Stepping off the blind selection stage of "Good Songs of China", Wang Hongen's expression was a little confused with excitement. Seeing the familiar staff, he immediately asked her: "What tutors have just pushed?" The other party wondered why he knowingly asked, and he explained that he didn't know if there was a mentor pushing: "I can't see it on the stage, I detected it myself when chatting." In the mentor rob session, silently judging from their words, Wang Hongen felt that there were about three groups of mentors pushing the rod for him, and in fact, it was true. This was much better than he had expected at first, and when the recording was nearing the end of the blind selection, the tutor had very few places left, and before he took the stage, he minimized his expectations: "As long as there is a mentor who is willing to take me in, I am very happy." ”
After watching the first season of "Good Songs of China", Wang Hongen liked Moxizi's poems and Zhao Zhao the most, and commented that their songs were very "heart-wandering". This term is also used by the director team of "Good Songs of China" to describe his work: "Your song is still quite heartfelt." The emotion of "walking the heart" comes from the bitterness and helplessness of the aboriginal singer who has been "drifting north" in Taipei for many years, and this "good song" "Don't Worry About Me" is a song he wrote to his mother: "I was making music at that time, I found it difficult to go down, my mother called me, people at that moment, you will want to cheer up, you want to prove to your family, you want to make your family feel at ease for you." "Even if you get a lot of arrows in your back, you have to show your mother the front."
This time to "Good Songs", the former Golden Melody Award for Best Composer described it as a battle of "one battle". Over the years of fame, he has been accustomed to stirring up the atmosphere at commercial performances and platter concerts. Now standing on the stage, Wang Hongen felt a long-lost tranquility, "I haven't been so serious about my creation for a long time." He said.
The "Golden Song Curse" that does not applaud the seat
In the Taiwanese music circle, there is a saying that all singers who have won the Golden Melody Award, newcomers must not be able to become popular, and the Queen of Heaven and Queen of Heaven will encounter Waterloo at a large rate, and the media has called this phenomenon "Golden Song Curse". For this situation, Wang Hongen, who has won the Golden Melody Awards twice, is also helpless: "I don't know if there is inevitability, but it seems that those who have won the Golden Melody Awards all have such a situation", including himself.
When he first entered the music circle, Wang Hongen, who was in his early twenties, felt that his road was going well. Studying in the design department in college and composing music, he decided to combine the two and produce an album of indigenous languages that he designed and created himself as the graduation project of the university. By coincidence, this album was overheard by the head of the trend record, the record company specializing in world music was very interested in this Bunun language album "Hunter", packaged and released, the following year, Wang Hongen was nominated for the Golden Melody Award "Best Dialect Male Singer" with this "Hunter", and in the same year launched the second pure ethnic language self-titled album "Wang Hong'en Biung", with this album, he won the "Best Male Singer" of the 13th Golden Melody Awards. Although the results in music are not bad, pure ethnic music is not the mainstream style after all, and there is not much resonance in the market. At that time, Jay Chou had just begun to use his arrogant hip-hop music to set off a frenzy in the music circle, and Wang Hongen began to think about whether he also had to change it, creating a combination of indigenous Chinese music to replace the current pure ethnic language creation. In order to open up new paths, he did not leave a way back for himself, leaving the trend record that focused on niche music and focusing on polishing his new works.
Things didn't go as smoothly as expected. From 2002 to 2004, when Wang Hong'en sought to transform, the Chinese record industry had declined slightly, and record companies' choice of releasing singers had become increasingly conservative. When Wang Hong'en was finally convinced that his new creative style had matured and knocked on the door of the record company with DEMO, he found that they were no longer easily opened for singers. "They think my creations aren't ballet enough, they're not catchy enough."
Because there has been no response from the record company for a long time, Wang Hongen and several friends raised money to release a new album "The Wind Walker" at their own expense. This work that combines the characteristics of Chinese and indigenous music has been well received in the music circle, and has also made Wang Hongen the musician with the most shortlisted awards at the Golden Melody Awards, a total of five finalists higher than Jay Chou, who was in the limelight at the time, and the Taiwan media have started the news headline "Wang Hongen beat Jay Chou", and the scenery was no different for a while. After winning the Golden Melody Award for Best Composition, Wang Hongen was confident that this self-funded album would have good sales: "I think with the blessing of the Golden Melody Award, I invest a little more money myself, work harder, and there should be good results." Unexpectedly, the record sold poorly, so that Wang Hongen and his friends lost a lot of money: "I often make money by myself, earn money for the next record, when a record is finished, the first day of the release is the first day of debt, often such a cycle." 」 ”
Good Brother Black is just as important a gain as the Golden Melody Trophy
Before meeting black people, Wang Hongen relied on children's programs and some TV dramas to make up for the cost of music losses. Children's shows need to be enthusiastic and lively, and the once niche musician had to imitate the tone of children's favorites in front of the camera: "Where are you looking at big friends and children?" I'm xymple brother! After a day at work and getting into the taxi home, Wang Hong'en often fell into confusion about himself: "What am I doing now?" Am I not going to sing? ”
Knowing black people was at the 2005 Golden Melody Awards, and for Wang Hong'en himself, this friendship was as important as the Golden Melody Trophy. When he learned that he had been shortlisted for the 2005 Golden Melody Awards, and that the awards had not yet been announced, Wang Hong'en planned to hold a celebration concert for his few die-hard fans, taking the opportunity to thank them for their support in the three years of his silence. On the day of the award ceremony, he enthusiastically told every star he met at the awards ceremony, including the famous Taiwanese variety show host , "Black" Chen Jianzhou. After he sent out the invitation, the other party's answer was "should be able to come." At that time, Wang Hong'en did not have any artist friends, did not understand the polite manners in this circle, estimated the number of people who promised him, and excitedly placed three rows of guest chairs at the scene of the celebration concert. In the last three rows of chairs sat empty only two people, and the Negro was one of them. Gradually, out of appreciation for Wang Hong'en's music, the black man introduced him to his good friends in the music circle: Pan Weibai, Wang Lihong, A Mei, S.H.E... And, of course, his wife, Fan Weiqi. In the group photos posted by these friends on Weibo, there is often the figure of Wang Hongen, and his wife Fan Weiqi often can't help but spit that Wang Hongen is the "little three" between herself and her husband.
Unlike other students who kept secrets from their friends before learning the results, Wang Hongen told the black people all his plans to participate in the "good songs", "He is like the trader behind me, and he also encouraged me to participate in the show this time." Successfully joining the Yuquan team, Wang Hongen called the black man for the first time: "Brother, I have advanced." He believed that the joy of this moment could only be understood by this brother, who did not care about blood. On the day of the broadcast of the program, the black people sent seven consecutive Microblogs to remind everyone to watch the program and cheer for their brothers: "If you have won the Golden Melody Award for Chinese indicators twice, do you dare to challenge the creation competition of "Chinese Good Songs"? Honestly I admire Hong'en's courage, the purpose of his going is really simple, purely in the hope that more people can hear his music. ”
Back to the point of origin of making music
Fifteen years of ups and downs in Taiwan's music scene, from an independent producer of niche music to a signed singer of a large record company, and then today he is back on the stage of "good songs" as an independent musician, Wang Hongen said that he has "returned to the origin of making music".
In mid-2013, he proposed to his boss to terminate the contract early when he was half a year before the end of the contract, leaving Fumao Records, where he had been for nearly five years, during which the record company helped him release an album and also sang some film and television theme songs, the most widely circulated of which was the episode "Start Now" of "I May Not Love You". "Continue to stay probably like this, the record company itself also has pressure, do not help me to send a film of conscience, hair and lose money to sell well, so it is good to get together and disperse." At that time, he did not have a clear blueprint for the future, but his willingness to leave the mainstream record companies was extremely clear, and he vaguely intended to use his existing popularity and free identity that was not bound by contracts to find a better path, but he had no clue how to go.
When the first season of "Good Songs of China" invited him, Wang Hongen declined because he was busy with a small tour in Taiwan. After the show aired, he regretted it: "I envy them to be able to sing their creations on such a big platform." In the second season, the director found Wang Hongen again, and this time he agreed. At the beginning, I still had baggage in my heart, I had become famous, whether I should stand on this stage. What untied his heart was the student Liu Chongyan in the first season of the show, the most famous masterpiece of this veteran musician from Hong Kong is "Red Beans" written to Faye Wong: "Such masters have come to this platform to communicate, I really don't need to have such an idea, I originally came out of a non-mainstream singer, the aura does not have to be so heavy." ”
When delivering demos, Wang Hong'en selected a large number of works with aboriginal styles. "I analyzed it, and the work on this stage is either very stylish, or it is very moving, like Moxizi's poem." Finally, from all the works with strong aboriginal styles, the director selected this work with only a small number of ethnic singing and more Chinese pop music in temperament, "Don't Worry About Me", although the Bunun ethnic characteristics are not strong, but the strong family affection in it is enough to hit the hearts of all Chinese music listeners.
After Zhou Huajian and Yuquan put the push for this song "Don't Worry About Me", Wang Hongen chose Yuquan, whose musical environment is not similar to his, expecting this group of mentors to collide with him to create a new spark. Similarly, for the show "Good Songs of China", he also hopes that it will be a new beginning for his musical career.