In 2020, Shan Yichun sang a song "Forever Young" on the stage of "The Voice", which became another hit song, and she was one step closer to becoming a champion.
The original singer of this song stopped in the top 16 of the group stage on the stage of "The Voice" and was eliminated from the Naying group.
She is Ai Yiliang.
A singer who is always "hot" in other people's songs.
In 2017, she defeated Wei Ruxuan and Yang Naiwen, won the Golden Melody Award, and then wrote songs for Xu Jiaying, Zhang Huimei and others.
In the past few years, Ai Yiliang has almost become a "missing person".
Many people are asking: Where did Ai Yiliang go?
Ai Yiliang's acting career can be described as full of twists and turns.
Ai Yiliang has been holding a paintbrush since he was a child, studying art in high school and college, and has a stable job after graduation.
I thought I would deal with painting for the rest of my life, but I didn't expect her to quit a year later.
In 2004, Ai Yiliang's current agent, Zuo Guangping, participated in the jury of the singing competition of the High School Affiliated to Normal University as a senior.
That was the first time he had heard Ai Yiliang sing.
Among the Chinese songs, only Ai Yiliang chose "Nothing Compares 2 U", with a thick and textured voice, not quite like an adolescent child.
This song made Ai Yiliang win the audience, and Zuo Guangping thought that one day this child would definitely enter the music scene.
That was also the first time that Ai Yiliang, who has been studying art, knew that she was so good at singing, and it also planted a seed for her to dare to quit her job to pursue her singing dream when she grew up.
In 2008, 20-year-old Ai Yiliang received an invitation to participate in the first "Super Idol" kicking competition.
Two years later, the unwilling Ai Yiliang appeared on the stage of "Super Idol" again.
This time, she was well prepared, and won the championship in one fell swoop with her solid singing skills and mature typhoon.
In the competition, Ai Yiliang won the MVP many times, and set the highest score of 44.8 points in the history of the "Super Idol" draft with his cover of Zhang Huimei's "Only Love High Heels", and was praised by the judges as "Taiwan's version of Adele" and "Queen of Blues".
After winning the championship, Ai Yiliang signed a record company, and well-known musicians such as Wang Zhiping, Zuo An'an, Liu Tianjian, and Xue Zhongming all appreciated Ai Yiliang's musical talent, and jointly produced her first solo album "If You Love Me".
This album is well-made, diverse in style, and very audible, and Ai Yiliang was also shortlisted for the Golden Melody Award for Best Newcomer with his wonderful performance.
But this album didn't make Ai Yiliang popular.
So, the company arranged for her to go to the mainland for development and participate in the mainland's draft, so as to open up her popularity.
At that time, talent shows were emerging, and "good voices", "good songs" and "strongest voices" were in full swing.
In 2013, in a number of talent shows, Ai Yiliang participated in Hunan Satellite TV's "China's Strongest Voice".
The biggest gain from participating in this show is that you can see Teacher Luo Dayou and get his guidance.
On the competitive stage, Ai Yiliang can always show extraordinary talent, with his unique musical charm, won the second place in the women's group and the fifth place in the country, and was accepted as an apprentice by Luo Dayou on the spot.
Songs such as "Indian Old Turtledove" and "Mercy", which were covered in the show, are still the most popular versions of covers.
However, "China's Strongest Voice" was stolen by "The Voice of China", and the ratings were losing one after another, and Ai Yiliang was still not well known by mainland audiences.
In the second year, Ai Yiliang participated in "The Voice of China", and the song "Wet Hair" in the blind audition stage was amazing, and became a student of the Naying group, but when the show was broadcast, this performance was cut to only two seconds.
In the later mentor assessment group PK competition, she and Chen Bing sang "He Doesn't Love Me", but they were eliminated miserably and bid farewell to the stage prematurely.
It was a controversial decision that caused a stir online.
Many people think that Ai Yiliang is better than Chen Bing in terms of singing skills, but "He Doesn't Love Me" has completely become Chen Bing's personal show, and the more exciting parts of the whole song are given to her, which is very unfair to Ai Yiliang.
She said: Competing and singing are to move forward, to put on a surging performance, the goal is simple, but when you become a record singer, you have to highlight your personality and use good works to represent yourself.
As a result, Ai Yiliang began to devote himself to creation, trying to use his works to speak.
In 2014, she released her second album "Adult Love Song".
Ai Yiliang fully demonstrated her creative ability, she participated in the creation of 5 songs, including "Adult Love Song", "Upper Class", "I Don't Know What Love Is", "Glory", "Harrow", etc., and the whole album is very personal.
The wonderful creation and interpretation also made this album win the 2014 Chinese Musicians Exchange Association's Top Ten Album of the Year Award.
During this period, singers such as Zhang Huimei and Liu Ruoying also invited her to sing, and in 2015, she wrote the lyrics of "What Do You Want to Do" for Ah Mei, which was included in the album "Amit 2".
also contributed a song to Liu Ruoying, creating "I Don't Get Tired of Seeing Each Other".
Writing songs has become a way for Ai Yiliang to vent her emotions, and she spent another two years accumulating her experience into a source of creation, and in 2016 she came up with her third solo album "Speaking of Ai Yiliang".
This album includes 8 personal creations by Ai Yiliang, and the hard work pays off, and Ai Yiliang was shortlisted for 7 awards at the 28th Golden Melody Awards with this high-quality album.
Among them, "Our Sum", written by herself, was shortlisted for three heavyweight awards: Best Song of the Year, Best Lyric and Best Composition.
What everyone, including herself, didn't expect was that she won this great honor after being shortlisted for the first time.
Standing on the podium, she revealed her true feelings: I am like a very weak puddle of water, what container people want me to put in, I am 100% willing to put it in, willing to become any shape, as long as it can satisfy you, I am willing to be happy, I am willing to be sad, and I am willing to be wild.
But one day I was sprinkled like this, sprinkled out, flooded a field, ran around with the current, traveled, wandered, scattered, one day back to the harbor, all the stones were ground to pieces by me, thank you parents for waiting for me for so long, thank you for waiting for me for so long!
What she wrote in "Empty Promises": Come / The best times / Give me the worst times / Tell them the origin of the clouds and rain on my face / Bad or not bad is finally judged by God.
But she didn't cling to the "heat" like she did when she was young, but emptied herself.
Ai Yiliang's album release speed is not fast, but she has indeed become more and more mature in the road of singer-songwriting.
In 2019, the fourth album "Living Vertically, Lingering Horizontally." , which covered the songwriting of the entire album.
In 2021, she released her fifth album, which faded away from the impetuousness of her youth, and she understood the meaning of loving music.
Someone asked her if the songs she wrote were getting more and more niche, and was it worth losing the chance to become popular again?
She said: There are always a few people who resonate with me.
The competitive stage and fast-food album production may be able to gain traffic, but it can no longer win Ai Yiliang's enthusiasm.
Last year, she was invited to the stage of "The Sound of Life", and the program team arranged for her to sing "The Past Can Only Be Recalled".
This song is important to many people, and it is also important to Ai Yiliang.
She imagined how Yuya felt when she sang this song, and what kind of mood she wanted to express.
Probably too focused, she had a nightmare the night before the show.
I dreamed that the director team temporarily changed the song, let myself and my predecessor Na Ying sing a song that I had never heard, standing on the stage without saying a word, the director shouted: Didn't you let you practice?
Ai Yiliang woke up.
Thankfully, it was just a dream.
The show went well.
I heard that Ai Yiliang will be a guest at the recent Golden Melody Awards ceremony, and the transition from award recipient to award presenter is quite magical.
Over the years, she has appeared less and less, and has more time to reinvent herself.
She liked Neil Gaiman, who she had watched "Fragile" many times.
Ai Yiliang's favorite love poem "Secret Room", writing that the male protagonist misses the sweet time with the heroine in this house, and at the end of the ending, the male protagonist is the murderer of the heroine.
She said, "I like it a lot. You don't want to tell me everything, if the picture is too full, I can't imagine it.
When she was 29 years old, Ai Yiliang imagined what she would look like at 40 years old and wrote "Forever Young", thinking that she should have been a mature woman at that time.
Now she is 37 years old, and she is not confused, those ups and downs have long passed, and she has already lived her best.