When it comes to the singers of the 1980s and 1990s, the names of Mui Yanfang, Chen Huixian, Ye Qianwen, Faye Wong and so on will always come to the minds of music fans first, especially in the cognition of the post-90s or even 00 years later, when the Hong Kong Music Queens were only a few of them.
But in that year, there was another person whose song was highly praised: "The Hong Kong music scene can not produce a single her in 20 years."
The woman who is enshrined as a myth in the Hong Kong music scene is Peng Ling, who has been in hiding for nearly 18 years, and is now 51 years old.
1989 was a turning point for the Hong Kong music scene.
During the year, Tam Wing Lin announced that she would no longer compete for any awards, and Cheung Kwok Wing and Chan Wai Sin announced their retirement from the singing scene.
It was also this year that two extraordinary 20-year-old girls appeared in the Hong Kong music scene, Peng Ling and Faye Wong.
That summer, the 20-year-old Peng Ling, without any background, officially stepped into the song world with a song "Deep in My Heart", and surprised everyone with a transparent and clear female voice.
With the fierce response caused by this debut single, Peng Ling immediately released his debut album "Whit Love" at the end of the year, three of which were all in the top 10 of the chart broadcast index, and won the "Bronze Award for Female Singer of the New Force" at the 1990 Hong Kong Pop Chart Awards Ceremony, while Faye Wong won the "Bronze Award for Female Singer".
After that, in addition to music, Faye Wong also developed into film and television dramas, and achieved good results. Peng Ling, on the other hand, chose to be a pure singer and almost maintained a new album every year.
Therefore, in that year, compared with Faye Wong's long award record, Peng Ling stood on the podium a lot less often, and many of the same type of music awards were always inferior to Faye Wong.
For example, in 1994, she won the Silver Award for Female Singer in the Music Scene with "Let Me Go With You", while Faye Wong won the gold medal of the same award.
When it comes to "Let Me Go With You", I have to praise Peng Ling's singing voice again. The song is a Cantonese version of the song "Thinking of You" based on Wu Qixian's Chinese song.
In the face of the difference in the Cantonese version, the original singer Wu Qixian thought that he could not sing, but Peng Ling used the unusual method of "chorus high voice direct real voice singing" to perfectly interpret this song.
Today, with the increasing and sophisticated music production, Peng Ling's "Let Me Follow You" is still enjoyed by many musicians.
Speaking of the "invisible dispute" between Peng Ling and Faye Wong.
In 1993, Faye Wong broke Lin Yilian's three consecutive titles in "After the Song of the Music Scene" and won it for 2 consecutive years.
In 1995, Peng Ling broke Faye Wong's two consecutive titles and defended the title of "Queen of the Music World" for the first time, and what made him break through was the seventh album "Outside the Window".
The song "Gadgets" in the album "Outside the Window" not only received rave reviews, but also added a lot of color to the entire album, and finally allowed Peng Ling to win eight major awards that year, including "the highest selling singer in Hong Kong and Taiwan in the whole year", "tvb's most popular female singer", "New Town Hot Female Singer", etc., which once surpassed Faye Wong.
After this, Peng Ling also had a classic masterpiece "Prisoner Bird", which won numerous awards, allowing Peng Ling to successfully enter the Taiwan market and broaden his popularity.
For the song "Prisoner Bird", I believe that many people are not unfamiliar today, because Hebe Tian Fuzhen, Deng Ziqi, Wang Junkai and other people have covered it, and because of this, many people do not know that Peng Ling is the original singer.
How red was Peng Ling at that time? How influential is it?
In 1997, Peng Ling was invited to participate in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala as the "only representative of Hong Kong female singers", which is enough to prove it.
After all, whether it was in the past or now, it is an honor to participate in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, not to mention the significance of participating as a representative of Hong Kong female singers in that special period, I believe it is needless to say.
Oh yes, Faye Wong first participated in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 1998.
After that, Peng Ling continued to maintain the state of launching new albums every year, including a few years in Cantonese and Chinese each launched, gradually strengthening the status of "diva of the music world" and continuing to "invisible competition" with Faye Wong.
Why does a singer who "competes" with Faye Wong and shines brightly, almost hear her name now?
It turns out that this diva who has been in the music world has always had the biggest dream of being a wife, not competing in the music world.
Peng Ling once said to his friend Huang Weiwen: "I only want to be a singer for the love of singing, not to compete for the most popular female singer award, the biggest goal is to marry a good husband, be a good wife and a good mother." ”
So in 1998, Peng Lingxia married Lin Haifeng, who was famous for DJ, and gave birth to two daughters after marriage.
In 2002, Peng Ling's rapids retired and announced her retirement from the music scene, no longer accepting fans to chase and media spotlights, and realized the dream of "husband and son".
And this difference is 10 years.
In 2012, Huang Weiwen held an exhibition of his works and had the honor of inviting Peng Ling, who had been retired for 10 years, to sing on stage again. On the stage of the Red Pavilion that night, in addition to "Gadgets", Peng Ling also sang "Heart Light" with Joey Yung.
Although she has been away from the stage for 10 years, she has been active on the stage for more than ten years, and she does not have any strangeness, but between her hands and feet, she still shows her style of diva. Many fans who have seen the scene or video of that performance have praised it.
That night, when Peng Ling finished singing "Gadgets", the audience, including the top executives of major record companies, stood up to applaud her.
This is not only the audience's greatest affirmation of the performers, but also the world's love and tribute to Peng Ling, the singer.
Unfortunately, since that performance, Peng Ling has not sung publicly, making many fans eagerly hope that she can make a comeback again, even if it is only once.
In fact, after Peng Ling withdrew from the music scene in 2002, the outside world hopes that her comeback has been endless, if you pay attention, you may find that in the comments of Peng Ling's songs on major music platforms, there are many comments: "Lin Haifeng, let your wife come out to sing."
Peng Ling has also publicly stated that her husband does not want her to come back, so "opposing Peng Ling's privatization" has also become the most common sentence in the mouths of fans for more than a decade.
"Should Peng Ling make a comeback?"
On this issue, presumably, it is also full of contradictions in the hearts of Peng Ling's fans.
First, as mentioned earlier, Peng Ling is not as multi-faceted as Faye Wong, and the style is also a relatively single "female love song".
This is a good thing for a singer, but for an artist, it is far from enough, especially in today's KPI, which regards "commercial value" as an artist's KPI, it is difficult for Peng Ling to maintain if he continues to take a single route.
Second, the gradual decline of the Hong Kong music scene, with the strength of Peng Ling is not enough to save, may also provoke a fishy body, so in the once glorious moment of rapid retreat, now living in a mansion to enjoy life, may be the most correct choice.
But even if there is more rational analysis, Xiao Zhi is still the same as the fans, emotionally hoping that one day, he can still watch Peng Ling on the stage again, even if it is a song.