From the release of her first solo album "All the Way" in 2019 to the recent launch of the vinyl record "That's Me" and "The Story of Spring", leaving the stage for more than 20 years and returning gorgeously, Xu Xia's life is quite legendary. This soprano singer with a heavenly voice but a "big instrument late" studied under the famous music educator Mr. Zhou Xiaoyan, and is the sister of Liao Changyong. "Now is the peak period of my singing state in my life," Xu Xia said, "there is the precipitation of years, the nourishment of art, and the experience of life." "
Released a new album: Yin Qing, Qu Yuan praised "very satisfied"
The timbre is mellow and magnificent, with a wide range of voices, spanning mezzo-soprano and soprano parts, covering bel canto, ethnic, opera, pop music, especially using cross-border expressions to interpret different styles of vocal works. As a well-known soprano singer in China, Xu Xia's personal characteristics are very distinct. This diverse style has also gradually emerged in her album works, with the release of "That's Me" and "The Story of Spring", a total of 24 tracks, these classic songs were born in different periods, and the time span is nearly one nail. The former focuses on art songs, which is a collection of songs from Xu Xia's decades of studying vocal music; the latter focuses on a number of contemporary original songs originating from shenzhen, a hot land of singing, and praises the reform and opening up with a new interpretation, thanking the great cause of the times.
All the tracks of the album are carefully selected by Xu Xia and producer Zou Tiefu, including the classic masterpieces "See You Extra Dear" and "Velvet Flower" that have been sung for nearly half a century, as well as the new songs of the times "City Light" and "China in the Lights" that were born in recent years; there are excellent songs that praise the eight sides of the motherland, "I Love You China" and "I Belong to China", as well as the original works that praise the hot land of Shenzhen, "The Story of Spring" and "Looking at Shenzhen Bay"; there are both lofty and grand art songs "That is Me" and "Plane Tree". There are also approachable national songs "Long Drum Bang Bang Bang" and "Hulunbuir Grassland".
In addition, Xu Xia also specially selected the main theme masterpieces such as "Eternal Bonfire", "Don't Forget the Initial Heart", "All the Way", "Always Follow You" for the new album, to present the party's 100th birthday. Among them, "Eternal Bonfire", created to commemorate the victory of the Red Army's Long March, under her meticulous polishing and emotional interpretation, not only sang the look back at the century-old wind and rain road, the perseverance of the new journey, but also sang the determination and confidence of the sons and daughters of China to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation under the guidance of the light of the burning "bonfire". After hearing her version, songwriters Qu Yuan and Yin Qing praised Xu Xia as the singer who best interpreted the "most satisfactory work" of the two in recent years.
The song "The Story of Spring" alone was recorded for 5 hours on the first time I entered the studio, breaking my career record, because to sing a different spiritual outlook and realm in the melody of the composer Wang Yougui's nine-song eighteen-bend melody, the difficulty coefficient is higher than the aria in Italian opera. During the recording, I also specially invited Jiang Kairu, the lyricist of "The Story of Spring", and Zhu Xiaoling, the former chief soprano singer of the Shenzhen Song and Dance Troupe, to guide him. Xu Xia told reporters that until the final state perfectly interpreted the "self-confidence and heroism of the current Shenzhen people", she put her mind at ease, "'The Story of Spring' is undoubtedly the most influential masterpiece since China's reform and opening up, and has a very special position in China." Today, 30 years after the birth of the song, the song is re-sung by Shenzhen musicians, which is of extraordinary significance. "
Late Success: "City Lights" with Li Jian's "Breaking the Wall"
In this new album, "City Lights" is very eye-catching, it is Xu Xia and Li Jian, soprano and pop singer "broken wall" cooperation, amazing. Li Jian's eloquence and Xu Xia's atmospheric tension make this re-arranged song more penetrating and more graphic. Many people are curious about how to invite Li Jian, Xu Xia laughed and said that the cooperation stemmed from "gratitude": "Li Jian's first concert in Shenzhen more than ten years ago was planned by me, Li Jian is a very grateful person, this cooperation is actually our hearts and minds for many years." "
It turned out that on September 13, 2009, Xu Xia, who was also the deputy general manager and artistic director of Shenzhen Concert Hall at that time, was introduced by Liu Yang, a famous host of Shenzhen Radio, to plan a personal concert for Li Jian, who was not yet popular. At that time, the band only used an accordion, a cello and a violin, plus Li Jian's own guitar. The concert is clean and pure, and the audience can capture all his delicate and subtle expressions, vividly. The concert that night was attended by only more than 300 people, but it was very warm, as natural and real as the gathering of old friends. Li Jian mentioned many times in the future that this was his "most satisfactory concert", and Xu Xia and Li Jian became close friends for more than ten years.
This cooperation is also the first time that Li Jian has cooperated with the bel canto soprano, the two of them are blending in terms of musical ups and downs, breathing and musical expressions, and the famous Shenzhen music critic Wang Jun commented that "in the popular music industry, Li Jian's voice has an artistic sense, and Xu Xia from Mr. Zhou Xiaoyan's door also has exclusive experience in how to use bel canto cultivation to give the luster of art to an elegant pop work." Li Jian made no secret of his admiration for Xu Xia's singing skills, and bluntly said that he was very surprised. The combination of bel canto and popularity shown by this cross-border cooperation also brings a variety of thinking dimensions to the extension of musical attributes and the expansion of boundaries.
Don't look at the 3-year-old stage, but Xu Xia actually belongs to the "late bloom of the big instrument". After graduating from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, majoring in Italian opera, he worked as a soloist in the Song and Dance Troupe of the Political Department of the Second Artillery in Beijing. In 1990, the 27-year-old Xu Xia moved to Shenzhen, when there was no opera and dance theater in Shenzhen, only a Shenzhen song and dance troupe in the direction of popular music, coupled with the changes brought to her life by marriage and family, Xu Xia bid farewell to the stage and began to engage in administrative and artistic management. It was not until 2013, when her disciple and famous baritone singer Liao Changyong came to Shenzhen to hold a concert and invited him to be a guest of honor, and the two collaborated many times since then, that Xu Xia resumed her identity as a singer.
What is unexpected is that after leaving the stage for more than 20 years, Xu Xia's singing skills have become more and more refined when she returned, and the road to music has become more and more extensive. "At first, I was unfamiliar with the stage, but soon that feeling came back." In 2017, Xu Xia held her first symphonic solo concert with great success; in 2018, she was invited by YinQing to perform the tribute song "Always Follow You" for the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China at the "Yinqing Works Concert", which was very popular; in November 2019, she published her first solo album "All the Way". The name Xu Xia began to sparkle in the music scene. It was also the performance in 2018 that changed the trajectory of Xu Xia's life, and after the performance, Yin Qing urged her to return to professional singer. "I still remember very clearly," Xu Xia said, "Teacher Yin Qing said that my professional standard is beyond his imagination, it is a very rare excellent singer, he did not recommend me to continue to do administrative work, Shaohua is easy to pass, should use all the limited precious time back to singing." Zhao Jiping and Teacher Zhu Hai also said, "Where have you been all these years, how can you not sing when you sing so well?" So after that day I finally made up my mind to call my resignation report. "
Like a fish in the water: Now is the peak of my singing state
Returning to the embrace of music, Xu Xia has set up a personal studio and used 100% of her energy to figure out singing. She positioned herself as a scholar singer: "When I was young, I was easy to be anxious about becoming famous and becoming a family, and now the state of singing is more pure, for each song, I will not follow the way others sing, but very seriously to study the song score, the literary nature of the lyrics, as well as the coordination, articulation, collision of the lyrics and the song, and seriously think about every breath, every sentence from the beginning to the end, so my interpretation will have a distinct style and characteristics." "
Xu Xia frankly said that in the Shenzhen Concert Hall, Shenzhen Grand Theater to do behind-the-scenes management work over the years, traveled all over the world, broadened her horizons, contacted more diversified music performance categories, and appreciated the top art scene, it is these artistic nourishments that have made her what she is today. "Doing this line, of course, when you are young, your voice is good, and your skills can also rely on training, but only after experiencing the polishing of years and the experience of life can you grasp the ethereal feeling of music." After singing songs for over 50 years, I know that this is the peak of my singing state in my life. "
Shenzhen Evening News reporter Zhao Weijun