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In 2011, a band called Five Continents Singing appeared on the stage of "Avenue of Stars".
It is worth noting that the lead singer of the band is a black man.
The black lead singer not only sang a Chinese song, but also spoke fluent Mandarin when interviewed by the host, and all kinds of performances left a deep impression on the audience.
Five continents singing band
What's more interesting is that this foreign singer not only made a stunning appearance, but the results of the competition were also extraordinary.
Because he and his band eventually won the monthly championship of the month's show, the black lead singer of this band is a good brother.
It is rare for black singers to become popular in China, but it is not nothing, a good brother is counted as one, and there is another named Hao Ge before him.
Good brother
Both black from Nigeria, whose names are quite related, is there any story between the two?
What made Good Brother choose China? Has he lived the life he had hoped for all these years?
Good brother and Hao Ge
The good brother is from Nigeria in Africa, originally named Steven, and everyone's impression of Africa is always poor and miserable.
But the good brother is lucky, his family belongs to what we call a well-off family.
Nigeria
Mom is a medical worker in a large hospital, and Dad is a people's teacher in a public school, both of whom hold an "iron rice bowl", so the material life of the good brother has not been lacking since childhood.
It is said that blacks have a natural racial advantage in singing, they have a rich voice and an innate sense of rhythm.
This may not cover 100% of the singing talent of all black people, but the talent of voice is undoubtedly revealed in the good brother.
His brother's brother, Emmanuel, loved to sing, often playing music at home, and at a young age he learned many songs, and when he was only four years old, he could hum many difficult high notes.
Noticing his brother's talent, his parents sent him to the church choir when he was 6 years old, where choir chants were sung as people prayed.
After the prayer, some believers would walk up to the choir and shake the little brother's hand and praise him for having a beautiful voice.
Prayer Choir
This often happens, and in the praise of others, the little good brother has gradually determined his dream of becoming a singer when he grows up.
The reason why parents send their good brother to the choir is on the one hand out of the cultivation of their children, and on the other hand, they hope that their children have the same beliefs, but this does not mean that they will support their children to follow the path of singers when they grow up, and it can even be said that they are against this as a dream.
So when he grows up, the first obstacle on the road to his dream is his parents.
The reason why his parents objected, firstly, because it was difficult to get out of the profession of singer, and he didn't have enough to eat, and secondly, he didn't want his good brother to follow the old path of his brother Emmanuel, so that he ended up leaving the country without news.
There are seven brothers and sisters in the good brother's family, and talking about this brother who left the country is a sad past for the family.
Because his brother Emmanuel fell out with his opposing parents in order to pursue his musical dreams, and finally went to China halfway around the world, his family did not hear from him for many years.
Hao Ge
The parents of the good brother do not want to "lose" another son.
The good brother is a filial child, although he likes to sing but does not want to see his parents sad, and his brother's affairs hit his parents very hard, so he put the matter of singing deep in his heart and began to focus on learning and hoping to become a doctor in the future.
Just when I thought my life would go on ordinarily, in 2008 it took a turn for the better.
My brother, who had been away from home for many years, returned home, and at this time the good brother learned that his brother was already a famous singer in China, and he also had a new Chinese named Hao Ge.
Hao Ge ran away in anger that year, and he secretly made up his mind that he would not go home if he did not break into fame, so he had not contacted his family for so many years.
It was not until he became famous that he returned to Nigeria to visit his parents and brothers, and it was also at this time that the good brother learned about his brother Hao Ge's experience of chasing his dream of being a singer in those years.
Some friends come from Africa
When Hao Ge was still living in Nigeria, he used to be an engineer.
It is a promising job, but Hao Ge himself does not like it, what he really likes is music, but music is labeled by his parents as not doing his job, so Hao Ge did not quarrel with his parents.
In the process of arguing, he kept compromising and became more and more depressed, coupled with daily work that he thought was tedious and rigid, Hao Ge finally broke out.
He expressed his plans to pursue his dream of being a singer to his parents, which, as expected, was strongly opposed.
But Hao Ge, who had long been iron-hearted, did not give up, quitting his high-paying job and leaving Nigeria after a quarrel that could tear up his family.
In 2001, among many countries, Hao Ge chose China.
He first lived in Henan, he didn't know anyone, he didn't understand the language, and he was often looked at strangely because of the appearance of foreigners, and Hao Ge was very uncomfortable at first.
Most of the money in the bank card was quickly spent, and in order to solve the problem of food and clothing, and to give himself a starting stage, Hao Ge found a job as a resident singer.
Sometimes there are many people in the bar, and the noise of the crowd will overshadow Hao Ge's singing, and sometimes the bar has few people and few listeners.
But in either case, Hao Ge did not regret his choice, and he was satisfied with immersed in singing.
Half a year passed in the life of resident singer, Hao Ge was no closer to his dream of being a singer, he began to feel dissatisfied with the small stage, just when Hao Ge was depressed, the turning point of fate came.
One day after his usual performance at the bar, a middle-aged man with long shoulder-length hair came up to talk to him.
The middle-aged man expressed his recognition of Hao Ge's singing, and hoped that Hao Ge could sign his own company, and Hao Ge took the business card given by the other party suspiciously.
At that time, Hao Ge had just come to China, and he didn't know a few Chinese characters, and even the spoken language would only be simple basic words such as sorry and thank you, but fortunately, the man spoke fluent English so that the communication between the two did not get into obstacles.
The man told Hao Ge that he was a musician, named Liu Huan, and Hao Ge did not know that the middle-aged man in front of him was a powerful Chinese singer who enjoyed a very high national popularity, and he did not know that he would appear on the stage of CCTV in the future.
After some exchanges, Hao Ge returned to the rental house and searched for entries about Liu Huan on the Internet, and there were many news and singing videos on the web page.
Liu Huan
Although he couldn't understand the words, but the music was borderless, listening to Liu Huan's singing, Hao Ge understood that he really hit his luck this time.
With an excited attitude to Liu Huan's company to sign a contract, Hao Ge has since become an artist of Liu Huan's company and Liu Huan's apprentice, and the two often communicate and discuss in the field of music.
"Buy" the audience with Chinese songs
Regarding Hao Ge's singing career, Liu Huan has certain plans.
He believes that in order for a foreigner to be loved by Chinese audiences, he must first solve the sense of distance between them, and the first manifestation of this problem is the language barrier.
China has never lacked good singers, and if you want Chinese audiences to remember and love Hao Ge from the sound alone, it is very difficult, the key is to have its own characteristics.
An African singer who can speak fluent Chinese will be a very distinctive attraction.
At Liu Huan's suggestion, Hao Ge began to learn what is said to be the most complex language system in the world - Chinese.
From pinyin to Chinese characters to words and sentences, Hao Ge learns Chinese to collapse.
A word has four tones, a word has several meanings, not to mention the four-character idiom, it is simply like a heavenly book, Hao Ge feels like his tongue is knotted, and he can't express anything clearly.
Fortunately, Liu Huan later thought of a way, he thought that since Hao Ge was good at music, he would combine music to learn Chinese, and he would use singing if he couldn't say it.
Sure enough, after using this method, Hao Ge's memory of words is much deeper, but learning a language cannot be rushed, and time is a necessary nutrient.
In the 4th year of the contract, every day Hao Ge used Chinese to communicate with others, and the efforts were not in vain, and the Chinese issued by this foreigner was finally correct.
Seeing Hao Ge ready, Liu Huan also felt that it was time for him to come to the front of the stage.
In 2006, Hao Ge appeared on the stage of "Avenue of Stars", the first foreigner to participate since the show was broadcast, and the audience felt very fresh, but that's all.
The music sounded, a well-known folk song sounded throughout the scene, Hao Ge's singing voice was high-pitched and atmospheric, and the Chinese pronunciation was meticulous.
Since participating in the competition, Hao Ge has almost always sung Chinese folk songs, which is deeply appreciated by the audience.
Coupled with his own singing strength, Hao Ge stood out among the contestants, from the weekly champion all the way to the stage of the annual final, although he finally passed the champion with a small vote gap, but Hao Ge, who held the runner-up trophy, still left moving tears.
After winning the award of "Avenue of Stars", Hao Ge has a certain popularity, followed by more and more programs and commercial performance invitations, and Hao Ge has more stages.
The singing career finally came to an end, and Hao Ge, who had been away from home for many years, decided to go home and share this joy with his family.
The good brother admired after listening to his brother's dream chasing story, and he was happy for Hao Ge and envious at the same time, he hoped that he could have such a day.
Hao Ge learned of his brother's distress, as if he saw himself back then, and immediately decided to help his brother complete his dream, Hao Ge hoped that his brother could go to China with him to develop, so he went to his parents to persuade.
In the past, his parents blocked Hao Ge from singing because they felt that there was no way out, but after seeing Hao Ge's real success, his parents were also happy from the bottom of their hearts, and heard that Hao Ge planned to take his good brother to China, and his parents did not stop him this time.
The copy succeeded
The good brother came to China with Hao Ge and followed the customs, so he took a Chinese name called Good Brother.
With Hao Ge's advice, the good brother's dream path has taken many detours, he does not have to go to the bar to sing about life, but focuses on overcoming language difficulties.
At that time, Hao Ge had already bought a house in Beijing, he signed up for a language study class for his good brother, and stipulated that when he and his brother were at home, they could only use Chinese to communicate.
Although this way of learning is a bit harsh, it works very well, and it doesn't take long for the good brother to be able to communicate basically.
In 2008, the second year of my brother's arrival in China, the pronunciation of Chinese was not very standard, but there was no problem with oral expression.
By chance, he met a Chinese girl, the other party is lively and generous, and has the unique empathy of oriental women, the good brother fell in love with the other party at first sight, so he began to pursue, and a Sino-African relationship began.
With a Chinese girlfriend, the good brother's feelings for China are deeper, he is determined to take root here as soon as possible, to have his own career and own home, in order to spur himself, the good brother lives in Hao Ge's company, and there is only one thing to do every day before waking up and going to bed, that is, making music.
The opportunity was reserved for the prepared good brother, who finally had the opportunity to sing on the show in the fifth year of coming to China, and he participated in a red song competition and finally reached the national final.
Although he did not win the championship, his good brother was also familiar to the audience.
At Hao Ge's suggestion, the good brother signed up for "Avenue of Stars" to prepare to take his brother's road to fame, but compared to Hao Ge, the good brother has his own killer skill, that is, his own band.
He formed a band called Five Continents Singing, which featured a band composed of people from different places and even races, and its meaning was that music has no borders.
In 2011, Hao Di led the Five Continents Band to appear on the CCTV stage and finally won the monthly championship.
However, unluckily, there was a popular player Zhu Zhiwen among the players that year, so the good brother did not make it to the end, but with the name of the moon champion and Hao Ge's younger brother, the good brother successfully made the audience remember him.
Zhu Zhiwen
The famous good brother has also begun to have more and more program invitations, not only singing programs, but also language programs like "Chinese Bridge", after all, as a foreigner speaks fluently Chinese it is really admirable.
Slowly his good brother's career also shined, he said in an interview that it was Chinese Min who gave him the stage and gave him the opportunity to shine, and he used the idiom of Zhi'en Tubao to express his thoughts.
After the success, the good brother began to participate in some public welfare activities, such as funding left-behind children and some charity performances.
Now that the good brother has married his Chinese girlfriend, he has officially settled in China, and the only regret is that he has not been able to obtain a green card in China.
He said on his social accounts:
Those who can obtain Chinese green cards are foreigners who have contributed to China, and may not be able to become green cards in this life.
But the Chinese language, customs and customs have flowed into his blood, counting the identity of the Chinese son-in-law, he is already half a Chinese.
Epilogue:
China is a very inclusive country, and our acceptance of foreign friends such as Hao Ge and Hao Ge also reflects the tolerance and harmony of a nation, and when the world does not recognize people by race and color, it is a more perfect world.
What do you have to say about this? Welcome to leave your opinion in the comment area!
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Text | Big scoop
Editor|Green Smoke