"you'll be in my heart / no matter what they say"
Oh god. I should really really be asleep NOW, because it's 2.30am, I haven't done a lick of productive work in, like, a week, and I need to be at work and focus tomorrow (I always say this), BUT I'M NOT SLEEPY AT ALL. This only means I'm going to be catnapping at my desk again, simply because being awake during the day is just so naturally inimical to my system. Argh, stupid. I have so much WORK to do, and so many other things I have to see - movies, theatre, etc - in the next week and a half that I'm kind of breathless at the thought of it. And yet here I am, predictably trapped in an epic fangirl loop of flail. Very predictable indeed.
I really like it when fandom collisions happen though. There are Disney fans on my flist, surely?
Whenever Disney movies open in Asia, they get dubbed - especially the theme songs. When Tarzan came out in 1998, Emil Chau got to rework the entire soundtrack. Which, if I remember correctly, he got into something of a fangirly tizzy over, since he's a huge fan of Phil Collins and was thrilled to get to sing his songs. In any case:
That's Emil performing at the gala opening ceremony of Hong Kong Disneyland, singing a three-language version of You'll Be In My Heart - he starts out in Chinese, swops to English at 0:35 and to Cantonese at 0:55 (and then switches back and forth for the rest of the song). Love! ♥ (Actual MTV, albeit a slightly dodgy one, and here's a handy English-subtitled version of the Chinese single.)
Since he's singing in three different languages, with three different sets of lyrics, I have to say I'm REALLY impressed that he only flubbed once. (As he is wont to do, in singing the TITLE of the song, what.) Honestly, I love the guy but his memory for lyrics is AWFUL. I can't spot a teleprompter in this video, so A+++ for him actually remembering his lyrics!
This amused me, from a video I was watching earlier - I KNOW he needs teleprompters to survive his concerts, but until today I'd never seen what one of them looks like from his point of view. (Usually they're artfully disguised so the audience can't see them... clearly!)
LOLOL FAVOURITE. THE WORDS ARE ENORMOUS.
BUT! Tarzan is not Emil's FIRST brush with Disney. That would be Aladdin, from a couple years back. LOOK. It's him singing A Whole New World with Chen Shuhua!
The cheesiness of the MTV makes me LOL. OMG, he's lying in a hammock on a CLEARLY FAKE beach! Look at how YOUNG he is!!
Actually, he's had another brush with Disney since, but that's for another post - since that comes as close as I'm going to get to a fandom collision between Chinese pop and Broadway. XD
Since we're on a Disney/c-pop theme - another one of my favourite singers, Winnie Hsin, covered Colours Of The Wind from Pocahontas, and her voice is EPIC.
SUCH a pretty version. ♥
And because I came across this video as part of my enormous tudou/youtube/youku loop (the videos actually stopped loading/playing properly because my netbook was struggling to conserve battery, omg), I HAD TO FLAIL OVER IT:
ALDKFHHFKLDHFLDFHLSDFSDLFHLDFHSD. Emil and Jonathan Lee and Luo Dayou performing at the Taiwan Golden Melody Awards last year. I'm pretty sure it was THIS performance that made their producers look at them and go, OMG THEY SHOULD BE IN A BAND. The only one missing is A-Yue, but this is SUCH a flailtastic video I don't even know. Emil breaking out his IMPOSSIBLY GORGEOUS high notes in 明天我要嫁給你 (I'm Going To Marry You Tomorrow)? And then Dayou being invited onstage, and Emil and Jonathan scurrying over to the piano to dust it down for him? LMAO SO ADORABLE. Especially since Jonathan BROKE THE PIANO'S AUDIO LINK by doing so (I LOVE that Dayou is, like, "there's no sound - I'm not deaf, am I????"). And Dayou snarking at them, omg, for saying that they grew up listening to his music - "as long as you didn't grow up ugly while listening to my music" LOLOLOL. And then he bangs out a crazy jazz-piano rendition of 戀曲1980 (Love Song of 1980), before they ALL jam on Jonathan's 我是一只小小鳥 (I Am A Small, Small Bird) and holy FUCK, Emil's harmony line throughout the song - added to Dayou's - is some kind of illegal AMAZING. THIS, GUYS, IS PRETTY MUCH THE MOMENT SUPERBAND WAS BORN. LOVE LOVE LOVE. ♥
Seriously, I FLAILED at this video so damn hard, and had one of those moments when I just felt so ridiculously proud and honoured to be... able to understand and appreciate the talent of ALL these guys. (I squeed so. much. it got embarrassing.) I have to say that Chinese pop music is pretty much the only thing that has kept me in touch with... anything involving my heritage and the Chinese culture. I was SO bad with the language for years and years and hated it, and couldn't wait to get the chance to drop it in school - until I fell in love with Emil's voice. Honestly, I had flunked my mid-year exam the YEAR I got hooked on his voice, I remember that so clearly. I still am really DREADFUL with the language, to be honest, and don't understand a great deal of what I'm listening to... because I'm appreciating the music and voices as much as anything else. But what little I CAN understand of the lyrics, and the sentiments, and the poetry, behind even the SIMPLEST of Chinese pop songs... there's nothing like that feeling, or that pride, or that connection I feel with being Chinese. I can't even... explain it, because trying to translate lyrics always makes my heart hurt. It's the same way something exquisitely beautiful in ANY language always... loses something in the translation to another language. Not that it doesn't remain a worthy piece of art, and sometimes translation is the only way you can gain access to great works of literature. But there's something to be said for being a native speaker, or at least someone who has a deep love and understanding of the culture and mores underpinning a particular language. The amount of sappy romance you can fit into a Chinese song? SO much more epic than in the standard English song. It just feels... less soppy? If I translated some of the songs I loved into English, I would cringe forever. In Chinese, it sounds RIGHT. And thus I FLAIL. ♥
That kind of got away from me there. Better go to bed now. At some point: really, Emil Chau (kind of) meets Broadway.
I am six years behind on comments. I WILL REPLY TO THEM. I PROMISE. Maybe. *weeps*
I really like it when fandom collisions happen though. There are Disney fans on my flist, surely?
Whenever Disney movies open in Asia, they get dubbed - especially the theme songs. When Tarzan came out in 1998, Emil Chau got to rework the entire soundtrack. Which, if I remember correctly, he got into something of a fangirly tizzy over, since he's a huge fan of Phil Collins and was thrilled to get to sing his songs. In any case:
Click to viewThat's Emil performing at the gala opening ceremony of Hong Kong Disneyland, singing a three-language version of You'll Be In My Heart - he starts out in Chinese, swops to English at 0:35 and to Cantonese at 0:55 (and then switches back and forth for the rest of the song). Love! ♥ (Actual MTV, albeit a slightly dodgy one, and here's a handy English-subtitled version of the Chinese single.)
Since he's singing in three different languages, with three different sets of lyrics, I have to say I'm REALLY impressed that he only flubbed once. (As he is wont to do, in singing the TITLE of the song, what.) Honestly, I love the guy but his memory for lyrics is AWFUL. I can't spot a teleprompter in this video, so A+++ for him actually remembering his lyrics!
This amused me, from a video I was watching earlier - I KNOW he needs teleprompters to survive his concerts, but until today I'd never seen what one of them looks like from his point of view. (Usually they're artfully disguised so the audience can't see them... clearly!)
LOLOL FAVOURITE. THE WORDS ARE ENORMOUS.
BUT! Tarzan is not Emil's FIRST brush with Disney. That would be Aladdin, from a couple years back. LOOK. It's him singing A Whole New World with Chen Shuhua!
The cheesiness of the MTV makes me LOL. OMG, he's lying in a hammock on a CLEARLY FAKE beach! Look at how YOUNG he is!!
Actually, he's had another brush with Disney since, but that's for another post - since that comes as close as I'm going to get to a fandom collision between Chinese pop and Broadway. XD
Since we're on a Disney/c-pop theme - another one of my favourite singers, Winnie Hsin, covered Colours Of The Wind from Pocahontas, and her voice is EPIC.
SUCH a pretty version. ♥
And because I came across this video as part of my enormous tudou/youtube/youku loop (the videos actually stopped loading/playing properly because my netbook was struggling to conserve battery, omg), I HAD TO FLAIL OVER IT:
ALDKFHHFKLDHFLDFHLSDFSDLFHLDFHSD. Emil and Jonathan Lee and Luo Dayou performing at the Taiwan Golden Melody Awards last year. I'm pretty sure it was THIS performance that made their producers look at them and go, OMG THEY SHOULD BE IN A BAND. The only one missing is A-Yue, but this is SUCH a flailtastic video I don't even know. Emil breaking out his IMPOSSIBLY GORGEOUS high notes in 明天我要嫁給你 (I'm Going To Marry You Tomorrow)? And then Dayou being invited onstage, and Emil and Jonathan scurrying over to the piano to dust it down for him? LMAO SO ADORABLE. Especially since Jonathan BROKE THE PIANO'S AUDIO LINK by doing so (I LOVE that Dayou is, like, "there's no sound - I'm not deaf, am I????"). And Dayou snarking at them, omg, for saying that they grew up listening to his music - "as long as you didn't grow up ugly while listening to my music" LOLOLOL. And then he bangs out a crazy jazz-piano rendition of 戀曲1980 (Love Song of 1980), before they ALL jam on Jonathan's 我是一只小小鳥 (I Am A Small, Small Bird) and holy FUCK, Emil's harmony line throughout the song - added to Dayou's - is some kind of illegal AMAZING. THIS, GUYS, IS PRETTY MUCH THE MOMENT SUPERBAND WAS BORN. LOVE LOVE LOVE. ♥
Seriously, I FLAILED at this video so damn hard, and had one of those moments when I just felt so ridiculously proud and honoured to be... able to understand and appreciate the talent of ALL these guys. (I squeed so. much. it got embarrassing.) I have to say that Chinese pop music is pretty much the only thing that has kept me in touch with... anything involving my heritage and the Chinese culture. I was SO bad with the language for years and years and hated it, and couldn't wait to get the chance to drop it in school - until I fell in love with Emil's voice. Honestly, I had flunked my mid-year exam the YEAR I got hooked on his voice, I remember that so clearly. I still am really DREADFUL with the language, to be honest, and don't understand a great deal of what I'm listening to... because I'm appreciating the music and voices as much as anything else. But what little I CAN understand of the lyrics, and the sentiments, and the poetry, behind even the SIMPLEST of Chinese pop songs... there's nothing like that feeling, or that pride, or that connection I feel with being Chinese. I can't even... explain it, because trying to translate lyrics always makes my heart hurt. It's the same way something exquisitely beautiful in ANY language always... loses something in the translation to another language. Not that it doesn't remain a worthy piece of art, and sometimes translation is the only way you can gain access to great works of literature. But there's something to be said for being a native speaker, or at least someone who has a deep love and understanding of the culture and mores underpinning a particular language. The amount of sappy romance you can fit into a Chinese song? SO much more epic than in the standard English song. It just feels... less soppy? If I translated some of the songs I loved into English, I would cringe forever. In Chinese, it sounds RIGHT. And thus I FLAIL. ♥
That kind of got away from me there. Better go to bed now. At some point: really, Emil Chau (kind of) meets Broadway.
I am six years behind on comments. I WILL REPLY TO THEM. I PROMISE. Maybe. *weeps*