Terry Zou Album 2013". He is from Guangzhou, China, which makes him fluent in both Mandarin and Cantonese. If I'm not wrong, he was already a singer before he was signed to his music company Gold Typhoon. Terry can play the guitar, the piano, the drums, the violin and the Chinese instrument, Er-hu.
In case you're wondering, the first time I noticed Terry was on TV. His MV was playing, and I quite liked the song so I Google-d it; because he was a new face, I was curious to who this singer was and where he came from.
Terry's a big fan of rock music. He fell in love with rock music because of his dad. His dad was in a band and he would bring Terry along with him when he was on tour. This influenced Terry a lot, because once he was in high school, he joined bands making him a good guitarist, drummer and pianist. He still mentions his dad a lot in his interviews nowadays. =) In his first album, he incorporated rock music into a couple of songs.
Terry Zou Debut Album tracklist
01. 我是人
02. 城中人
03. 留低她於廁所
04. 肚餓
05. 盲目
06. 我只是童鞋
07. 城市人 (國語)
The first track, "我是人", is a playful, whimsical song that I really like. This was the first song he plugged. The second song, "城中人", was arranged and produced by HK band Rubberband. The song is quite slow at the beginning, but it gradually speeds up with its rock elements. "城市人" is the Mandarin version of "城中人". The first MV I saw of Terry's was actually "城中人"!
The third track, "留低她於廁所", is a song with an unusual song title. He wrote the lyrics for this song, if I remember correctly. The MV for this song is quite interesting too. The song's pace is kind of the same throughout but still a catchy song!
"肚餓", which translates to "Hungry" in English, is a catchy rock song that I really like. Track 5, "盲目", is my absolute favourite song of Terry's! It might sound like a typical love song, but I love it. It is one of his most popular songs amongst them all. "我只是童鞋" is also one of my favourite songs by Terry. The song showcases his singing skills very well because of the long notes at the end and I love how sweet it sounds. It is actually a remake of a Korean song.
Earlier this week, Terry FINALLY released his second album (it was postponed several times). I am quite disappointed since there are only 7 songs on the album, and 4 of them I've already heard beforehand, but nevertheless, I still really like the songs from this album overall.
"Inhuman Life" was released last year, around 6 months ago, so it's actually quite old. Funny story, I actually thought the song was kind of boring when it first came out, but I think it's one of those songs that grow on you after a while.
Live version of "Because It's Precious" on 360 music show
"Tea or Coffee" MV
The songs "Because It's Precious" and "Tea and Coffee" were also released last year along with their MV's. My favourite out of the three is "Because It's Precious". I loved it from the first time I heard it! "Tea or Coffee" is a cute upbeat Mandarin song with AOA.
Live version of "Irrelevance". The album version of this song has different lyrics now.
Live at press conference
My favourite song out of his new album at the moment is "Irrelevance". I loved it the first time I heard him sing it, which was on Music Cafe. There's just something about this song that makes it different from the rest. I like the softness in his voice in this song. I highly recommend this! "Ruin" is a song that I also highly recommend and I think this is the song he will plug next. "Wrong Timing" is the Mandarin version of "Ruin" and I have to be honest, I think the Mandarin version sounds better but I still like both versions.
"Final Warning" is a rock song (so his style). I'm glad he included a rock song because it's a style of music he likes and this song is pretty fast compared to the rest. I remember he mentioned in an interview that people like him singing slow songs more, so that would explain why there are more slow songs in this album.
I think Terry needs more exposure because he's a very good singer (he sings well live too ;)), and I feel that more people should know who he is. A lot of people call him the "pirated" version of Raymond Lam (in terms of look), but I don't see the resemblance.
Terry also was in an episode of Music Cafe with new duo group GoldEN (he recently recorded his own episode of Music Cafe!) and covered songs by Eason Chan and Sandy Lam. I really like the Eason song he covered.
And one more clip of Terry singing Faye Wong's "A Love Letter to Myself". I'm a fan of this song and I just love the fact he sang it even if it was just a tiny bit of the song and he didn't know all the words.
Terry's already filmed the MV for "Irrelevance", and he's filming another MV for "Ruin". This means there might be another version of his 2013 album coming out soon, considering the fact that it has no MVs included at the moment. Anyway, I do hope his album sells well! Let's support this talented Gemini male together ;)
If you're interested in following his news, here's his weibo: http://weibo.com/terryzou
If you've gotten this far...thanks for reading ^_^ If do you end up listening to his songs, please do comment in the section below and tell me what you guys think!
G.NA has made a comeback with her fourth mini album "Beautiful Kisses." This album has a total of five songs: "Oops!" (feat. Ilhoon of BTOB), "Hate it, Can't Stand it", "First Kiss", "Oh, Good!", and "Mind Sync" (feat. Hah Gak).
The Song:
Pinki: First off, this song has nothing to do with making mistakes. This song is about when a person likes another person...A LOT. This song starts from a guy's point of view, then the girl responds during the chorus. The guy happens to be younger than the girl because the first line of the song is "Nuna, you know you're the bestest right?" "Bestest" is not a word, while "Nuna" or "Noona" is a Korean term used to call an older girl you respect or admire, and it is also used by males when calling their older sister. The rap part of the song goes on about how the younger guy is "head over heels" for the older girl. The girl responds by saying she is a beautiful girl, what she likes, and to not tell her to do anything she doesn't like. For example, in the song G.NA says, "I'm a beautiful girl, I like to wear jeans, don't ask me to wear short skirts." This song is bubbly and upbeat, but with a sweet melody. There is also metaphors and similes used in the rap, which make me laugh. "Ha ha ^^~"
Niki: Elaborating on what Pinki has said, G.NA's new song is a portrayal of the "Noona-Dongsaeng" (older woman-younger guy) relationship that has been so popular in K-pop lately. It depicts the older girl to be clever and confident. She know that guys can pretend to gain her trust, but she's not easily swayed. Meanwhile, the guy is depicted as a more impulsive and naive character hopelessly enamored by the older lady, probably because of her confidence and mature aura. This is a portrayal that's commonly done and is a more stereotypical view of such a relationship.
The song's lyrics are split into two parts, Ilhoon's raps and G.NA's singing, and takes on two different perspectives. I really like how this is arranged because it sets up a dialogue between two people and creates a somewhat interactive song, making it more fun and different.
Regarding the title of the song, it does seem out of context and random, but my interpretation is that the noona is flirting with the younger guy. She is leading him on to get close to her, but then pulls away before he gets too close, thus the flirtatious sounding "oops oops".However, it is more likely that the "word" was put into the song as a simple hook.
The MV:
Pinki: The MV is cute in a way, but it mainly reveals a sexy side of G.NA. It starts out with a guy and his cat. Don't know the purpose of the cat though, as it was just there through out the whole video Then...BAM! Ilhoon comes out with his awesome rapping, and then G.NA gets out of bed and does the sub chorus After that, her dance kicks in. I am not very fond of the dance as there is just something I don't like about it. It's cute and sexy but not really to my liking. That's pretty much the whole video. It's her rolling around in bed, Ilhoon rapping, and more of the cat. Then, I got very confused at the ending. It shows the guy that is in the very beginning of the MV, and G.NA dances with him and suddenly disappears Then the guy look for her but doesn't find her, and when he enters what seems to be his house, he smiles. I don't know what the reason for that smile was. Was G.NA is his house? Then it shows the cat again and that's how the video ends.
Niki: The cat in the video intrigued me, because I was confused in the beginning as to why a cat was there. But it donned on me afterwards that the cat was an allusion and they were comparing the Noona-dongsaeng relationship to that of a cat and dog. G.NA is being referred to as a "cougar" (an older woman who prefers to date young guys) for going after the younger male character. Connecting back to the lyrics Ilhoon's rap had a line that said "Because of all the packs of wolves around you. I wanna be your jindo dog," which implies that younger guys are seen as loyal an innocent. In a Noona-Dongsaeng relationship instead of having guys chase after the girl (like dogs usually chase after cats) the older lady is teasing and attracting the guy's attention.
The MV also shows the different sides to a woman's personality. The cat in the beginning and end comes to the guy in a calm manner and is seemingly docile, however when the cat transform into human (which always happens in real life right?...your crush is really your cat...totally! It makes total sense....) she reveals a sexier and more seductive side.
With the plot aside, I personally don't like the crossover between cute and sexy that G.NA has been donning for her image. Those are two different if not opposite images and purposely mixing the two would only end up as an awkward image. It also doesn't fit G.NA's personality very much as a confident and strong young lady. I prefer the more natural image she had when promoting "Black and White" and "I'll Back Off So You Can Live Better".
Overall:
Pinki: I like the sound of the song and the lyrics are very fun. The video however wasn't really my thing. It didn't really "blow me away". But, I still like G.NA and her music, and won't start hating her just because she released one single I did not like. G.NA FIGHTING!!!! ^^
Niki: I'm not very fond of the style or the message of the song and it's not really the type of music I prefer. However, I agree with Pinki that this is an overall fun song with a quirky MV that you can maybe bounce around to in your house. G.NA is still one of the K-pop artists I fairly like, I just wish that she would recover her initial image soon.
Released in the first week of 2013, Cantorock band Mr. makes a strong and rocking entrance into the new year with "New Beginning". Overall, it's an enjoyable listen with their signature rock sound coupled with new and different elements.
"第五類接觸/Fifth Kind", used as the opening song for their New Beginning Live concert, is an upbeat song that gets you pumped and moving. There's a lot of energy in it and gets you psyched, making you want to hear more.
"走一走/Walk" is another energetic song that will get you moving. The beat of the song will have your head bobbing to the music. The instruments get to have a lot more creativity and fun here.
What is most surprising and fresh about the album though is "Dance Floor". I never would've expected Mr. to release a dance song. It does a fantastic job of blending the musical instruments with dance and synthetic beats. The rock sound is retained but there is also a club vibe to it. The feel of the song is very mysterious and alluring, especially when Alan sings "With me tonight, with me tonight...". "Dance Floor" is incredibly catchy, slick, and infectious. It's not something I saw coming from Mr., and I'm very impressed.
"方向感/Sense of Direction" is a mid tempo song with a relaxed but uplifting tone, and one of my favorite singles from them yet. A more in depth review can be found here.
"舊日理想/The Old Ideal" is a good contrast to the rest of the album. The music and lyrics are filled with angst and raw emotion, a heavier than usual sound for them that fits. I love blasting this when feeling down or angry.
"What R We Fighting 4" is one of Mr.'s weaker singles. It's catchy and promoting a positive message, but musically it's repetitive and too simple. It's still a fun and upbeat listen, but a step backwards in terms of a maturing music style and wasn't the best song to promote as the lead single. Nevertheless, it makes a good anthem to fight for what you believe in.
The album ends on a thoughtful note with "一首情歌/One Love Song". Mr. goes acoustic here, a refreshing break from their upbeat and "louder" material. It's nice to see a softer and gentler side to them. The sound is very romantic, dreamy, sweet, and soothing. You won't be able to keep from smiling when listening to it.
"New Beginning" is a fantastic EP from Mr. that shows maturation in their musical style. There is more variety here than in their previous works as well as distinction between each track. Each song is worth listening to and repeating again. Although they keep with their band sound, they bring several twists to their music this time around for some freshness, and it works. It's the start of another very promising and successful year for Mr.!
Cantopop has long lost its level of prestige with the dozens of different award shows that give out countless awards. It starts to become hard to tell which awards are really an "honor" and which are just pork chop awards. At the same time, still so many artists and songs go unrecognized. The same people win every year (Joey, Eason, I don't doubt you're very talented, but someone else deserves to win!) until it loses it's meaning. The year of 2012 was quite a great year for Cantopop, and the first ever AEE HK Music Awards hopes to recognize the people who may have not gotten the attention or accolades they deserve without giving out so many awards their meaning is lost.
Song Awards
Top 10 Songs of the Year
#10 - "The End/到此為止" by Shiga Lin
Ballads are nothing unfamiliar to the world of Cantopop, and although "The End" is nothing groundbreaking, it's still a beautifully composed and sung song. Shiga's vocals are gorgeous and full of heartbreaking emotion. The song is very personal and full of meaning, as it signified Shiga acknowledging, learning from, and moving on from a damaging scandal that hit her early last year. She deserves all the accolades she's received for this song, and does not go unnoticed here either.
#9 - "BB88" by Khalil Fong
Upbeat songs are not too common (and quite often they're not good either) in the HK music industry. Khalil released the most upbeat single of his career with "BB88", a pleasant surprise because it stays with his signature R&B sound, while also very creative, catchy, and fun!
#8 - "Drenched" by Wanting Qu
Although written in English by a China-based artist, "Drenched" became a huge hit following being used in the HK movie "Love in a Buff". The song is magical and absolutely beautiful with Wanting's deep and soulful vocals and the moving musical composition, so it just can not go unrecognized here!
#7 - "Cold Joke/冷笑話" by Fiona Sit
After a year of consistently releasing great singles, Fiona capped off the year with "Cold Joke", her most mature and best work yet. The song, from the lovely musical composition to her vocals, is full of so much emotion that you know it is very special to Fiona. There is feeling in every breath. The song is delivered with so much grace.
#6 - "Frail/孱弱" by Kelvin Kwan
Kelvin found his niche sound this year in alternative/rock influenced songs, and "Frail" is the cherry on top of a great year of experimenting with the new musical style. The song is gripping, slightly gritty, and full of angst, not something many Cantopop singers can pull off. It allows him to showcase his vocal abilities while keeping it fresh and original instead of the typical love ballad.
#5 - "So Dry/疗Dry" by Eric Suen
Eric finally returned with a new album again and completely took us by surprise with "So Dry". It's unlike anything he's ever written before. It's catchy, upbeat, but also creative, whimsical, with a message that's easy to relate to. Rarely is an upbeat Cantonese song that good! "So Dry" is the new working people's theme song.
#4 - "Death Row/斬立決" by Pakho Chau
Perhaps no other song leaves as much of an emotional impact following listening as "Death Row", as it honestly does leave you in a state of sadness. The song touches on the issue of cyber bullying and depicts the horrors through its well-written lyrics, a haunting melody, strong vocals by Pakho, and evokes so much emotion.
#3 - "Goodbye" by Dear Jane
After a year of sweeping up awards for "Yellow Fever", "Goodbye" is still a little shining gem that went mostly unnoticed and undecorated by awards. It is a phenomenal song that is heartfelt, moving, powerful, serene, wonderfully produced and polished. Tim sounds his best vocally with his gentle yet powerful delivery, and the instruments come together beautifully.
#2 - "Yesterday/昨天" by Mr.
Mr.'s "Yesterday" is hands down the best rock ballad of the year. It is a beautifully and wonderfully arranged. At a long length of 5:15, the song does not drag on, but continues to deliver to the very end and leaves an impact. The song is powerful, thoughtful, and meaningful. Alan's vocals anchor the song, and the instruments shine, particularly during the guitar solo.
#1 - "Non-Vegetation/人非草木" by Kary Ng
Taking the top song honor is Kary with "Non-Vegetation". The composition and arrangement of the song (which consists of both piano and strings) coupled with Kary's soft but strong vocals is breathtaking and enchanting. Both a bit of sadness and sweetness is evoked. The song says that humans are not like vegetables and meant for living, which is exactly what Kary has been doing: living the life. "Non-Vegetation" is the best song of the year, and Kary's best yet.
Songs that narrowly missed getting placed or ultimately removed included G.E.M.'s "Someday I'll Fly" (meaningful, but in the end sounded generic), Raymond Lam's "Because of You" (lovely, but not outstanding), and Eason Chan's "Heavy Taste" (unique and catchy, but already heavily awarded). I also really wanted to include Kary's "Ferociously", Fiona's "Better Me", and Pakho's "Irreversible", but excluded them as I didn't want to include more than one song from an artist.
Genre-Specific:
Best Ballad: "The End/到此為止" by Shiga Lin
The most beautifully composed and sung ballad of the year with a story behind it. Although ballads are vastly overdone in Cantopop, Shiga breathes a breath of fresh air into the type of song.
Best Dance Song: "Ferociously/狠狠" by Kary Ng
Dance songs in Cantopop are often poorly done, full of autotune, or just not catchy. Kary's "Ferociously" is catchy, funky, refreshing, with great choreography.
Best Rock Song: "Yellow Fever" by Dear Jane
Rock has found its way back into the mainstream Cantopop industry, a feat worth celebrating. Dear Jans's "Yellow Fever" is a catchy, infectious rock song with a great hook and intertwines dub step well.
Best Duet: "Lone Ranger Companion/獨行俠侶" by William So and Kay Tse
A great collaboration between William and Kay. The song has a lovely melody and the two talented artist's voices blend together and compliment each other very well, making it a more memorable duet.
Music Video Awards
Best Music Video: "Confessions/告白" by Kary Ng
The best music videos don't take away from the song, but compliment it and make it even better. In Kary's first attempt at directing, the MV of "Confessions" acts out the story and message in the lyrics. It depicts the emotional despair of a person who cheated in a relationship, and the one cheated on. The different shots and settings used done and chosen well. Everything from the shots of Kary resting her head on her boyfriend by the sea, to the ones of them hanging out happily in the past, to her singing as her dress flows with the wind are fantastic. The entire video does a spectacular job of boosting the emotion of the song.
Honorable mentions include Kelvin's "People of My Generation" for it's concept, Pakho's "Death Row" for it's art direction, and Eric's "So Dry" for it's creative use of animations. In general, I saw quite a few great music videos this year.
Album Awards
Album of the Year: "My January" by Kary Ng
"My January" went largely unrecognized by awards and deserves a lot more love. "My January" is a collection of Kary's personal stories of love and life that flows smoothly from track to track until the very end. It shows her maturation into a fine and talented young lady with songs that show her talent, feeling, and grace.
2nd Place: "Back to Wonderland" by Khalil Fong
Khalil returned to the funkier and retro sound and concept of his popular 2007 album "Wonderland", and it worked. There's still the same R&B/soul style we know him for, but with a more upbeat and funky twist. It's an album brighter and quicker in pace than his past works, and one that will have you swaying your head to the music.
3rd Place: "Self-Portrait" by Raymond Lam
Raymond genuinely surprised me with "Self-Portrait", a mature and creative piece of work that exhibited many different musical styles that all worked well with him. Raymond may be known as more of an idol and not taken very seriously as a singer, but many overlook the fact that "Self-Portrait" is still a fantastic album and his best one yet.
Artist Awards
Most Promising Artist: Shiga Lin
Shiga showed potential as a newcomer, and over the last year has polished up her vocals to the point she's now one of the most beautiful and controlled young voices in HK. She did well with ballads such as "The End" and "Movin' On", and also the midtempo and inspiring "Run". She proved she is also strong and capable of overcoming hardship, which shows she can last a long time in this cutthroat industry. She breathes fresh air into the HK music industry, which is in need of youthful talent like her, so expect to see a lot more of her.
Most Improved Artist: TIE, Fiona Sit and Kelvin Kwan
Fiona first debuted back in 2004 as a singer with potential, but her vocals weren't always too reliable and she had trouble gaining success. Yet, her voice and control has improved heaps and bounds over the years and she found lots of momentum in 2012 and exerted many different musical styles in her album "Filicious". All the singles released were hits, and she was able to hold her own concert at the HK Coliseum for the first time. She too, is steadily becoming a young lady worthy of respect as an artist and will soon emerge as one of the best.
It has been an exciting and impressive year for Kelvin. He made a comeback to the industry last year, but successfully shed his image and past this year. He's no longer someone to be associated with his scandal back in 2009, but as the man and talented young artist he is today. His "Occupation" EP showed he is capable of many musical styles and found a niche in a more gritty and rock influenced type of music. He has involved himself in the creative process of his music and tried his hand at directing one of his music videos. This may not have been expected, but Kelvin has vastly improved and is quickly becoming one of the most talented and worth noticing young singers in Hong Kong.
The best singer/band awards are the top honors of the AEE HK Music Awards. They're judged by the performances of the artists this year, which include the quality of material they've released and the success they achieved, as opposed to just whose the most popular.
Best Band: Dear Jane
Dear Jane was the rising band of 2012 as they achieved great critical and commercial success, sweeping up countless awards for "Yellow Fever", putting them on the map. They're helping bring rock to the mainstream Cantopop with their more unique punk influences and honest and passionate music. It's been great seeing them see reach new heights this year, and it's only expected that 2013 be an even better year for them.
Best Female Singer: Kary Ng
Winning the top song award, best dance song, best music video, and best album, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise as Kary grabs the top honor of Best Female Singer. It's truly been a fantastic year for her and it showed the completion of her transformation into a young woman and musical artist. She's became one of the shining stars of the Cantopop industry, since she has both years of experience and youth (she is only 26 years old but has been in the industry since around 15). Mark my words, she is going to become the next pop diva. Move over Joey Yung!
Best Male Singer: Kelvin Kwan This may come as a surprise to some people and met with mixed response, but it's been an exciting and impressive year for Kelvin. He made a comeback to the industry last year, but successfully shed his image and past this year. He's no longer someone to be associated with his scandal back in 2009, but as the man and talented young artist he is today. His "Occupation" EP showed he is capable of many musical styles and as mentioned above, found a niche in a more gritty and rock influenced type of music. He has involved himself in the creative process of his music and tried his hand at directing one of his music videos. This may not have been expected, but Kelvin is quickly becoming one of the most talented and worth noticing young singers in Hong Kong. ***Update 11/2/13**** I had intended to update this a LONG time ago, but then...life happened, so I never got the chance. This comes awfully late, but I thought it was worth changing before the next awards comes around.
Best Male Singer: Pakho Chau After I had originally posted this, I had listened to Pakho's music more in-depth and was blown away by the material he released in 2012, as well as all he had accomplished. Pakho has gone from a fresh-faced idol in his early days to an accomplished singer, songwriter, composer, and occasionally music video director (he directed Shiga Lin's "Time for Love" MV). He has evolved into one of the most respectable and versatile young artists today, and is a force to be reckoned with. The singles he released this year were all among the best of 2012. "Death Row", "Imperfect","無力挽回/Irreversible", and "只有一事不成全你/There's Only One Thing I Won't HelpYou With" were all phenomenal singles that showed his talent, passion, artistic touch, and maturity. Pakho topped off his strongest year yet with his much anticipated first HK Coliseum concert as well as a compilation album, both titled "Imperfect." He has truly come far and secured himself as a staple of the Cantopop music industry. With Pakho, there is hope for continuous fresh and high quality Cantonese music as he continues to take the industry by storm.
This wraps up the first AEE HK Music Awards! The results may look much different than the existing award shows, but my goal was to recognize those who usually do not receive the awards I think they deserve. What do you think was the best of 2012? Comment with your thoughts!
It's been 1 year since Asian Entertainment Experience first hit the web! Time flies, and after over 100 posts it is now a year old. It's been this website's goal to offer as much of a variety of content as possible, ranging from music reviews, drama reviews, fan fiction, and other types of posts. Overall, we think we've been doing a decent job fulfilling our goal and in the process built AE Experience as a blog unlike any other in the Asian entertainment blogosphere. Time constraints and other factors keep us from reaching our fullest potential, but all in all, it's been a joy running the site and we look forward to continuing to do so. Ideally, we hope for AE Experience to continue to be very much alive while offering quality posts, and for a long time to come.
Iris: It's been very lovely and rewarding to run this site. Over the last year, it has allowed me to rekindle my interest and passion in writing and music, two things that are now an even more important part of my life. Also, it's helped me grow even closer to Niki and make us the closest friends ever. Although Niki does not have as much time and does not blog much, she is still very much a part of AE Experience and the best partner I could ask for. I love running and writing for this blog and I only expect for it to become even bigger and better! Thank you everyone for reading and supporting!
Niki: This blog had been such a fun and new experience for me. I've thoroughly enjoyed writing the posts and feel really bad that I haven't written as much (or as often) as I should. Setting up this blog is probably one of my proudest achievements, and I'm really glad I can share it with one of my best friends. Iris has been so helpful and has been the best partner I could ever ask for, without her I'm sure this blog won't be half as interesting as it is. It's been a great first year for AE Experience and I hope we can celebrate many more great years to come. I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read our posts and supported us this past year, it means a great deal to us!
The new layout!
For our first anniversary banner, we featured Dear Jane, Shiga Lin, Kelvin Kwan, and Kary Ng. There were many outstanding Cantopop artists this year, but in our opinion these four stood out and had very successful years with great performances. Dear Jane rose in popularity through commercial and critical success with "Yellow Fever". Kelvin and Shiga both suffered from scandals but proved their worth and talent were heavier than the weight of their scandals. Kelvin returned again this year with a more mature image and sound while Shiga continued to capture people's hearts with her beautiful voice and her ballad "The End". Lastly, Kary has been gaining even more success with "My January", which included hits "Confessions" and "Ferociously". She continues to move up the ranks and emerging as a top diva.
The banner and layout has a light green color scheme for a fresh spring look (even though it's still winter). It's a break from our usual blue and purple dominated looks. This time, the banner and layout were designed and altered by me (Iris).
Hope everyone has enjoyed reading this blog as much as we have writing it and continue to support AE Experience! Thanks again, and we love you!
