【Overnight Fame】
Xiao Chao: The 1986 Youth Song Contest had a huge impact on your life. Before that, maybe you were just an ordinary person, just singing; after that, did you find the feeling of being a star?
Su Hong: Yes, of course. There were few TV channels at that time, so everyone was watching our game. As a result, by the next day, everyone in the streets and alleys knew. At that time, as soon as I went out, no matter what the occasion, I was surrounded everywhere I went, asking me to sign autographs and let me sing, and I liked to listen to two songs - "March 3rd" and "How Much I Want to Sing". Sometimes I do feel like so many people know me all at once. At that time, the letters transmitted to me through our regiment, through the Liaoning Provincial Television Station, and through the CCTV could be said to be packed in sacks, and the influence at that time was indeed very great.
[After becoming famous, it is still low-key]
Xiao Chao: These are also unexpected by you, right? Didn't the next day feel a little fluttery?
Su Hong: Not really. Because the family education I received from a young age was very strict. My parents are soldiers, they are very strict with their children, and they are very low-key in everything they do. I started working at the age of 14 and was admitted to the Benxi City Song and Dance Troupe in Liaoning Province. Our group has also given me a lot of cultivation in both life and art, in the past there was no packaging mechanism like now, and in a group is the tradition of bringing the old to the new and passing on the help. Therefore, since we were young, we have also cultivated a low-key and humble attitude in the group, and our artistic pursuit is serious and cautious. Later, when I went to Teacher Gu Jianfen, I got very good training. Teacher Gu is not only particularly strict with us in art, but also particularly strict in being a person.
【Story at the time of competition】
Xiao Chao: Did you go to Beijing by train?
Su Hong: I went to Beijing by train by myself. To be honest, I went to Beijing to take the exam at that time, and now I don't have any impression, but I went alone when I competed. It was a coincidence that because we were on vacation, they couldn't find me at the time, so they couldn't notify me. However, it was a particular coincidence that when I was walking near the dormitory of the Liaoning Song and Dance Troupe, I was seen by a comrade who worked in this area organized by Liaoning Television Station, who asked me if you had already entered the final, why didn't you go, and were in the mood to walk here? I said I didn't know I hadn't been notified yet. He said hurry back to Benxi, and your TV station will let you know. Then I went back to Benxi and saw that it was close to the time of reporting—that is, the next day. I hurried to Beijing, and I got on the train before I had time to buy the ticket. Because at that time, our people there were fully supportive when they heard that I was going to Beijing to participate in the Grand Prix. I was still embarrassed at the time, in case I didn't win the glory of my hometown, this ticket would not be a loss. So I went to Beijing, participated in the competition, and then won the grand prize. In fact, I think that at every juncture of life, there are many friends, even those I don't know, and these friends have given me a lot of support and help. It seems that in my artistic path, at every important stage, there are noble people to help. Of course, I myself am also more diligent, but I think the people who help me are more important.
【Professional training, great impact】
Xiao Chao: Teacher Su Hong, I have a question here that I would like to consult. Many viewers in front of the TV like to sing, but most of them have no professional training, do you think there is a big difference between professionally trained and non-professionally trained?
Su Hong: I think the difference is very big. After studying at the Gu Jianfen Vocal Music Training Center, I feel that art is not a single art, but a three-dimensional art. I remember that when I was studying at Mr. Gu, she gave us as many as eight courses: English, Japanese, literature, vocal music - at that time, vocal music was taught by Teacher Jin Tielin, literature was also invited by experts, as well as music history, guitar, shape - that is, dance, etc., very comprehensive. So through that period of study, I feel that I have improved a lot in singing. There is no need to deliberately learn vocal techniques, nor do you need to use more difficult sound expressions, through the enrichment of these knowledge, when singing, it will obviously feel very three-dimensional, in all aspects, including grasping the song style and grasping the feelings of the song, I think it is much better than before.
【Go to the grassroots level, to the front line】
Xiao Chao: At that time, the girl in her early twenties, the next day the people of the whole country knew that your name was Su Hong, and knew the two songs of "March 3rd" and "How Much I Want to Sing", in this case, I could still maintain a low-key mentality.
Su Hong: Right. In fact, it is not that people do not have desires, it is not that people do not have ideas, there will be fluctuations, there will be ups and downs. However, after winning the award in 1986, in 1987 I was transferred to the ACFTU Cultural and Labor Corps. At that time, it was necessary to face 140 million employees every year. It was also in the process of going down to the performance to cultivate my sentiments, and I saw some touching examples that continued to educate me.
Xiao Chao: That is to say, now we advocate going to the grassroots level, in fact, you have been walking there - singing at the grassroots level every day with your own singing voice.
Su Hong: Yes, so I say that every time I perform at the grassroots level, it is a kind of purification of my soul and that of my colleagues in the group. In the process of going deep into the grassroots for a long time, I have been greatly affected. When it was the coldest on three or nine days, we went to Daqing to perform. The workers and friends of Daqing waited on the well platform two hours in advance. We performed on the well platform, and the well platform was the stage. When I performed there, I just gasped for breath and there was ice under my nose. In an environment of minus tens of degrees, eyebrows and eyelashes are all white. When we performed, we also wore coats, and there was no image at all. You were no longer an actor, but one of them. Just sing like this intimately, sing in a loud voice, and communicate with them with your heart.
Xiao Chao: How many performances like this have in your memory?
Su Hong: Too much. That's three or nine days, and there's three more days. When we went to the Taiyuan Coal Mine in Shanxi Province, the surface temperature was more than 40 degrees, but the coal miners were wearing thick clothes, wearing miners' hats and showing small white teeth. The temperature on the ground was so high that they waited hours in advance and sat on the floor. At the same time, they were afraid that our actors would be sunburned, and they all had sunglasses, straw hats and so on, which made me very moved. But the more I do this, the more I want to be like everyone else, so I don't wear a hat or glasses. In fact, looking at the art on the stage, they prefer to see the people below the art, to see a feeling at the bottom, so every time I go on stage, the applause of the audience is really different.
【Program Description】
Walking to the grassroots level and going to the front line, Su Hong did the most unsung work after becoming famous, but she had no complaints and took the lead, because here, she gained touch and gained sincerity. It is also because of Su Hong's fame and singing voice that she has lived the busiest days in the ACFTU Literary troupe, running from east to west and performing continuously, but she is diligent and sincere, hard work and resentment, she said, she wants to use her singing to repay the audience's expectations and love.
【Audience favorite famous songs】
Xiao Chao: How many performances have you performed so far, is it impossible for you to calculate it yourself?
Su Hong: Before 1989, more than 300 performances were performed in the troupe every year, and then more than 200, and then more than 100, so it slowly decreased. Sometimes it's several times a day, four or five times. It takes less than two months to go home in a year.
Xiao Chao: Were you tired at that time?
Su Hong: Very tired, can you not be tired after performing so many times a day? So in the background, I often put a bed, and after the performance, I rest and sleep a little. Get up and quickly put on makeup and perform the next show. At that time, we didn't have to accompany the band, it was all live singing in the band, and every scene had to change songs, because each show had a new audience, and the old audience followed the requirements differently. Sometimes the audience often handed over notes asking us which song to sing and so on.
Xiao Chao: I want you to sing this song, he wants you to sing that song, everyone's favorite song may be slightly different, which one was the highest song rate at that time?
Su Hong: Of course, the highest song rate is my so-called famous songs, "I Want to Sing More" or "March 3rd", plus "Little Me" sung later in the spring evening of 1987, these three songs are the most sung.
Xiao Chao: Everyone likes it and hopes that you can sing these three songs again. I remember there was another song called "The Moon Goes, I Go Too."
Su Hong: I didn't sing that song for the first time, but at the National Day party in 1986, it was CCTV that made me sing it, and I sang it for the first time at the CCTV party.
Xiao Chao: Unexpectedly, this singing is on fire again. "The moon goes, I go too", let's reproduce the original sound.
Su Hong: The moon is gone, I am also gone, I send Brother to the mouth of the village.
Xiao Chao: A short sentence has sung the kind of longing that many people have for love, especially in that era. This song should be regarded as a song written for love. So when did the song "Little Me" start singing?
Su Hong: Didn't I win the award in 1986, and then the Spring Festival Gala in 1987 asked me to sing this song.
Xiao Chao: A song, good guys, it has been all over the country.
Su Hong: As we all know, because the audience of the Spring Festival Gala is very large, I think that any song I sing on this stage is easy to come out and will be recognized by everyone.
Xiao Chao: Can you make this place the scene of the 1987 Spring Festival Gala again, do you know what I mean?
Su Hong: Let's sing together. Between heaven and earth came the little me, oh, little me, don't ask me what my last name is, oh, what is it called. I am a drop of water in the mountains, and there are waves of life, I am a small grass on the ground, and I also have the color of life. Little me, little me, thrown into the rapids is the big river, little me, little me, embracing the earth is the song of spring.
A song "Little Me", Su Hong sang to the audience and to herself, because she always felt that on the road of art, she was just a "little me" - success is related to her own efforts and talents, but more also need the help of teachers, audiences and friends.