Eason and Hacken feel honoured to sing

August 8 2008 is Beijing's Olympic Opening Ceremony. Because of this, mainland organisers deliberately chose Peida Jin to compose and Keith Chan to lyricise "We Are Ready" as the "one year to go countdown" themesong. As mainlanders found out on July 1 that Hong Kong had "There's Still You" as the handover 10th anniversary themesong, they felt the idea was a good one. And so for a themesong to countdown a year to the Olympics, they had to invite Hong Kong to cooperate.

Because due to the lack of time, this song only took 18 hours to reach completion. Also, as no one wanted this song to sound like any other pop song, the Chinese Symphony Orchestra was invited to perform. The Olympics commitee will hold a media conference on August 4th in Beijing, but there will also be celebrations on August 8th. Mainland, Taiwanese and Hong Kong singers have all been invited leading to a total of 133 performers to sing the themesong and there will also be many versions. Hong Kong has 6 singers that will be represented in the recording. They include Alan Tam, Eason Chan, Gigi Leung, Leo Koo, Hacken Lee and Joey Yung. The day before yesterday, Alan went to Beijing to record and yesterday and today, the rest of the artists recorded in Hong Kong. Mainland and Taiwanese singers that are joining the recording are Bibi Chow, Chris Li, Sun Yue, Elva Hsiao, Ah Niu, Chris Yu and Mindy Ke. Recently, Beijing has begun recording and is constantly communicating with Hong Kong. Everyone can view the progress on the internet. Peida remains in Hong Kong and Keith has flown to Beijing.

Hacken recorded for an hour. He expressed that the song wasn't hard to sing, but he had to sing out with emotion. He revealed that Hong Kong had 6 representative singers. The other 5 would be present at the countdown on August 8th. Hacken hopes that he will be able to attend but recently he agreed with CWCB to attend a summer holiday exercise program. But he feels that the Olympics countdown event is more meaningful and hopes that the exercise program can be rearranged.

When asked whether he's afraid of offending CWCB, he claims that this is not the station's problem. This countdown for the Olympics is a meaningful event. He had already accepted CWCB's invite and if they insisted, then he could only be a gentleman and attend. Recording the Olympics themesong was with RTHK, will CWCB find it difficult because of this? Hacken decided to let his manager handle this. He feels that getting stuck in the middle is a difficult position to be in, but with 6 singers like 6 strong soldiers attending, it would really be an honour. He also does not know how the singers were selected for this event, but says he feels loved and respected. He says that he would want to go watch the Olympics and on the matter of hotels raising prices to HK$8000-10000 a night, he commented "Wah, that's so cheap!" He points out that watching the Olympics is like watching the World Cup. No matter where it is held, prices will surely rise and so it's a very normal thing to happen. At some point, World Cup tickets went for HK$60000 a ticket and so that year he snatched the role of host for the World Cup program.

http://www.takungpao.com/news/07/07/30/UL-772697.htm

Hacken is lucky he found out he had gallstones

Last night was the recording of "Loveday Love Music Concert" - a combined project of UN Chilren's Fund and Cartier Watches. The program will be broadcast on TVB tonight. Artistes who took part included Hacken Lee, Miriam Yeung, Leo Koo, Justin Lo, Ivana Wong, Jill Vidal, Ng Yu Fei etc.

Recently Hacken had been hospitalized because of gallstones, and yesterday he still looked tired. He said that initially he thought he had eaten the wrong thing, and had gotten food poisoning, until one day he felt really bad after getting up and had to go see the doctor who told him it was gallstones, and he had to go immediately in for surgery. He said: "The doctor said I was really lucky, beacuse all the gallstones are only as big as sesame seeds, and that's why they hurt. If they were any bigger, I could've died without feeling anything!" Hacken praised the staff at the hospital, saying that because he had to record in the afternoon, and he needed to go under general anaesthetic (which involves intubation), the nurses were especially gentle around his vocal cords in case it affected his voice. In the time he was in hospital, his biggest memory was being surrounded by nurses in surgery whilst he was naked - as he is a performer, this was even more embarassing!

Takungpo

Hacken, Alan Tam and Miriam Yeung sing "Celebrating the return to China" together

"RoadShow慶回歸心連心晚會"於6月3日晚在香港舉行，下午拜神儀式上，譚詠麟、鄭裕玲均有出席。今年是香港回歸祖國十周年，眾多藝人不計較酬勞，紛紛獻唱獻藝，為慶祝十周年貢獻力量。晚會上譚詠麟、李克勤、楊千嬅、古巨基等一線歌手藝人都有出席並演唱各自經典曲目，讓晚會現場勁到爆.

Roadshow's "Celebrating the return to China - hearts linked together evening" was held on 3rd of June in HK. It started with a Buddhist ceremony in the afternoon where Alan Tam and Dodo Cheng made an appearance. This year is the 10th anniversary of the return to China, and lots of artistes took part, acting and singing to celebrate the strength of these 10 years. In the evening Alan Tam, Hacken Lee, Miriam Yeung, Leo Koo etc sang their classic songs, creating an explosive atmosphere.

Credits: Tungstar, Xinliang

Music Fair opening ceremony, the industry finds opportunity

The 2nd "Hong Kong Music Fair" held its opening ceremony yesterday. Honoured guests included the Home Affairs Bureau chief, Patrick Ho, the People's Republic of China cultural market vice director, Cheung Sun Kin, the Legislative Councillor, Timothy Fok, the Hong Kong trade development council assistant president, Raymond Yip, the RTHK broadcasting assistant director, Tai Kin Man, the IFPI (HK) president, Hong Dy and the HK Music Fair committee president Ng Yu. Singers included Hacken Lee, Leo Koo, Joey Yung, Eason Chan, Fiona Sit, Hins Cheung and Twins.

For 3 consecutive days, the Hong Kong Music Fair will help the industry develop opportunity and the "Hong Kong film and arts creativity and power exhibition" is open to the public, displaying a large number of memorable exhibits.

The exhibition focuses on popular music, television, film, Cantonese opera and theatre. In the exhibition, costumes from Anita Mui', Sam Hui's and other singer's performances are on display. There's also Wong Ka Kui's guitar, Yam Pak's classic records and Danny Chan's "these tears flow for you" music sheets.

After attending the opening ceremony, Eason also took time to look through the exhibition. However, he did not give anything to be placed in the exhibition. He said "The things I say are pointless, my clothes are wrinkled, and I really don't know what I could give. Perhaps I can take out my liver and let everyone examine why I've got such a voice. (Apart from organs, anything else?) My face isn't handsome, only the insides are the best looking."

Over 10 singers were invited to record for the Music Fair's "Classic songs and great stars together" limited AVCD. Songs include memorable productions of great singers of Hong Kong's past. It pays tribute to the musical world, and these old classics are rebroadcasted. Some of the singers that have taken part have taken to the stage to express their feelings and everyone felt honoured. Hacken sang Anita's "these years like water" and felt that resinging someone else's song isn't easy. Like they say, the real thing is already there (referring to past singers already making the classics their own song, showing it's hard to replicate). He believed the other singers would feel the same way. Everyone wished to put something of themselves into each song but each of these classic songs have already left an impression on everyone. There was no way to not have Anita's shadow and so Hacken, along with Anita's shadow, sang the song.

Leo sang Danny's "picking stars" and felt very excited. That song was one of the first songs back then to advocate quitting drugs. And coincidentally, Leo has been recently given the responsibility of being an anti-drug spokesperson. The feeling was very special. After the opening ceremony, Leo had to rush to Guangzhou to make real money. He didn't have time to view the exhibition.


http://paper.wenweipo.com/2007/03/22/EN0703220001.htm

Singers to re-sing Leslie Cheung's and Anita Mui's golden classics in the fight against piracy

Tony Leung Chiu Wai, the ambassador of Hong Kong's Entertainment Expo for 3 years in a row, has just helped promote a short film by Eric Kot Man Fai. It will be shown in many of Hong Kong's cinemas and outdoor screens. The Expo will begin on the 20th March and end on the 14th of April with the motto: the whole city gets into it and gives its full support. At the moment, Tony Leung is in Japan with Carina Lau skiing but will be present at the press conference on the 1st March. At this time, it will be difficult for them to avoid questioning over the gossip of Carina Lau and the Tawainese Kwok Chi Ming.

Profits from album to go towards anti-pirating fund

Hong Kong's Entertainment Expo has 8 events, one of which, the "2nd Annual Hong Kong Music Fair" (HKMF), is being held on 21st to the 23rd of March on the 7th level of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. IFPI has invited Kelly Chan, Eason Chan, Janice, Miriam Yeung, Twins, Hins Cheung, Fiona Sit, Hacken Lee, Joey Yung, Karen Mok and Leo Koo to re-sing several late singer's (Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung, Roman Tam and Beyond's Wong Ka Kui) golden classics. The songs will be recorded and thousands of CDs will be released and sold for HK$100. The profits made will go towards the anti-pirating fund.

There will be an exhibition and different singers will perform there each night. Everyone is welcome to come.

Taken from sina.com.hk