Music Obsessions – December 2022

A little late for this month’s Music Obsessions! Hard to imagine we are at the last one of this year. While I already got my Spotify Wrapped, I decided to do that with my final year round-up at the end of this month and do a little runthrough for January. Either way, there are still some good music that I’ve discovered or re-discovered.

恐懼蠶食心靈 Fear Eats The Soul – 鄭欣宜 Joyce Cheng

Joyce Cheng has really improved in her singing. While I’m not exactly a fan of all her music, I’ve been following her music more and more. Not only are her music videos done really well but the music itself from her voice and the emotions are all there. It really helps carry the song. This song and the way she sings it is quite a good match. Its nice to see that she’s able to embrace a lot of different music styles since I’ve shared probably three of her songs in Music Obsessions and each one has been different from the other.

比莉卡厲害 Billie is Incredible – Billie

A rough idea of what the song probably would be in English. I’m not quite sure the exact translation. This song is the main theme from Netflix Taiwanese series Mom Don’t Do That that aired a few months ago. The series itself is fantastic and I will be talking more about in an upcoming project that I will launch at the beginning of 2023. I’m in preparation mode as of the beginning of November and working hard to get things ready for January launch. Either way, this song is simply a lot of fun. The series is a ton of fun as well. Its happy and upbeat and that’s why its here.

烏梅子醬 The Dark Plum Sauce – 李榮浩 Ronghao Li

I honestly don’t listen to enough of Ronghao Li’s music. He writes some pretty great songs and none of that I’ve ever discovered have been bad. Its all pretty great ballads. This one actually feels a little bit of early Jay Chou from the music video to the rhythm itself. Its something that I’m rather nostalgic about since that was part of my teen years when music was the main emotional support. This song’s lyrics are also super sweet much like its title.

好想約你 – Gigi 炎明熹

This year’s new addition to my list of new artists that I think are pretty good is Gigi who was Hong Kong TVB’s Star Academy Season 1 winner. Its pretty nice to see there’s still some talent since most of the time when I listen to any new artists from Hong Kong shows, its all very disappointing. This song is pretty fun and cute and matches her age. Her voice reminds me really good female singers in the 90s which seems like its lost nowadays. Either way, the youthfulness of the song makes it so feel good.

藍奕邦 Pong Nan – Happy Prince 快樂王子

I wish that there was a better video for this song but I don’t talk about Pong Nan enough since from the beginning when he was making music, I loved a lot of his work. Most of his song’s lyrics are meaningful and thoughtful. It has this nice touch of intricacy that I’m a big fan of since it feels like its a rarity. As I was researching for this post, I learned that this song was actually the main theme song for a play.

Bonus: 我比从前更寂寞 I’m Lonelier Than Before – 陈慧娴 Priscilla Chan & 杨坤 Yang Kun
(Singing With Legends S4 Performance)

I’ve shared this song in a previous Music Obsessions (probably a few years ago) which is a pretty popular song of Yang Kun’s which he wrote during his depression and talks about the feeling of depression. Its a song that paired up with his distinctive voice is amazing. Truly heartfelt and deep. This time for the Singing With Legends show, he pairs up with Priscilla Chan to sing it together and it speaks volumes in a different way. Thinking about it, it sure is time to do a post for Priscilla Chan’s music (if I remember to do it next year).

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions – November 2022

Welcome this month’s music obsessions! I can’t believe that we only have one more music obsessions next month and then we’re moving onto a new year! Where did this year go? I actually know the answer to that…a lot of sleepless nights, first with the tail end of the pregnancy then its all about the newborn life. Either way, we’re not in the adventures post. The staying at home more has given me the opportunity to dig through some music.

诀爱 Love – Faye 詹雯婷

I know that I already shared Love Between Fairy and Devil OST song in a previous Music Obsessions but I came upon this song during a singing variety show and realized that the singer is actually the vocalist in FIR. I did fall out of the Taiwanese artist scene for a few years. I had thought the singer’s voice for this voice sounded familiar but just couldn’t pinpoint who. Let’s just say, FIR was a really great trio and while they were most famous for their songs that were featured in the TV series The Outsiders (which unfortunately recently got taken off Netflix), she had an amazing voice. I’m actually starting to dig through her solo music so probably will be sharing some of that in the coming months.

Be My Warrior – Zheyuan Chen 陈哲远 & Shen Yue 沈月

I was destined to love the TV series Mr. Bad since I really love the vibe of the two main leads not to mention the whole pulling a character out of a story into real life sounds so fun as a fish out of water story. That is besides the point since the song is a duet between the two leads Shen Yue and Chen Zheyuan which is a lot of fun. They don’t have perfect singing voices but its such a happy and lively song that its so catchy and sends so many positive vibes.

紅顏如霜 Cold Hearted – 周杰倫 JAY CHOU ft. JABBAWOCKEEZ

While I am starting to feeling like Jay Chou has hits every once in a while, there are a lot of songs that feel similar to other songs. This one does have that vibe of a song that he did maybe a decade or 15 years ago or something. I can’t remember when it was exactly but Jay Chou is Jay Chou and the music video is really cool and the song, despite feeling similar in style to another one of his songs, still has a nice rhythm to it.

妄想 Delusion- VRF

I don’t know what I was looking up but somehow I landed on realizing that singer and actress Miriam Yeung’s husband originally debuted in VRF which is this boy band that didn’t really make much of themselves except for this song, which I remember discovering and thought at the time that it was pretty good. I mean, I’m not a fan of Boy’z, a much more famous boy duo at the time which was constantly paired with Twins but I can’t help loving that this one has one of them, Kenny ugly crying in the music video. Its more nostalgia that this song is here.

我難過 I’m Sad – 5566

Talking about nostalgia, I was watching Call Me By Fire and at one point someone mentioned the success of 5566 and I was a tad surprised because 5566 was famous for a little bit of time in my memory and then didn’t really make it that far. They did star in a few dramas but in my memory, they got really famous because of My MVP Valentine, which this song is part of the OST and the series is actually on Netflix (at least it is in Canada) and I remember it being really a big deal at one point. I do plan on revisiting it. Seeing as Netflix is picking up a bunch of these older Taiwanese series, maybe I will do some type of segment with it. Who knows. Either way, 5566 was pretty cool and fun fact, I actually own one of their albums.

浮夸 Exaggerated – 陈小春 Jordan Chan & 张智霖Chilam Cheung
Call Me By Fire S2 Performance

With all the singing variety shows I have been watching, I had to share as usual as an extra. In the last battle for the team, Jordan Chan and Chilam Cheung joined forces in this rendition of Eason Chan’s Exaggerated. Its one of the most engaging performances of this season. To be honest, there were some really awesome performances in general this season because of the talent they found to join.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions – September 2022

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions! I honestly can’t believe its already September and I’ve actually managed to keep up with this segment with actual content. Its a little wild overall. Either way, here we are so let’s go right into it!

Cruel – Jackson Wang

At this point, Jackson Wang really has proven that his variety in his music with his resources has truly grown quite a bit including the music video themselves are really creative. While I can’t say that I love all his music the same level, there’s a certain catchiness to them that jives well. Cruel is pretty good and the video is pretty impressive. I wonder whether Jackson Wang will one day jump into being a director at this point seeing as all his music videos now have a certain fantastical story background.

眼淚落下之前 Before Tears Fall Down – Silence Wang 汪蘇瀧

This summer’s youth romance film, since it seems like there’s always one highlight film of that regard in China is My Blue Summer. The source material for My Blue Summer has already been adapted into 2 separate Chinese TV series before called Unrequited Love both times with the only difference being its network and the cast. While I think that’s kind of pointless, they’ve gone and adapted it into a film as well. Which brings us to Silence Wang’s song which I really liked when he performed it in Wonderland Season 2, a Chinese lifestyle variety show so found the original MV.

寻一个你 Searching You- Yuning Liu刘宇宁
(“Love Between Fairy and Devil” Theme)

One of the hit Chinese fantasy dramas this summer has to be Love Between Fairy and Devil so of course, I’m also watching it right now. Not binging quite the way that I normally would but everything fits so well for me from the cast to the soundtrack. Its theme is by Yuning Liu which I have shared him music quite a bit over the time this segment has been around. Probably one of the newer singers that I like nowadays since the last time I followed someone so intently has be at least a decade ago. Regardless, I’m always happy to watch series and find his song part of the OST. Its a really nice one that matches this series pretty well.

臟藝術家 Dirty Artist – MC HotDog熱狗

Its crazy how time does fly by but MC HotDog was the original first generation Chinese rapper back in my teenage days and its great to see the status that he’s achieved as a hip hop artist. In the last few years popping on music related variety show, there’s a humble side of him that makes him so respectable. In the latest season of Rap of China: All Stars Season, not only did he take all the new generation rappers under his wing in his team, there’s no doubt that during the performances that all these years experience with his writing and the messages he wants in his songs now. There’s a versatility that can’t be duplicated. Either way, he tried to not outshine his other team members most of the time but this song he did himself is probably the best of the show.

粉色海洋 Pink Ocean – 周杰倫 Jay Chou

I’d like to say that Jay Chou’s latest album seems to be all songs paired up with Taiwanese lyricist Vincent Fang who found his popularity writing up the majority of the hit songs from Jay Chou’s beginning albums, so there’s a real taste of nostalgia as this album’s songs remind me a lot of the earlier albums of Jay Chou back in 2000. This music video also is one filmed with Jay Chou’s son so its pretty fun overall. While most of the songs in the recent music videos are pretty good, this one is so light-hearted and positive.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to lately?

Music Obsessions – July 2022

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions! Today is going to be quite a fun assortment of music from a bunch of different things: TV series, variety shows, Chinese, English, French, etc. Let’s check it out!

À Contresens – Raffy

I don’t listen to a lot of Quebec music but Raffy has been a staple in our home especially since they were a chance encounter probably a decade ago when I saw them perform at a bar in Old Montreal. They have gone a long way since then and have been a constant entertainment via Twitch during the pandemic. As they head back out to performing live, they released their latest single. Its very much in their fun vibe style which I love because their music always sends some positive vibes.

紅日 Red Sun – 聲生不息 “Infinity and Beyond” Singers with Audience

Red Sun is a super popular Cantopop classic by Hacken Lee. Luckily the Chinese variety show had invited Hacken Lee so it made it extra special when he and all the singers and audience joined together to do this song. Its a really fun song and rather challenging since its also fairly fast. This is a pretty good rendition and a good new take on it.

Portrait of You – James Lee
(“Love The Way You Are” Chinese Drama OST)

My latest series binge is Love The Way You Are on iQiYi streaming service. Is it anything super unique? Not really. So far, the first ten episodes have been fairly lighthearted but for once I actually they paced it a little quick that I’m not sure how its going to push another 20 episodes of the story forward. Either way, I’m not reviewing the show yet. Aside from my worrying, the soundtrack is pretty good. I really like this one which I later realized is by James Lee, who I wasn’t familiar with when he was popular in Korea before his unfortunate accident but he joined a Chinese variety show last year and I’m happy to see him making some music there.

現代戀愛安全手冊 Love 101 – 衛蘭 Janice Vidal

Janice Vidal’s latest single here! While I’m a pretty big fan of Janice Vidal’s recent music and even when she first started out in Hong Kong (but missing the whole middle chunk of maybe a decade or something), I only happen to find her music when it pops up in the recommended section on Youtube. I really should be making a better effort since her music is so good and has some meaningful lyrics whatever topic she talks about.

Teenage Dream – The Rescues

This last one is a discovery as part of the soundtrack on Season 3 of The Umbrella Academy. I’m a big fan of covers especially when they are done in a different vibe. I do like Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream however, this rendition actually adds a good change and feeling to the whole song. It definitely was a great find from watching TV series.

That’s it for this month’s Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions – June 2022

Welcome to the next Music Obsessions!

Much like last month, I can’t say that my music exploration has expanded much further than the performances from Chinese music variety show Infinity and Beyond and TV series OST. What can I say? I just have so much backlog that I’m trying to keep things a little bit more at the minimum and work on what needs to be done. With that said, there are some nice Cantopop songs chosen for the show to make into their own rendition and its been quite awesome overall to rediscover these songs.

Breath of Wind 风息 by Yanbin Hu 胡彦斌 & Xuanqing Ye 叶炫清

Who Rules The World really was quite the Chinese TV drama and such a great pick by Netflix to add to their library. I can see how it had such ratings in the recent releases from Chinese dramas and the talk that it had. I’ll be addressing all that in the upcoming TV binge (sooner than later hopefully). The soundtrack also did it lots of wonder and perhaps the one that grew on me a lot was this duet which truly did come at some great moments.

1984 – 周笔畅 Bibi Zhou

1984 was originally sang by Swing, a band duo who has now moved on to behind the scenes writing and producing music for other artists. One of them being Eric Kwok who has written some great contributions to Cantopop. I’m always pretty happy when anyone talks about Swing because they are such an underrated band that didn’t quite get the attention they deserved (probably because they weren’t active for that long). 1984 is one of their biggest hits and even then, they duo themselves according from the interview during Infinity and Beyond actually thought that the song was really difficult for them. In that sense, Bibi Zhou does do great with it in her own arrangement.

一生所爱 Love in a Life Time – 卢冠廷 Lowell Lo

Some of the best moments of the show is how they are able to truly bring forth fantastic music producers, lyricist and composers to highlight their work for Cantopop. Most people don’t know Lowell Lo as he only did some small supporting/cameo roles in popular Hong Kong films however, he is a fantastic composer much like his wife who pairs up with him as lyricist. Plus, he has some fantastic music back in the days. While he has mostly retired from the scene, there’s something so nostalgic about his own interpretation for this song which was a key song in A Chinese Odyssey. The scenes if I’m not mistaken are from Part 2 Cinderella (but I haven’t seen those movies in a long time so I could be wrong).

最佳损友 The Best Damn Friend – 李克勤 Hacken Lee & 毛不易 Buyi Mao

Originally a song of Eason Chan’s, this new rendition of The Best Damn Friend does capture another type of relationship as per the theme of the week and this time for them looking at friendships, some that might not have lasted despite how great it was before. A bit of a bittersweet sort of song. In the hands of two great singers like Hacken Lee and Buyi Ma in this new arrangement, its revives the song again.

我钟意 I Prefer- 炎明熹 Gigi Yim＆魔动闪霸 SmellyD & Azi

The latest offering that I love was from last week’s episode as they dived into another theme challenge. This time, they arrange and add a fun rap twist because of the rap duo here to give it such a happy vibe. Seeing as Gigi Leung is one of my favorite singers of all time, and I used to listen to this song a bunch, this new rendition still managed to give me the same happy vibes and was probably one of the standout performances solely on the youthfulness of the whole performance, even the added part which manages to give the song a naivety. Hong Kong’s The Academy winner Gigi Yim is really starting to impress me though. I’m starting to see her talent more and more as the show goes on.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions – May 2022

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions! I think the big takeaway from April is that I survived yet another year of it! This year was especially challenging. Luckily, there was two newly added TV show on Netflix for a fun Chinese Drama with a decent soundtrack and a martial arts world newly released Tencent one and a new singing variety show that launched very recently which provided me lots of music to share plus bringing back a lot of nostalgia for Cantopop classics.

Facade 被人 – Joker Xue 薛之谦

For a modern series based on the esports world, Falling Into Your Smile isn’t exactly the best of its recent batch using this setting but the soundtrack for this one still is pretty fun. Of course, I’ve shared a bunch of Joker Xue songs in these Music Obsessions. Its rare to see him doing songs for a TV series OST but this song really blends well with the series. I love his voice and the song itself is pretty good.

Soulmate 第一默契 – Xu Kai 许凯 & Cheng Xiao 程潇
(“Falling Into Your Smile” Ending Theme)

Continuing on with the soundtrack for Falling Into Your Smile, it seems suitable to add in at least one of the theme songs especially since it includes a duet from the two main leads which had pretty good chemistry. It brings me back to when I was talking about Cheng Xiao earlier this year when I shared the duet for The World of Fantasy. This music video also captures the TV series pretty well especially the romantic chemistry element. This time, Xu Kai is a much more seasoned actor so probably in terms of singing its not quite as good but it still captures the vibe of the show.

无双 Wu Shuang – Liu Yuning

The latest Chinese series to land on Netflix is Who Rules The World which actually is getting some pretty impressive ratings as its airing in China right now. It probably has to do with the main leads Yang Yang and Lusi Zhao who are in a lot of TV series which has pretty high profile. However, its nice to see them in this sort of martial arts/fantasy world where they do fit so very well together. The script itself is done really well and the chemistry behind them including the world building is so far is good. Plus, the main theme here is by one of my fave up and coming singers, Yuning Liu. I mean, I share a ton of his music here already.

Infinity and Beyond 声生不息 – Performance Favorites

One of my favorite music variety shows to land this while is Infinity and Beyond. In commemoration of the 25 years of Hong Kong Handover, the show invites both Mainland China and Hong Kong singers to group together in men and women team in a competition format ranging from new to veteran singers to battle against each other. Every competition evening includes 2 top choices along with the winning team and audience performance which will eventually be compiled to a soundtrack for the show at the end. Its a pretty neat idea especially since it takes a lot of the Hong Kong classics and gives it a new life for the newer generation. Plus, most of the show doesn’t feel like a competition and just a bunch of good and great singers gathered together to share some good performances. It was pretty hard to narrow down what I liked since there’s quite a few but I didn’t want to overload everyone since a lot of this has to do with nostalgia.

初恋 First Love – Mike Tsang 曾比特

卡拉永远ok Forever Karaoke – 魔动闪霸

海阔天空 Boundless Oceans Vast Skies – Women Team With Audience

That’s it for this month’s Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to lately?

Music Obsessions – March 2022

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions! Its hard to imagine that we’re already in March! There’s not a whole lot of new music to share but I’m going to share some new finds from TV series and other stuff this past month.

Kung Fu Piano: Cello Ascends – The Piano Guys

Its been a while since I listened to The Piano Guys but when their music popped up during the Winter Olympics for the Chinese Figure Skating team for their free dance, I looked it up and voila! I think its a wonderful piece of music and lots of fun.

對立面 Opposite – 蔡依林 Jolin Tsai
(“The Wolf” Chinese Drama OST)

Its my second attempt to watch the Chinese drama The Wolf as I work through some of the series that I’ve either started or catch up with last year’s TV series that I missed but had wanted to watch. I have to say that the second watch is a little more successful but can’t say I’m enjoying it a lot more even though I’m further. However, there is no denying that the soundtrack is a great selling point for the series and one of the reasons that some of the moments do pull through. I will finish it gradually….in time.

满月之下 Under The Full Moon -曾咏欣 Nicola Tsang
(“Love Under The Full Moon” Chinese Drama OST)

The latest TV series that I started is Love Under The Full Moon. It also has a great soundtrack. Super hard to find the legit videos for it though. Still, I found one which was a bit of the promo trailer with one of the sounds. The show itself is pretty fun diving into time travel and playing with quantum science (which I know nothing about it so it easily sells for myself). With that said, the show is pretty fun and the soundtrack matches up to it.

Dear Leslie – Leo Ku 古巨基

My latest addition to my list on Spotify is this song from Leo Ku. I know I showcased a bunch of Leo Ku last month with his huge medley songs but I’ve been rather nostalgic with the whole the music thing and Leslie Cheung is a talent that took his life too early so when Leo Ku did this tribute a few years back, I didn’t know about it until recently and its rather good.

奇洛李維斯回信 A Letter From Keanu Reeves – 薛凱琪 Fiona Sit

Diving back to older music, this song keeps popping up on my shuffle playlist on Spotify. Its not quality music since I honestly feel like Fiona Sit’s quality music comes in the past few years but I thought the whole idea for the song was so cute since it goes into the whole fangirl culture and hoping that the celebrity you like would reply your letters and stuff and in this case, its Keanu Reeves.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions – February 2022

Welcome to February 2022’s Music Obsessions. Music hasn’t exactly been a huge focus as I shift away from finding music on Youtube and mostly listening via Spotify. I’m still building up my Spotify with some 90s-2000s Cantopop and Taiwan pop. The list is really some of the newer music from recent Chinese drama binges and then some older songs that I’ve been listening to more frequently on Spotify. Let’s check it out!

遙望 Looking Into The Distance – Adam Fan & Cheng Xiao
(“The World of Fantasy” End Theme)

Kicking of the year, I went back to the beginning of 2021 to find the TV series on iQiYi’s streaming platform that I had missed in an effort to do some catch up while letting the newer releases some time to accumulate some episodes. The first one is The World of Fantasy starring a debut acting effort by Adam Fan paired with Cheng Xiao. I will talk about the series itself again but their little end theme duet together is decent enough. The video does give a good idea of what the series is about and shows some of the production value behind the show. This song pops up quite a bit during the show and really works with the whole vibe of the fantasy world and their romance throughout.

Goodbye – 丁当 Ding Dang
(“Shining For One Thing” Theme)

I guess the above part about TV series was a bit of a lie since after The World of Fantasy, I shifted my plans when I saw this series pop up and all the episodes were released in one shot, which is super rare with Chinese dramas. Shining For One Thing kind of tricked me with their trailer into thinking that it felt like the whole background was inspired by the game “Life is Strange” although, I still think that some angles did feel like it could have been mildly inspired. Regardless, the TV series is pretty fantastic overall…a few issues but I will talk about in an upcoming review. With that said, this TV series had an amazing soundtrack in general and most of the songs are actually in English. With that said, I’m going to spam another 2 songs from the show that I liked a lot.

For Lovers – Shaw Qu

I think that when TV series use their actors if they can sing to do their music and have their own version, it does work really well. In this case, Shaw Qu (which I don’t know much about his background) has a decent voice and executes this song rather decently. His song shows up in the drama and its rather memorable. For those who don’t know, Shaw Qu is probably more known in the Western entertainment for being part of the rather divisive Chinese Netflix film The Wandering Earth (review). Recent days, he seems to be falling into these romantic films and TV series. A lot of people dismiss those things but I think this one does a good job. Still seeking out a film he released last year that I really want to see.

全世界在你身后 The World Is Behind You – 都智文 Baby.J

I honestly don’t have a lot to say about this song but man, this song appears when its the most romantic scenes so hard to really not notice it. Plus, its one of the songs with lyrics that fits the whole plot of the TV series. Not to mention, I like this singer’s voice quite a bit.

不拖不欠 – 鄭秀文 Sammi Cheng

The main theme for 1996’s Hong Kong romantic comedy Feel 100% starring Sammi Cheng and Ekin Cheng in their main leads brings this rather iconic song for Sammi Cheng. Its one of my all-time faves and one that has been playing on repeat in my mind. I might be a bit biased considering Sammi Cheng is one of my top 5 favorite singers ever so its always so nostalgic to listen to her music. Now to hunt down this film again…

默契 – 鄭秀文 Sammi Cheng

I completely forgot that this song from Sammi Cheng is actually from the theme for the sequel of Feel 100%. It explains why these two songs always connect together so well. Either way, also one of my favorite songs. I figured why not stick to this fantastic artist who has such a long discography. Some of the film buffs here who have seen some Hong Kong films might recognize her as a supporting character in Infernal Affairs.

That’s it for this week’s Music Obsessions.
What have you been listening to lately?

Music Obsessions – November 2021

Welcome to the next Music Obsessions! Its November, friends! I can’t believe we’re already at the tail end of 2021. What happened, right? Between a lot of work, a few lockdowns and curfews and realizing how much fun it still is to stay at home and a lot of walks and TV, we’re already almost at the end of the year. Things have slowed down in general for the blog but we’re slowly picking up pace again. Of course, these monthly segments are still hanging on tight! With that said, this month’s music obsessions is not quite as varied but I figured, there’s still some good music especially a few performances pulled from a Chinese variety show that I’ve been catching every week.

一直一直一直，喜欢你 Always Always Always Love You – Xinyi Li 李鑫一
(‘Our Secret’ Main Theme)

The main theme for Chinese youth drama Our Secret matches the plot a lot. Its sang by a decent singer which I think its rather underrated and the song itself is very nice. It is a little simple in its lyrics but does match with the whole series itself. With that said, the main reason of putting this here is that it was played a ton during the watching of the series that it did grow on me and I do want to take the chance to promote Our Secret that I absolutely loved despite youth dramas being very familiar territory. I will write more about this in a TV binge soon.

啊默契 – Yuning Liu 摩登兄弟劉宇寧

Big fan of Yuning Liu in general. This is one of his latest singles and its really good. I honestly don’t have a whole lot to justify. He has a really good voice and the lyrics are decent.

等到花儿也谢了 I’ve Waited Until Flowers Withered Away- 薛之谦 Joker Xue &锤娜丽莎 Cui Na Li Sha
(Performance from Singing With Legends S2)

The next three is all part of the Singing with Legends Season 2. Its a really great music variety show where the older generation singer takes the younger singers in collaboration for various music and later turns into other teams to battle against others. The first one here is the rendition of Jacky Cheung’s popular song. Joker Xue and Cui Na Li Sha does a really great job and actually, Joker Xue’s voice in some part does sound similar to Jacky Cheung’s singing style.

那些年 Those Years – 胡夏 Fox Hu & 林子祥 George Lam
(Performance at Singing With Legends S2)

The second one is probably one of the most popular song performances to break out of this show as George Lam sings Fox Hu’s very popular song and adds a intergenerational feeling to the whole song which originally was about young love but has a different interpretation as men of different ages express their feelings about reminiscing their young loves.

Superwoman – 杨千嬅 Miriam Yeung & 萧敬腾 Jam Hsiao & 张碧晨 Bichen Zhang
(Performance from Singing with Legends S2)

While this group didn’t quite have the desired affect in battle with its counterparts as a whole in the team battles, the collaboration between these three talents singers has a completely beautiful feeling as they balance each other’s tones and voices incredibly well. There’s so much to love about this performance. If there was one word to describe the feeling is a really perfect harmony.

Stand By Me – 梅艷芳 Anita Mui

I know that Stand By Me is a very popular song and its a song that many people do love. However, Anita Mui was the Cantonese singer who chose to change it into Cantonese lyrics. In the face of the biopic for Antia Mui’s life being released, its a great time to share a song that I personally really love of hers among the many songs that she’s had during her short life. Both as an actress or as a performer, she is quite the Hong Kong diva and probably the only one that fits into the diva title. Either way, I’ve been feeling a bit nostalgic lately and flipping through these older songs and revisiting them so maybe next month will have some more, who knows.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to lately?

Music Obsessions – September 2021

September is here! Next Music Obsessions is here as the first weekend arrives! This month has been a decent mix. Its mostly songs that I’ve found through different variety shows and TV series. Considering there’s a lot of variety shows I’m watching that are music-oriented, so its pretty fun overall.

我只能離開 I Can Only Leave – Renzhong Yan 顏人中

While I have my opinions on Chinese drama A Little Thing Called First Love and should get a TV binge out for it at some point this coming month, this song is really good. I always catch music by Renzhong Yan here and there but never can pinpoint his music specifically. However, I do like his voice overall. Its pretty unique. Plus, this song worked really well in the series in terms of the lyrics so it was a memorable one.

3189 – 焦迈奇 Maiqi Jiao

3189 is an absolutely unique song. The most random song ever if anything right from the lyrics to the music video itself. Something about getting sleep back and happiness and a bunch of odd things and yet, somehow there’s this very catchy element of all the conversation where it feels somehow relevant to what its about as it pulls in Mary Had A Little Lamb but a flipped version of it but its all about trying to go to sleep, counting sheep and stuff..at least that’s my interpretation but then its a little bit more and somehow I find some of it feels relatable. Its just really random and I like odd stuff so this is right up my alley.

With that said, I found this while watching the cover from the performance on “Call My By Fire” by one of my fave groups there with Jordan Chan, Michael Tse, Jerry Lamb, Julian Cheung, Edmond Leung, all big names in Hong Kong. Either way, you can find their performance here also which has a pretty fun twist to it.

The Oath of Love 余生，请多指教- Andy Yang 杨紫 & Sean Xiao 肖战
(Tencent TV series “The Oath of Love” Main Theme)

The Oath of Love finally is launching on Tencent in September. Consider me happy. Big fan of the two main leads who also sings this duet. This duet makes me anticipate the series even more as they seem to have fantastic chemistry. Maybe finally have a series that will follow the wonderful dynamic of the leads following Go Go Squid!. I’m getting carried away but nice sweet song overall.

再見，少年 Farewell, My Lad – 梁靜茹 Fish Leong
(“Farewell, My Lad” Main Theme)

I honestly think that Farewell, My Lad is the upcoming film that will be a family of stories that follows Better Days. I mean, look at the typography they use. Either way, just a small thought on this new Chinese film. I’m hoping that this film will be available. Big fan of Fish Leong. She’s probably one of my top 5 favorite female singers and this song is just so good. I do think the whole scenes from the film does fit the song a lot also.

Let’s Do This! – Cacien Team
(“Girls Like Us” Performance)

I usually don’t post up performances for any of the variety shows as their own part but most of my playlist right now is from performances from “Girls Like Us” Chinese female hip hop competition. Cacien’s group is very unique and the songs that they make is super positive. This performance is pretty good plus the song makes me feel happy so its a good one to wrap up this month’s music obsessions.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?