Throughout the 50-year history of Hong Kong music, there have always been dedicated singers who, behind the scenes, have contributed to the diverse landscape of Hong Kong music, often overshadowed by the superstars. Mr. Su Yongkang, who is holding his solo concert at the Lingnan Pearl Stadium in Foshan, is one such notable figure. Originally stepping onto the Hong Kong music scene as the runner-up in the 4th Hong Kong New Talent Singing Awards in 1985, Mr. Su Yongkang’s initial musical journey was not smooth. After four years of waiting, in 1989, he finally found his first behind-the-scenes supporter, the renowned Hong Kong music composer Mr. Lam Muk-Tak, who composed a song for him. This led to the release of Mr. Su Yongkang’s debut album, ‘Insomnia,’ which won him his first music award in 1990, the ‘Most Promising Newcomer (Bronze)’ at the 12th Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards. This marked the official start of his professional singing career. Despite starting a bit later than his peers, his four years of accumulation led to a strong breakout. From 1989 to 1994, Mr. Su Yongkang completed five albums, two EPs, and one compilation, delivering a comprehensive and satisfying performance in his first era of Cantonese songs. The emergence of another significant Hong Kong music composer, Mr. Wong Shang-Wai, foretold his upcoming musical peak. Starting from 1995, Mr. Su Yongkang began to develop in both Mandarin and Cantonese music scenes. Particularly in the Mandarin music market, with his album ‘Men Should Not Make Women Cry,’ he became popular across the Mandarin-speaking regions, including Taiwan and Mainland China, stepping out of Hong Kong to become a well-known singer among Chinese communities. His emotive and heartfelt renditions of classic Mandarin ballads like ‘Old Love is Still the Most Beautiful,’ ‘Let Those Who Understand You Love You,’ ‘If This is the Best Distance to Love You,’ and ‘Love Like a Storm’ have made him one of the best representatives of ‘Men’s Voices’ in the Chinese-speaking world. His passionate performances can stir deep emotions and thoughts in listeners during quiet nights, bringing tears to their eyes. With Mr. Su Yongkang’s solid progress in both Mandarin and Cantonese music, he finally achieved his first representative work in Hong Kong music history in 1998, the song ‘Kissing More, More Heartbroken,’ composed by his good friend Mr. Wu Guojing.
The story behind ‘The More You Kiss, The More It Hurts’ is a classic tale of ‘good deeds are rewarded’. After Mr. Wu Guojing composed ‘The More You Kiss, The More It Hurts’, it was initially overlooked within the industry. It wasn’t until Mr. Su Yongkang stepped in to ‘help’ that this song, which later became one of the ‘hottest singles’ in the history of ‘Cantopop’, was not buried in obscurity. The mutual appreciation between these two friends made the success of ‘The More You Kiss, The More It Hurts’ even more precious.
With the success of ‘The More You Kiss, The More It Hurts’ in 1998 as a new height, Mr. Su Yongkang gradually became an all-around artist in ‘film, television, and music’. His professional roles in ‘File of Justice’ and ‘Healing Hands’ before and after ’98’ made us remember a ‘diverse’ Su Yongkang, not just a singer with strength. After the millennium, as the golden age of ‘Cantopop’ faded, the number of singers who could carry the ‘Cantopop’ flag outside the ‘Greater Bay Area’ was really countable. However, among this countable list of singers, Mr. Su Yongkang’s name is still there. Especially in 2011, his song ‘Who’, with lyrics by friend Huang Weiwen, became another representative work of Mr. Su Yongkang in the ‘Cantopop’ music scene with its delicate performance of the line ‘Your tear stains are like a green rust, stubbornly planted in the corner of your eyes, until forever, unable to be erased’. It is recorded in the classic song list of ‘Cantopop’. In 2010, the ‘BIG 4’ formed by him and friends Xu Zhian, Leung Han-man, and Zhang Weijian also showed Mr. Su Yongkang’s silent efforts to revive the past glory of ‘Cantopop’, always on the road. In the Chinese music scene, Mr. Su Yongkang is not only an unparalleled powerful singer but also frequently produces excellent duets. In addition to the first representative Cantonese duet ‘Never Like Being Lonely’ with Peng Jiali in 1994, followed by ‘Not Easy to Be Together’ with Tang Baoru, ‘Long Night’ with Han Yike, and ‘Still Not Enough’ with Li Chaihu, until the duet classic ‘Su Yongkang’s Makeup Room’ published in 1999, all show his duet strength. What can be left behind has become a duet classic often sung by men and women in the K-song era. Finally, it is worth mentioning that as a male vocal representative of ‘Cantopop’, Su Yongkang has also contributed a lot to the jazz and HI-FI aspects of ‘Cantopop’. His preference for jazz can be seen from the fact that he named his son ‘Su Jazz’. His ‘SOUL JAZZ’ released in 2000 and ‘LOVE FROM THE LAST CENTURY’ released in 2017 further concretize his reputation as ‘Jazz Su’ and ‘HI-FI Su’. It can be seen that Mr. Su Yongkang is a silent inheritor of the diversification of ‘Cantopop’, which is worth another thumbs up.As the January 4 concert of Mr. William So at the Lingnan Mingzhu Gymnasium (training hall) in Foshan is approaching, in conclusion, we should be even more looking forward to this concert. Whether it is his personal works or duets, whether it is love songs expressing men’s feelings, or impromptu scenes that are ‘jazzified’ or ‘HI-FI-ized’, they are all very much anticipated. After all, there are not many opportunities to listen so ‘immersively’ on the spot to such a super powerful male voice who has been quietly cultivating in the Chinese music scene for 35 years and singing the whole concert. At least the editor has been waiting for him for 35 years in Beijing. We must cherish this opportunity this time. On January 4, let’s go to the Lingnan Mingzhu Gymnasium (training hall) in Foshan together, sing loudly with ‘Kang’ and recall the classics of ‘Hong Kong music’. Opening time: Saturday, January 04. The performance starts at 20:00. The specific performance duration is subject to the site.
