Top Asian Musical Talents: Wang Lee Hom

At the moment, I’m listening to a lot of this guy’s works… Wang Lee Hom.

My love affair with Lee Hom’s music started back in the late 1990s, not long after Lee Hom first started out in the Mandopop market.

I remember popping into Tower Records (when it was at Pacific Plaza) and picking up one of Lee Hom’s earlier Mandopop CDs in my hand… and it was a choice between getting the Lee Hom CD or the Peter Ho CD… unfortunately, at the time, Lee Hom wasn’t exactly what he is today, and I thought Peter Ho sounded better, so I got the Peter Ho CD instead… oh yeah, I was also into Daniel Chan at the time, so I might have picked a Daniel Chan CD over his too.

Still, I remember distinctly making a mental note to myself to watch out for this guy, Wang Lee Hom, ‘cos who knows what might happen with him, given more time.

Now and then, I would hear Lee Hom’s songs being played over the radio, and I would think to myself… “Hmmm, not bad!”... but everytime I went down to the store to check out his latest CD, somehow I would end up getting someone else’s CD instead… so yeah, it was a slow start for me, where Lee Hom was concerned.

But eventually, Lee Hom came up with a song that I REALLY REALLY COULD NOT GET OUT OF MY MIND!!!

This song was called “Ni He Wo” and it was one of the tracks off his “Unbelievable” album… and gosh, that album really lived up to its name!

"Ni He Wo" by Wang Lee Hom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBQjuroSSzE

Truly, "Unbelievable" was unbelievable to my ears! And FINALLY… “Unbelievable” became the first ever Lee Hom CD that I bought.

Every single song on the album could have been a hit, if you ask me… and I could no longer get distracted by other artists, nor could I find any excuse NOT to get this album… and after I got it, I fell in love with EACH & EVERY SONG in the album! WOW!!!

It’s not that Lee Hom wasn’t good before this album, he was… it’s just that somehow, I still thought that other artists were still better, so I always ended up buying someone else’s album.

If you really wanna go ALL THE WAY BACK though, the first time I ever thought that a Lee Hom song was decent enough to listen to was when "Julia" came out.

"Julia" by Wang Lee Hom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3TMQxVXCms

But it was "Ni He Wo" that really made me start buying his CDs.

Anyways, after I got “Unbelievable”, I also got “Evolution”, which is a 2-CD compilation album with Lee Hom’s greatest hits from 1995 to 2002. I got "Evolution", because it was the only Lee Hom album that I could find at the time which had "W-H-Y", "Wei Yi" and "Ai De Jiu Shi Ni" all in one album... before "Ni He Wo", I also liked these 3 songs... but they did not make me wanna actually buy his CDs, 'cos the other songs in the CD albums they were in just were not not what I considered good listening at the time... so why would I buy a whole CD album just for ONE SONG?!?? Being a student at the time, it just didn't make sense to me to buy a CD for just one song.

But coming back to these 3 songs... "Wei YI" was one of those songs that I had heard on the radio before, but I didn't really know who sang it, until I picked up the "Evolution" album and realised that it was sung by Lee Hom... it's a beautiful song, and being a romantic at heart, it really appealed to me.

"Wei Yi" by Wang Lee Hom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn3rhMKGElM

"W-H-Y" stood out to me because it was a rather unique song... it was funny, the lyrics were amusing, and it was one of the few songs that would crack me up and leave me smiling each and every time I listened to it, so of course I just HAD to have this song!

"W-H-Y" by Wang Lee Hom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOsYaOEVr8E

And lastly, "Ai De Jiu Shi Ni"... I got hooked to this song when I was watching "Peach Girl", a Taiwanese TV show starring Van Ness Wu... "Peach Girl" was based on a Japanese manga, and "Ai De Jiu Shi Ni" was one of the theme songs, and after some time, it stuck in my head.

"Ai De Jiu Shi Ni" by Wang Lee Hom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUKpatDEeho

For the longest time, all I ever listened to on "Evolution" was these 3 songs! I never listened to any of the other songs on CD 1, and I never even touched CD 2 at all!

Then, I took a rather long break from Lee Hom again, 'cos I was starting to get into all these other Mandopop artists.

It was only after I had attended the David Tao concert earlier this year that I said to myself, "Hmmm, I've already attended two David Tao concerts in Singapore, how is it that I have never even attended a single Wang Lee Hom concert before?!??"

And that got me going again... I told myself that I absolutely MUST get myself a Wang Lee Hom Concert DVD, 'cos I was just feeling sooo deprived at never having attended a Lee Hom concert before! I mean, it was just unbelievable to me!

So I searched online to see what I could find... I searched YesAsia, I searched YouTube, and that's when something else caught my attention... there was a concert where Van Ness Wu and Wang Lee Hom had performed together on the same stage... this was the "Heroes Of Earth" Concert Tour... so I told myself that this was the concert that I absolutely MUST get on DVD... the thing is, the shops in Singapore tend NOT to keep old stocks of Chinese music CDs and DVDs, and the "Heroes of Earth" Concert DVD was released 2 years ago!

I was a bit worried that I might not be able to find it in our local music stores... but as luck would have it, one day I walked into a Poh Kim Video store, and sitting on the shelf was a copy of the "Heroes of Earth" Concert DVD... needless to say, I grabbed it right off the shelf and bought it IMMEDIATELY.

I must say that I was very glad that I got it, because the concert was JUST AMAZING!!! I enjoyed it a great deal, and realised what an incredible "live" performer Wang Lee Hom really is! But I'm also pretty certain that he didn't just come to be that way overnight, this must be the result of all these years of being in the industry, all the time and effort put into working hard, practicing, training and rehearsing.

You can bet that after watching this concert DVD, I told myself that I absolutely MUST go watch Lee Hom in concert the next time he comes around to my little corner of the world!

Anyways, not being satisfied with just that copy of the concert DVD, I went on to get the boxset of the same concert. This was one of those special edition things that included the Concert CD, Concert DVD, and some other goodies.

And then I realised that the 2 concert DVDs that I'd already bought had actually been censored! Like what??!? Argh! Now, nothing gets to me more than knowing that a piece of art has been censored! The 2 Concert DVDs that I had already bought were both missing ONE SONG, probably because the dancing for that song might have been a little too sexy?? Geez!!

So guess what? I set out on a mission to find a copy of the "Heroes of Earth" Concert DVD that was NOT censored, and which included that missing song... eventually, I found a copy of that uncut DVD at the HMV store at The Heeren in Singapore, and decided to get it right away.

Now, I have 3 copies of the "Heroes of Earth" Concert DVD... but I don't mind... hey, let's look at it this way, if I lose a copy, I still have 2 more left, right? Haha! :-)

OK, I'm gonna stop here now, and close this entry with the "Heroes of Earth" music video... the story with Wang Lee Hom isn't over yet though, in fact the "Heroes of Earth" Concert DVD was just a new beginning......

"Heroes of Earth" by Wang Lee Hom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV8Iuke2Bmg