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?

Music Obsessions – May 2020

Welcome to the May Music Obsessions! April was a month of intense need for music and because of staying home for everything, music was a constant. There was a lot of new discoveries whether it was via TV or variety shows. Let’s check it out!

彩色的黑 Colorful Black-吉克雋逸 Jike Junyi

The Singer 2020 introduced one of the challengers Jike Junyi also called Summer. She is rather unique in the music scene in China. Her voice is pretty nice and she has this really big strong female lead in her music that mostly isn’t about love songs (at least the ones I’ve heard so far) but more about strength and chasing dreams and you know, positive things. This song is by far one of my favorites of hers that she also did perform on The Singer 2020. I usually listen to her The Singer 2020 version more but this is the actual music video so I figured it was better to use it here. You can find her The Singer 2020 version HERE.

我想 I Want- 余佳運 Jia Yun Yu

Another song that was performed on The Singer 2020 in a mash-up by Tia Ray who does a great version of it and honestly is one that I listen to more. The original  here by Jia Yun Yu is also really good. The lyrics itself and the rhythm has this really sweet and carefree love story enveloped in it. Sweet love songs are such a rarity that sometimes its really nice to have these upbeat songs.

Running Wild (feat. PollyAnna) – Yves V & Futuristic Polar Bears

One of my college friends was running live Instagram DJ session in March to April during this quarantine period and he played this song. I’ve never heard this one before but its really fun. We all need a little Electronic music every once in a while. At least I do.

致我们甜甜的小美满 The Love Equations – 刘人语 Renyu Liu
(“The Love Equations” Promotional  Theme)

If you’ve been following What’s Up, the last few weeks have been all about The Love Equations which is a really fun and cute series. The promotional theme song is sang by the female lead of the series, Renyu Liu who (I believe) got her fame from the Produce 101 series on Tencent. The song reflects the series and the tone of the series pretty much. I’m a big fan of these short 24 episodes series in the whole sister collection with A Love So Beautiful and Put Your Head On My Shoulder (both on Netflix and Youtube). They are just showers of joy and happiness and sweet romance with a little bit of bitter here and there. The song just makes me smile and probably why I like listening to it so much.

曲尽陈情 Song Ends With Chen Qing -肖战 Sean Xiao
(Wei WuXian Character Theme Song for “The Untamed”)

I finally got around to binging The Untamed. Call it a fight for Sean Xiao who got a lot of unjustified garbage since March until recently. I wanted to see what the big fuss was also and well, I totally get it because I love Sean Xiao even more. An all around great actor and singer. He gives off huge “boy next door” vibes. Other than fangirling over him, the point is that The Untamed has an amazing soundtrack and I decided to choose his Untamed character theme for Wei WuXian sang by himself. The Untamed is some uncharted territory executed really well and a lot has to do with his character. I love ancient times series for the soundtrack a ton as it uses some Chinese instruments.

想見你想見你想見你 Miss You 3000 – 八三夭 831

Surprisingly, I didn’t find this song because of TV series. I actually found it because it was chosen as one of the songs for Youth With You 2 and one of my favorite performances. I actually listen to the Youth With You version more than this one. You can find that below:

The song is pretty nice in both versions but one of my favorite trainees from Youth With You that I think has to end up being in the final 9 girl group for Youth With You is Xin Liu. She is unique and so well-rounded in both dancing, singing and rap. This group of a few girls that I think have some great potential to be in the final ending. I’m just hoping that it happens as I hope.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions! A lot of new finds!
I’m trying to listen to more female singers again and get back to practicing singing.
You can see why partially in my last Adventures post HERE.

What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions – April 2020

April is upon us! 2020 is going by crazy fast and spring is already here! The world’s a bit crazy right now but its why music is so important! At least for myself, I have coincidentally been watching a lot of music-related variety shows, making this Music Obsessions a little more padded than normal. I just can’t choose and really want to share it all! Its different music genres and a little slow and a little fast as well to give it a little balance. Hopefully you will like it!

GOOD NIGHT – Lil Ghost 小鬼

We start off with something fun and light. Lil Ghost (Linkai Wang) previously a member of Nine Percent, released this song back in 2018 however, I only caught this because of variety show Our Song. Lil Ghost is one of the most talented young rappers in the Chinese music landscape that really has a lot of potential and while I might not have seen it so much in Idol Producer, the many variety shows that he’s been in really shows off his personality as well as his talent. At least on-screen, he brings a lot of positive vibes and that’s really great.

Half Moon Serenade 月半小夜曲 – Hacken Lee 李克勤 & Charlie Zhou 周深 (“Our Song” performance)

Hacken Lee and Charlie Zhou’s every single performance in Our Song was all my favorite so it all comes down to which song I love personally a lot and my favorite song of Hacken Lee (definitely in top 5 singles) goes to Half Moon Serenade and they do a fantastic job here. Its how their voices play off each other really well and also how they manage to pair together so well.

Remaining Years 餘年 – Sean Xiao 肖戰

Sean Xiao has been through a rather ridiculous situation in my opinion early in March, right when I started checking out his stuff, peaked by interest after Who’s The Murderer and then his stellar performances in Our Song and my interest in checking out The Untamed eventually (but haven’t yet). I ended up finding this song that I’ve put on repeat a whole lot. He is a very talented singer who started out in a boy group XNINE but ended up pursuing an acting career nowadays but he still has really good voice. Remaining Years is a song in last year’s series Joy of Life (that I also didn’t see but my mom is currently watching) and its really the song and how it sounds that I find has a hard element to learn how to sing.

The Younger Me 少年 – Wakin Chau 周華健

Wakin Chau is more like my parents music but I grew up as a little girl listening to him and knowing a lot of his song in the 80s and 90s. So many memory songs and he has a unique voice that you can just recognize right away. His latest album took him years to put together and the lyrics here (while not written by him) is incredibly meaningful and kind of grabs me everytime. I’ll translate the Chorus and ending verse:

Some people we don’t see again, Some dreams have been forgotten
I sing every song to keep the happiness
Some roads are hard to walk, Some pains take a lifetime to heal
I can still smile and live

Sometimes its too late to settle, The years have passed before your soul
Fortunately there is a little faith, Accompanying us to go through everyday
Don’t forget your heart’s younger self, The wild and brave younger self at the start

100 Ways – Jackson Wang

Adding an English song to the mix! Jackson Wang makes some pretty fantastic music videos. While I can’t say that I love a lot of his music, mostly because I’m pretty picky with his style of music. However, 100 Ways is definitely my fave so far and the one that I’ve replayed the most. Its upbeat and fun. The lyrics is a tad repetitive but the whole song’s rhythm and beat just works so catchy!

我说了算(I Have the Final Say) – Nicholas Tse, Jam Hsiao & Karry Wang
(Me to Us performance)

Me to Us is a great variety show that has really only started. Putting together Nicholas Tse, Jam Hsiao and Karry Wang, the former two who I know more than the latter. Nicholas Tse wrote this song for the first performance of Me To Us as they all sing it together. Its just all kinds of awesome. I can’t fangirl over the fact that I just thought back that its been 20 years that I’ve been a fan of Nicholas Tse and his performance is every bit as fantastic now than when I first heard his songs in 2000 (maybe even 1999). Not to mention, this song is so fun and powerfully rock!

When I Met You當遇見你  – Yuning Liu 劉宇寧
(Ending Theme “Skate Into Love”)

I kind of debated whether to put this here since I might end up using this video as a part of the TV binge when I finish Skate Into Love but you know what, I truly have been lately the most obsessed with this one. I have shared a few of Yuning Liu’s songs before and this one is also really cute and romantic and fits this series a lot. There’s some great singing going on here from Yuning Liu as well.

That’s it for this (longer than usual) Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to on repeat?