Right now in Taiwan, we have diff. organizations started raising funds for the Mainland Sichan's earthquake! I'm surprised that the Taiwanese are willing to participate in this disregard to the fact of long existed political tensions. I guess when it comes to humanity and sympathy, people are willing to give more.
Leehom went to Burma few months ago with the World Vision, and now he's helping with the fundraising again. With his music and lyrics...I'm sure he could bring a good impact to the world!
Way to go LEEHOM!!~
Leehom
Alexander Lee-Hom Wang was born in Rochester, New York. He attended Jefferson Road Elementary School, Pittsford Middle School, then later Pittsford Sutherland High School in the town of Pittsford. Wang graduated from Sutherland High School with high honors. After graduation, he studied at Williams College and graduated with honors majoring in Music & Asian Studies. He furthered his studies by attending a semester at Berklee College of Music in the Professional Music program, with voice as his principal instrument.
In 1995 he was signed to a professional recording contract while visiting his grandparents in Taiwan. Since then, Wang has become one of the new songwriters and musicians revolutionizing the Chinese-language music industry. He is active in all areas of music production, from composing to producing, to music arrangement, to lyric writing, to directing his own music videos.
Although he did not begin learning Mandarin Chinese until he was 18, Wang is now fluent in Chinese in both speaking and writing and has written many Chinese lyrics for his songs. Wang plays over 10 musical instruments. In his albums and live concerts, Wang can be heard playing piano, drums, guitar, bass, violin, vibraphone, erhu, xun, and more.
An experienced musical background enables Wang to pull from a variety of musical styles and continuously reinvent his own sound that is distinctly Chinese and international at the same time. His 2005 release, Shangri-La (心中的日月) drew heavily from R&B, dance pop, and the musics of Chinese ethnic minorities of Tibet, Mongolia, and Yunnan. In 2006, Heroes of Earth (蓋世英雄) centered around R&B, hip hop, rap, and with a strong emphasis on Beijing opera and its predecessor Kunqu.
Music career
1995–1997: Just a beginning
In 1995, during a summer trip to Taiwan, Wang's music talent was discovered. His debut album Love Rival Beethoven (情敵貝多芬) was released by BMG Music in the winter of 1995.
He was asked to leave his college study to pursue a full time singing career in Taiwan. Wang insisted to stay on to finish school, and at the same time, he was able to convince Decca Records to include some of his own writings in his next album. One of his writings became the title song or zhuda (Chinese: 主打; pinyin: zhǔ dǎ) for his second album If You Heard My Song (如果你聽見我的歌). Wang continued his study at Williams College, and released Missing You (好想你) during winter break of 1996 and White Paper (白紙) during summer of 1997. His music breakthrough did not come until a year later when Revolution (公轉自轉) was released after his graduation from Williams.
1998–2002: Revolution
After graduating from Williams College, Wang was able to devote full time to his music career. He signed with Sony BMG Taiwan[1] and released his fifth album, Revolution (公轉自轉) on August 21, 1998. The album became a huge success and won him numerous notable awards including Best Producer of the Year and Best Male Vocalist of the 10th Golden Melody Awards in 1999. He was just 22, making him the youngest person ever to win the award in either of the two categories.
His sixth album Impossible to Miss You (不可能錯過你) was released 10 months later. It was just as successful as his previous album. Although he was nominated again for Best Male Vocalist at the 11th Golden Melody Awards and ever since thereafter, he did not win the award this time. However, the interesting style of music Wang had incorporated in this album had attracted many new fans. Since his release of Revolution, each album Wang produced conveyed different styles of music and sounds, attracted numerous fans from different regions in Southeast Asia.
Although raised in New York, Wang always felt the deep root in his Chinese heritage. He started to incorporate Chinese sounds into his music. In 2000, the year of the Dragon in the Chinese lunar calendar, Wang remade a popular Chinese song "Descendants of the Dragon" (龍的傳人) to include in his seventh album Forever's First Day (永遠的第一天). The song raised the pride of the young Chinese generation, soon became a must-sing song in all of his concerts.
His eighth album, The One and Only (唯一) marked the height of his star career. "The One and Only" (唯一) became his signature song. The song has won him over 7 different prestigious awards and being on the ringback tone number one download charts for over a year.
2003–2006: Chinked-out
Promotional image for Heroes of Earth album.Having established himself as one of the most important, influential, and prolific artists in Chinese music, never repeating himself, Wang continues to invent and experiment with new sounds and voices.
His ninth album, Unbelievable (不可思議) marked another milestone in his career. Not only did the album heavily stress mainstream R&B and hip hop, it also sold more than 1,300,000 copies in Asia and won him Best Producer of the Year again for the 15th Golden Melody Awards in 2004. The first title song (zhuda) of the album, "You're Not Here" (你不在) was ranked #1 in several music charts and stayed there for well over 10 weeks. Before the release of Unbelievable, Wang began his first world concert tour titled "Unbelievable". The concert tour received rave reviews from fans and critiques in all regions in Asia.
In his tenth album, released on the last day of 2004, Shangri-La (心中的日月), Wang incorporated the often unheard music of Chinese aboriginal music into mainstream hip hop and coined this style "chinked-out". He experimented with the tribal sounds of China, Tibet, and Mongolia, traveled to remote villages, carrying 15 kg of equipment while fighting bouts of altitude and food sickness.
Within ten days of its release, Shangri-La sold past an outstanding 40,000 copies, an excellent start as the first album to be sold in Taiwan of 2005.[2] Within a month, the album sold over 300,000 copies.[3]
Continuing the "chinked-out spirit" by infusing elements of Beijing opera and Kunqu into the songs, Heroes of Earth (蓋世英雄) was released on December 30, 2005. Heroes of Earth, which he collaborated with Jin, again won him Best Male Vocalist in the 17th Golden Melody Awards in 2006.
Heroes of Earth impressively broke the record of selling more than 1,000,000 copies ten days after its release.[4] The album stayed at first place in the G-Music Charts for 6 weeks.[5]. Ultimately, the album stayed in the charts for a total of 23 weeks and became third for the most sold album in Taiwan of 2006.[6]
Wang's Heroes of Earth concert toured in Taipei, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur. Breaking over six national records, the concert set a new attendance record at the Taipei Arena, and a sold out concert in the 80,000 seat Shanghai Arena.
2007-Present: Change Me
Recently, Wang released his much anticipated 12th album, Change Me (改變自己). The album was released on Friday, July 13, completely disregarding the superstition generally attached to Friday the 13th.[7]. Through this album, Leehom promotes the issue of global warming and eco-awareness. Thus the packaging of the CD uses recycled paper and contains no plastic. Wang believes that little changes in each person can affect the world. The CD also comes with a pair of reusable metal chopsticks in a pouch. This is also to promote eco-awareness.
Wang's first promotional single album for the new album, "Falling Leaf Returns to Roots" (落葉歸根) gave its world premiere at Hito Radio on June 20, 2007. The music style is very different from Wang's previous singles. Wang had said that the inspiration behind the song was due to the influence of his portrayal of Kuang Yumin in the new film, Lust, Caution.[8] The song accompanies melodic violin and piano solos. In addition, Leehom collaborated with Selina Ren, a member of the famous Taiwan girl group S.H.E in " You're a song in my heart" (你是我心内的一首歌)。
Filmography
Year Title Role Language
2007 Lust, Caution (Chinese: 色，戒; pinyin: Sè, Jiè) Kuang Yumin (鄺裕民) Mandarin
2005 Starlit High Noon (真昼ノ星空) Lian Song (梁嵩) Japanese
2003 Moon Child (月光游俠) Son (孫定賢) Japanese
2001 The Avenging Fist (拳神) Nova (山之光) Cantonese
2000 Ashes to Ashes: Against Smoking (煙飛煙滅) Dave Cantonese
2000 China Strike Force (雷霆戰警) Alex Cheung Cantonese
1999 The Iron Giant (鐵巨人) Dean McCoppin Mandarin voiceover
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