Author / Zheng Yonghe
Editor / Zhu Ting
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On May 20 and 21, 2023, Li Yuchun's "Happy Weekend" concert will be sung in Beijing for two consecutive days.
As four years ago, the choreographed show was perfect.
Li Yuchun is not only a performer, but also the chief director and director of this performance, and she participates in everything about the concert, from stage design to music selection, music arrangement, costumes and other details.
It's not the same as four years ago.
Li Yuchun, who has always been restrained, seems to have opened a brand new romantic button.
She stood in the middle of the crowd, as if she was staring, as if she was simply looking back, waiting for someone to meet her gaze and say "Happy weekend" to each other.
It's a wonderful feeling.
Science and technology accelerate progress, the world is changing with each passing day, domestic entertainment is advancing bravely, the industry has undergone several changes, fashion pop elements from frigid Morandi back to colorful millennial Y2K, in this fast era of pursuing a movie in 3 minutes, Li Yuchun slowed down, paid more attention to inward exploration, and insisted on the output of his own senses. This may be the only reason why Li Yuchun is always the only reason why idols everywhere are everywhere. As Li Yuchun's long-time friend Long Danni's circle of friends said: "Chunchun is finally a generation of high-quality idols, popular icons, irreplaceable. ”
"The Saddest Album"
- "Crazy life is firing violently at us from all directions. By "Happy Weekend"
It is clearly a song that sounds very happy, but why can it be so "piercing the lung tube"? It starts with the album "Happy Weekend".
On April 13, 2023, the eleventh solo album of Li Yuchun's career was launched, and the new album included 12 new songs including the album's eponymous title track "Happy Weekend", most of which were written and composed by Li Yuchun himself.
"A flower that is still smiling today, will wither tomorrow", a song inspired by the English poet Shelley's "Impermanence", which opens the album with "Happy Weekend", which combines realism and romanticism. This album gives listeners a touch that is not so similar to the previous "Li Yuchun". In the copywriting, Li Yuchun described it as follows, "I think it seems to be the saddest album I have ever created so far. ”
This album, which took three years to complete on and off, has no gorgeous avant-garde concept output, no avant-garde technical display, and some are just "chopped" moments from Li Yuchun in three years. And these moments are Li Yuchun's real perception of real "life" in the past three years.
How real is that?
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The interview with "Most People" described it like this:
This spring has been difficult, and it will take her a lot of effort to be able to walk a little bit. One night, she was recording a new song at home herself, and she broke down and cried as she sang it.
It was the spring when Li Yuchun was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis. In the new album, she wrote this difficulty into "Five Organs", frankly sharing her very personal feelings about ankylosing spondylitis.
Of course, the "sadness" Li Yuchun refers to is not only the pain of illness, but also the perspective of an observer who describes all kinds of life, powerlessness in life, and unreservedly spreads out her bad self.
This kind of low mood is indeed uncommon in Li Yuchun's previous works, but it clearly and precisely points to the current social emotional resonance. The era of rapid progress is indiscriminately attacking all small individuals. Everyone is shouting that the earth will explode while praying for good weather, and this feeling of being beaten but still expecting is repeatedly depicted in "Happy Weekend".
Li Yuchun wants to capture those controllable and uncontrollable moments, and convey the most true self and the perception of the world at this stage in music. How to achieve this?
The answer is: speak up.
At "2023 Li Yuchun Weekend Happy Concert - Beijing Station", she performed "Five Organs", a new song about illness and love, but the words of the chat were full of energy, "Bright things are short-lived, so I think I have to say love to the people and friends you love." ”
With tears in her eyes, she said, "If it weren't for us being together face to face like this, I wouldn't believe it", and even designed a love song skewer session for fans and friends who hadn't seen each other for a long time. Li Yuchun, who has a more restrained personality, is trying to express her surging love in her way. She sang "Tonight I just want to waste with you" on stage, and fans in the audience enthusiastically responded "I do." “
How can such Li Yuchun not understand romance?
In 2007, she stood in the vortex of public opinion, holding the medal of the most popular female singer, in response to the love of fans. 16 years later, on the stage where we met again after four years and 310, I reproduced that loving speech in the face of the streamers in the sky:
"You are all stars on the star screen, although not every one is shining, but you are next to me as soon as you look up."
In fact, in the outside world, Li Yuchun has always been less talkative, and has not exposed too much about his personal life habits. The market has more fast, efficient and high-exposure ways, but she always prefers to use music to express her views on music on life, insisting on constantly extending her perspective at every stage of life and career, to observe, to feel, to respond.
On the subway on the way back, Corn excitedly recounted her special, "Her songs are always expressed with the mood of the times, and she has done what a public figure and creator should do." ”
Just like this weekend's concert, she wore armor and sang "Soft Underbelly". The costume, which Li Yuchun described as "very strong, very powerful" on the spot, seemed to say "life is difficult, but if you can catch your breath on the weekend, please hide in and spend it happily."
Perhaps, this is the humanistic expression that music and idols are supposed to bear.
Because life is really hard, this matter, there is nothing to avoid. "I think even if it's broken, I still have to find a way to put myself back piece by piece."
Childish, living, and calm, all are Li Yuchun
- "The second hand turns ticking..." by "Next, intersection, see"
The sound of the chorus gradually became louder, and the crowd was crowded, looking at the post-05 teenager standing up in the front row and jumping happily, and then looking at the sparkling singer on the stage, fan Archie couldn't help but sigh, "It's worthy of Li Yuchun who I sent one text message after another back then." ”
The story goes back to the beginning, in 2005, Li Yuchun won the championship of "Super Girl" with 3528308 text message voting. THAT YEAR, SHE BECAME A "CHINESE POP CULTURE REPRESENTATIVE," AND THE COVER OF TIME MAGAZINE GAVE HER THE TITLE: ASIA'S HEROES.
Such a symbolic label brought flowers applause and overwhelming doubts. In such a whirlpool of public opinion, the protagonist Li Yuchun gave a response to insisting on holding the Why Me concert for ten years. It sounds a bit stubborn, but it was a time of intense competition in the Chinese music scene, and everyone needed to prove their worth it with business. Li Yuchun is the same.
In the ten years since she completed Why Me, she has indeed been cool and brilliant, answering all doubts with the gesture of a priceless sister who belongs to her.
Later, Li Yuchun, who proved Why Me, entered a new stage. She began to write "For Girls", please believe that you are a wonderful existence, and speak up for the women who have been hurt in the social news; also wrote "Simon Boy" to respond to the 2012 "No More Crazy We Will Be Old" self. And it is the popularity of this self-described song that makes Li Yuchun strongly realize that musical works "have their own DNA" and are something that can be perceived by listeners.
In this year's "Happy Weekend", from album creation to performance design, Li Yuchun chose to fade the concept of gorgeous pioneers and extend more inward. There is no cool technology, even the tour was teased by corn sweetly "a lot simpler, and used to be the main cool". Obviously, this performance, which was moved from 2020 to 2023, has a more obvious self-expression.
"This album it's more like my private diary for the last three years."
From "See You at the Next Crossing" to "Savage Growth" to "Wow", and now "Happy Weekend", eighteen years have passed, and the cool pioneer girl from before calmly accepts all of herself. She opened her heart to share the uncontrollable life she faced with more people, and more and more began to reveal herself and enter the crowd.
So, with "The Ostrich Ran Away". Li Yuchun uses a song inspired by real news events to link the collision and expression of a public figure and the mood of the times.
The larger context of the times is that in the past three years, the public has been dealing with uncertainty, and in this restless trek, we have been accompanied by elephants, pigs and horses, and the whale named Alice in "Endless Sea"... A release like a wild wind, we all need it so much.
She does not shy away from the impact of "loss of control" on her personal life and work, and generously shows her emotional, restless and gradual stabilization process in "The Tide is Ferocious". The title "Happy Weekend" depicts an unadorned and most authentic world from the perspective of an ordinary person, calling for cherishing everyday life.
Then use "Airdrop" to deliver Li Yuchun's self-ridiculed somewhat "childish" gentle romance to every listener who has not seen him for four years and three hundred and ten days. Music critic Zhao Nanfang wrote: One of the wonderful things about Li Yuchun's "Airdrop" lies in the echo of the lyrics and songs. Especially in the chorus, the combination of the four words "airdrop", "space" is the embodiment of "distance", but in the song, the rapidity of "zero distance" is achieved, so that the emotional connection heats up quickly.
The moment of the live performance was directly air-dropped with streamers full of romantic lyrics, and fans picked up their clothes and carried sacks to receive "airdrops" from Chunchun, the scene was warm and cute.
Also at the same frequency is a 395-word poem composed of "Because we breathe the same air", this moment, here, us, me and you... The story of man continues in the breath.
These more plain, more subtle but gentle expressions firmly convey an irresistible vitality. In today's entertainment environment where safety is paramount and everyone is silent, the alienated ostrich is rushing into the painting against the current, and this vitality is full of courage and sincerity, and it is difficult not to move people.
It is also worth mentioning that Li Yuchun (regardless of platform) has served as the zero finale of the New Year's Eve party for 18 consecutive years, which is amazing on the one hand, and the other meaning lies in her super thinking and penetration. From the earliest "Ah Mo" to "Prologue", "Next, Crossing, See" to "Savage Growth" to "Pop" to "Priceless Sister" to "God Reply" to last year's "Viscera", "Happy Weekend" and "Like You", carefully reviewed, every New Year's Eve stage of Li Yuchun is also the "emotional white paper" of that year.
Such emotional links are also reflected in the stage of the concert.
Wearing Gucci's full performance suit remodeled from the structure of an equestrian suit, she sings the phrase "how many storms a woman has to go through to grow up, being yourself is not a simple slogan", and the sense of power and impact is overwhelming - music and dreams are priceless, family and friends are priceless, love and faith are priceless, life and courage are priceless.
Li Yuchun on the stage is like a knight, declaring everything she cares about, and she has never stopped thinking and expressing. Obviously there is only one microphone in her hand, but at that moment, behind her, it seems that thousands of troops are supporting her, stepping on the waves.
Idols everywhere, the only icon
Li Yuchun once mentioned such an incident in an interview with "T China", "My colleague wants to build a record entry for "Happy Weekend" on Douban, so that fans and friends can write comments after listening to it. Later, by asking Douban for help, I learned that it was because no one had reviewed the Douban record entry, and the platform feedback (review permission) was transferred to the book group. There is no music group, and music no longer knows where the industry is, which shocks us."
In the past two decades, the music industry has changed beyond Douban entries.
From 2005 to 2009, Li Yuchun's record sales swept the major lists, and during that period, everyone fought for the sales of physical records, and popular songs did not live on short video platforms, but circulated in BGMs in various roadside stores. In 2011, Song Ke shouted "records are dead", and the music industry opened the chapter of the digital age.
2019's "Savage Growth" is Li Yuchun's first attempt to release a record entirely through digital platforms. As a singer, from the decline of traditional records to the rise of digital albums, Li Yuchun has always stood firm in the great changes in the domestic music industry.
Later, short videos entered the music industry, and the stories of the annual list that caused group ridicule are vividly remembered. Now that "nostalgia" is on the rise, she enjoys it too, but she doesn't get lost in the nostalgia for the really good works of the past. In Li Yuchun's story, the ideals and hormones of that year followed the evening breeze of 1991 and blew to 2023.
I have to admit that the domestic idol industry has developed so far, and Li Yuchun is the most special existence among them.
Industry discussion idol, she must be mentioned. It is not only the recognition of creative and commercial success, but also the responsibility of value expression - what can you do as an "idol"?
Li Yuchun has bluntly answered his views on the changing market perception of the contemporary profession of "idol" in an interview with My Bronze Age. She admits that she does not like the excessive packaging of idols, idols should be a position to express themselves on the stage, "Anyone who stands on the stage, he should be himself, is self-aware." ”
She did not deny the effectiveness of the new model, but as a passer-by, calmly and peacefully gave a touching "cherishing".
In that interview, when the host mentioned that the selection form was a variety show, Li Yuchun in the video frowned, "But more than 100 children are real, their real (real) lives." As a representative contestant of the domestic idol industry, she knows that the "idols" created with frameworks and rules to cater to the market will eventually dissipate in the bubble. Only a small number of 100 people can touch the so-called success, and most of the rest will become "victims" of this bubble.
This is not only the empathy of the seniors, but also the heartfelt truth of 18 years of experience. The market perception of the idol concept has changed several times, with high-rise banquet guests, Vanity Fair ups and downs, and few can finally stay.
In that context, it was not difficult for Li Yuchun to give a safer answer, but she did not do that, she chose to sincerely follow her heart's answer.
In fact, not only interviews, but in any expression, she is trying to make the content valuable.
After the album Pop, she began to try to give herself enough personal space. Admire the flowers, see the clouds, learn to draw and photograph, and leave plenty of time to think and feel life. Earlier, she had said, "It's just a job, it shouldn't be yours." It is this kind of "stripping" and observation that to a large extent allows her to get rid of the "vacuum" of artists. It was also from the album "Pop" that Li Yuchun's perspective of music creation completely shifted to a larger space for social issues.
In addition to music, an interesting phenomenon, over the years, no matter how public opinion rolls up the stereotypical requirements about women and the appearance of female stars, Li Yuchun has never been coerced, let alone catered to.
In the face of major right and wrong, it is even more unambiguous.
At the beginning of April this year, Versace officially announced Li Yuchun as the global brand spokesperson, and before the official announcement of the news, Li Yuchun asked the brand owner to correctly mark the country of ownership of Hong Kong and Macau as China (China) on the issue of the graphic labeling of the brand's sweatshirt. Let the brand recognize the mistake and put it right.
People's Entertainment highly praised Li Yuchun's attitude of equal dialogue with international brands and his sense of responsibility as a public figure who took the initiative to convey correct values.
Small things have an attitude, big things are not invisible, which is why Li Yuchun can become the only icon - Li Yuchun today.
The idols that the times really need are not "industrial commodities" stacked with data, nor are they "dummys" that do not eat human fireworks, but real, valuable expressions, and life perception icons. She may not be the number one data king forever, but she must be the independent luminous person who is willing to speak, listen, and stop and think.
From 2005 to 2023, eighteen years have passed, and I think that if the cover of "Time" is shot again, the cover title written for Li Yuchun should still not change.
Reference:
1, T Chinese version: some "careless nonsense" with Li Yuchun
2, Harper's Bazaar: Li Yuchun Broken Sun
3, Random Bomb Mountain: "Happy Weekend" first test on the whole network: Why does Li Yuchun say that this is her "saddest album"?
4. Tencent Video: "My Bronze Age"
5. The most personality: Li Yuchun again, why?
Source: Weibo, Douban, invasion and deletion.