“Live Stages” Round-Up

None of these people are even in the top nine and they all need to debut.

I don’t think I’ve ever stanned as many people (30+) in a competition as I have in Youth With You 2. Despite its flaws, it has really lived up to its theme of the “No definition girl group”. They didn’t try to define what a girl group should be, nor what any member should be, and as a result everyone has the opportunity to shine.

I know iQiyi disabled the embedding but this group is too sexy and powerful for me to not start with this. I especially recommend Lu Keran, Zeng Keni, and Ge Xinyi‘s focus cams because a lot of their fierceness aren’t shown in the full video since too many of them are amazing at the same time. There’s also the dance studio version here (this show has the best studio camerawork).

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Lunar New Year Performances Round-Up

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Remind me why she haven’t been in any ancient dramas lately?

 

My picks.   Note that I have no music tastes and most choices are purely based on prettiness. Hence why Tong Liya gets photos but no links to the performance, because the rest of the show must have switched costume and stage designers.

For the first time ever, the local channels completely overwhelmed CCTV in every aspect. Better songs, dances, stage design, and even funnier and less misogynist skits.

 

Best Song-Stage Combo:  While you’re still young by Hua Chenyu
CCTV designers should be taking notes from the simple but so effective stage design for this.  Also, I can’t believe this song wasn’t popular before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m5mL7Pgyck

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Music Monday: ZGF

Here to make Monday a little easier =)

Here to make Monday a little easier =)

While we wait for all the ancient dramas to air in the upcoming month and year, here are some melodic Zhongguofeng songs from Jane Zhang, Huang Ling, Han Hong, and Ye Yiqan  to alleviate the pain:

Jane Zhang sings the beautiful theme “Wordless Epitaph 无字碑” for The Empress of China, written by Aarif Lee and penned by Fang Wenshang. The lyrics kind of makes me more concerned that this is going to feature a selfless Wu Zetian doing everything for the sake of a narrowly-defined version of love (because of course she’s doing everything for the glory of the Tang, that’s why she overthrew it and started her own dynasty).

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Vae, Huang Ling, Hu Xia sing in watercolor

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Huang Ling’s seductive voice joins Vae as a fox spirit for his latest ZhongGuoFeng  MV from his new album, Why not just drink tea 不如吃茶吧.  Huang Ling’s voice is always beautiful, and Vae’s production qualities has definitely increased tenfolds since joining OceanDisk, but just as impressive is the gorgeous watercolor MV’s from Vae’s entire album. Directed by JP Huang, the MV’s use a watercolor palette combined with lots of nature scenery and visual techniques to match Vae’s music style.

Huang Ling ft Vae in 惊鸿一面. The MV is probably my least favorite of the three, but it has my favorite song:

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Music Monday: June 10, 2013

Oh, ho, ho! What’s this? Music Monday is here? And you all thought we were going on hiatus? *Acting!
Sorry for the delay (but it’s still Monday in, like, Hawaii).


Former Morning Musume member, Linlin 琳琳, draws inspiration from Alice in Wonderland in the music video for 戰豆 Fighting. Keep an eye out for a dancing Spider-Man. Continue reading

Music Monday: May 27, 2013

Here to make Monday a little easier =)

Here to make Monday a little easier =)

You know you’re getting old when half of the singers on your playlist are younger than you. This week’s Music Monday features a total of 7 post-90s groups/singers. But first Bibi…

Vase and Flower 花樽与花”, the bonus track on Bibi Zhou‘s new album UNLOCK, is the Cantonese version of her single “Secret Friends 密友”. The MV is produced by Bibi’s newly established studio, Begins Studio.

This week I’m trying out soundcloud for the first time for recently released mp3 Continue reading

Singing Competitions Boosts Singer Huang Ling’s Popularity

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New singer Isabelle Huang Ling has gotten a steady stream of free publicity through competitions after her debut. On season four of Taiwan’s One Million Star her song Itch (Yang) was sung by Connie Kan, 3rd runner up season, and then in Supergirls 2009 one of the front-runners Yu Kewei, sang Itch as well.  Each time, people began looking for the original singer of the song, and were surprised at the quality of her debut album, whose songs were very unique, Chinese-styled, and different from the usual pop songs.

One of the interesting songs on her album: Red Weeping Eyes

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