Before reading this article, please click "Follow", which is convenient for you to discuss and share, and can bring you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support.
Wen|South Lane Resident Scholar
Editor|South Lane Resident Scholar
At the 2023 Greater Bay Area Film and Music Gala, 74-year-old Xu Xiaofeng made a rare appearance again.
Dressed in a pink long dress, he sang three classic old songs in a row, making the audience shout "Childhood memories are back!" ”
In the group photo of a group of powerful stars, Xu Xiaofeng is still firmly in the C position, and even Jackie Chan is her fan brother.
However, Xu Xiaofeng of this party not only did not get the reputation of the sword not aging, but was also questioned by many netizens for lip-synching.
"If you hold the microphone too far, it won't be right."
Even true love fans helplessly admitted that the sound of the scene and the record were exactly the same, and this time Xu Xiaofeng sang undoubtedly.
Xu Xiaofeng, who once dominated Hong Kong, is on a par with Teresa Teng and the originator of the diva of the Chinese music scene, is it really late in the festival?
The diva of nightclubs comes out
Xu Xiaofeng, who was born in Wuhan, Hubei Province, is the eldest in the family.
She also has five younger siblings, and the family is living very poorly.
Hearing that they could make money in Hong Kong, Xu Xiaofeng's family moved to Hong Kong and settled down, opening a food store.
But life is still untenable.
Although Xu Xiaofeng, who reached the second grade of junior high school, had excellent grades, her family could no longer afford her to continue her studies, so she was forced to drop out of school.
After dropping out of school, she is still positive and optimistic.
When helping out in the shop at home, Xu Xiaofeng often sang loudly.
It attracted many neighbors and customers to stop and listen, and everyone praised her for her good voice.
At that time, no one thought that this girl from a poor family, thin and ordinary looking would become a generation of divas in the future.
In 1966, 17-year-old Xu Xiaofeng accompanied his friends to participate in the "Hong Kong Warbler" singing competition on a whim.
Originally, I went to play soy sauce, but I didn't expect to directly conquer the judges with a song "Fire of Love" and win the championship.
Flowers and applause surrounded her, and many record companies threw olive branches to her, and "Hong Kong Warbler" has since become Xu Xiaofeng's code name.
Just when Xu Xiaofeng was about to become popular, her parents strongly opposed their daughter becoming a singer.
Sticking to traditional ideas, they believe that singers not only do not have a stable income, but are also "dramas" that the world despises.
Girls should do their part and run the family business well.
Xu Xiaofeng has always been very well-behaved, but this time he did not listen to his parents.
She frequently appears on the stage of nightclubs and bars.
At that time, other singers could not sing for less than two hours, but Xu Xiaofeng was very talented and could sing for six or seven hours a night.
You can even go to different nightclubs and sing, the highest record is running 13 nightclubs in one night.
For a good stage effect, she prepared more than a hundred songs as her "small song library".
The audience can listen to whatever they want, and change if they are not satisfied.
Relying on singing, Xu Xiaofeng earns a lot of money.
She handed over all her pay to her parents and instructed her to subsidize her family's life.
With her daughter's persistent efforts in the eyes of the second elder, coupled with the constant persuasion of relatives and friends, Xu Xiaofeng's parents still relaxed and let her chase her music dream.
At the age of 20, she seems to never run out of energy, and it is this persistence that has quickly ushered in a turnaround in her career.
The hard stubble of career take-off
On an ordinary evening singing in the bar, Musician Man Bo could see at a glance that Xu Xiaofeng was a malleable talent.
He handed her his business card.
Under the recommendation of Wen Jibo, she signed a record company, recorded 12 songs in one breath in two days, and published them into three albums.
At that time, the Hong Kong music scene was mainly popular Cantonese opera, and pop music had not really become popular.
Xu Xiaofeng has almost no packaging marketing, and has conquered many listeners with his modern singing style and plump middle and low range.
The Hong Kong music scene once circulated the saying that "men listen to Xu Guanjie, women listen to Xu Xiaofeng".
With a rapid rise in popularity, she began to try across borders and starred in her first movie "Light Smoke".
However, the response was mediocre, and without stirring up any splashes, she still sang steadily.
In the future, Xu Xiaofeng was a model worker in the music industry, and released many albums every year.
Less than ten years after his debut, he won the Golden Record Award with "Divine Phoenix".
However, behind the infinite scenery lies a crisis.
At that time, some listeners bluntly said that Xu Xiaofeng had a good voice, but no soul.
And the style of music is single, only follow the pop music stream, and I am tired of listening to it.
To this end, she boldly innovated, hoping to integrate the characteristics of folk songs on the album "Wind and Rain on the Same Road" and sing the beauty of gentleness and sorrow.
But the company vehemently opposed her wild ideas.
The leader has said more than once: "How long have folk songs been outdated, pop music is the most fashionable!" ”
Xu Xiaofeng tried to arrange for everyone, patting his chest and assuring the company: "If you can fire, you believe me!" ”
Sure enough, a lyrical and sad song "Selling Tangyuan" was popular all over the country.
After its release, the album not only sold more than 200,000 copies in Hong Kong, but also won the first Hong Kong Top Ten Chinese Golden Melody Award.
In the future, she was even more confident and bolder to change her musical style.
Not only integrated into jazz, rock and other musical styles, but also participated in the arrangement and design, and added a lot of his own small ideas.
Such as imitating animal sounds, whistling, adapting lyrics, etc., to make the song more interesting and lively.
Xu Xiaofeng single-handedly changed the trend of Hong Kong stage performances.
Once the old Shanghai style swept Hong Kong, pursuing morbid beauty.
Xu Xiaofeng did the opposite, each stage shape was beautiful and atmospheric, turning "old Shanghai" into the aesthetic of "new Hong Kong".
Even the CCTV Spring Festival Gala made an exception for her.
The director personally flew to Hong Kong and invited Xu Xiaofeng, who could not be scheduled to participate in the recording and broadcast of two songs.
At that time, Xu Xiaofeng was in the limelight, and Lu Zhong said bluntly: "I applied for the Red Hall for two years without success, but Xu Xiaofeng performed 43 consecutive performances!" ”
Xu Xiaofeng, who is not from a high background, is not low in spirit.
At an award ceremony, gambling king Stanley Ho fought against family power and did not hide Xu Xiaofeng's mouth.
Not only mocked her for her age, but also made color jokes.
He said loudly: "You have won so many awards, so successful, I see, you have to help me tonight!" ”
In other words, if you want to mix in the Hong Kong music scene, you will inevitably swallow your anger and succumb to the power of the gambling king.
Xu Xiaofeng couldn't swallow this breath, and echoed: "Mr. He, why should I help you?" What do you do? ”
This is clearly not threatened by the name of the gambling king.
Because of this matter. Xu Xiaofeng got the name of "no one dares to mess with".
Although she toughened Stanley Ho in public, she was not an unreasonable person.
In the Hong Kong entertainment industry, her character is widely praised.
Character is true
Xu Xiaofeng is not an ungrateful person.
The money she earned from singing hard in a nightclub was taken home almost untouched to provide education for her younger siblings and to support their families.
After becoming famous, she did not shy away from her origins, and bought a large villa to bring her elderly parents to enjoy her old age.
At the peak of his career, Xu Xiaofeng announced his relationship with Liao Hui in a high-profile manner.
The story of a singer who fell in love with a car sales manager is an uproar.
Such a bold show of love, many people thought that the two would inevitably get married, and sent blessings one after another.
But after 6 years of long-distance love, the two suddenly broke up when they were talking about marriage.
It turned out that Liao Hui was a Canadian citizen, and asked Xu Xiaofeng to leave his current career, change his nationality, and settle in the United States together.
When Xu Xiaofeng heard this, he decisively refused, it was impossible for him to change his nationality, let alone settle in the United States.
She said bluntly: "I can only be a Chinese in my life!" ”
With the righteousness of her family and country in her heart, she could not bear to betray her homeland.
In the future, Xu Xiaofeng also had scandals, but they were eventually confirmed as rumors.
"It's something you can't ask for."
For love, Xu Xiaofeng is very emotional.
She knows that she is an unruly lover, and she can't keep her relationship with each other, so she chose to remain single until now.
As the originator of the diva of the music industry, Xu Xiaofeng did not use his identity as a predecessor to suppress his juniors.
On the contrary, she enthusiastically promoted, and every time she attended the event and encountered questions from juniors, she would share her stage experience and never hide it.
Anita Mui became popular at first, but also relied on covering Xu Xiaofeng's "Season of the Wind", and even surpassed the original singing.
Xu Xiaofeng was not jealous, but also invited Anita Mui to perform this classic masterpiece on the same stage at his own concert.
At the 1993 award ceremony, Hong Kong superstars such as Faye Wong, Li Ming, Kwok Fucheng, Andy Lau and other Hong Kong superstars took turns to present flowers to Xu Xiaofeng.
Zhou Yunfa even claimed that he would take care of Xu Xiaofeng's second half of his life.
At the 2014 concert, Andy Lau sang songs with Xu Xiaofeng as a guest.
Liu Tianwang, who saw the idol, knelt down excitedly to express his worship for her.
Everyone gave her enough noodles, and her good character can be seen from this.
At that time, the four heavenly kings who were popular at that time added up, and their fame was inferior to Xu Xiaofeng.
She is like a mountain, standing tall in the Hong Kong music scene, which is difficult to surpass.
Aware of this, she understands that the resources in the entertainment industry are limited, and she needs to give more opportunities to young people.
After holding an unprecedented 15 concerts at the Red Hall of the Hung Hom Stadium in Hong Kong, she said goodbye to her fans and faded out of the music scene ever since.
Xu Xiaofeng has no children and no daughters, and is devoted to charity.
In the future, her performances were basically in the type of charity activities, which were used to raise funds for children in poor mountainous areas and refugees in disaster areas.
In many public welfare activities, she can be seen working silently.
After learning that there is a charity association in Beijing that specializes in providing services to single mothers.
Xu Xiaofeng bought 100 tickets out of his own pocket and invited single mothers to Beijing to see his concert.
In 2020, Xu Xiaofeng, who has not appeared for a long time, appeared at the TVB One Heart Public Welfare Charity Gala.
She led Joey Yung and Andy Lau to sing with volunteers, and all the points were donated to charitable foundations.
This time the Greater Bay Area Film and Music Gala was notified urgently, and Xu Xiaofeng was ready to rush, coupled with his advanced age, he really lacked spare energy.
In the face of doubts from the outside world, the studio also frankly admitted that the recording was played on the spot.
Many fans also extinguished their anger after knowing it and expressed their understanding.
For them, it is already the greatest satisfaction that the elderly idol can be in good health.
epilogue
Although the Hong Kong entertainment industry is known for being open, many stars are true temperament.
But under the calm water is the Longtan Tiger's Den, and if you want to maintain the good reputation of your character for decades, it is not as simple as establishing a personal design.
74-year-old Xu Xiaofeng, even if she has faded out of the music scene, every birthday, Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau and other superstars still send her blessings.
In the group photo, she has also been sitting in the C position, and the status of a sister can be seen.
From a stubborn singing girl in a nightclub to a diva who is famous in the Chinese music scene.
Xu Xiaofeng has come all the way, not only with superb singing skills, but also relying on character.