Solo Concert of William So – Dongguan Station
In the 50-year history of ‘Cantopop’, there are always some singers who work hard in the background at different times behind the heavenly kings and contribute their own strength to the ‘contention of a hundred schools of thought’ in the historical chart of ‘Cantopop’. Mr. William So, who holds his solo concert at Taikongjian in Nancheng District, Dongguan City, is one worthy of special mention. As Mr. William So officially stepped onto the ‘Cantopop’ stage as the runner-up of the fourth New Talent Singing Contest in Hong Kong, China in 1985, his initial singer career path can be said to be unsatisfactory. After waiting for four years, finally in 1989, he met his first behind-the-scenes ‘Bole’, the generation of ‘Cantopop’ composing master Mr. Lam Muk Tak who ‘contributed a song’ for him. Mr. William So released his first album ‘Insomnia’ in his singer career. With this album, he won his first award in his singer career in the next year, the ‘Most Promising Newcomer Award (Bronze Award)’ of the 12th Top Ten Chinese Golden Melody Awards in 1990, thus officially starting his professional singer career. Although it seems that he started a bit later than singers of the same session, due to four years of accumulation, he then burst out. From 1989 to 1994, in the entire five years, Mr. William So completed five albums, two EPs and one compilation, handing in a relatively complete and satisfactory answer sheet in the first Cantonese song era of his ‘Cantopop’ career. And the appearance of another ‘Cantopop’ composer Mr. Wong Sheung Wai who plays an important role in Mr. William So’s singing career in the music field even more indicates the arrival of his peak in the music field later. Since 1995, Mr. William So has begun to develop in both Cantonese and Mandarin music fields. Especially in the Mandarin music field, with the album ‘Men Shouldn’t Make Women Cry’, he became popular in the Mandarin song market including Taiwan region and the mainland of China. He stepped out of Hong Kong, China at one stroke and became a well-known singer in the Chinese region. Later, with a series of Mandarin lyrical classics such as ‘Old Love Is Still the Most Beautiful’, ‘Let Those Who Understand You Love You’, ‘If This Is the Best Distance for Me to Love You’, ‘Love Is Like a Wild Tide’, etc., he became one of the best spokespersons for the ‘voice of men’ in the Chinese region. His emotional and fully devoted interpretation can make people listening in the dead of night be filled with countless thoughts and shed tears involuntarily. As Mr. William So moves forward steadily in both Cantonese and Mandarin music fields, he finally waited for his first representative work in the history of ‘Cantopop’ in 1998. This is ‘The More Kisses, the More Heartbroken’ composed by his good friend Mr. Ng Kwok King.The story behind ‘The More You Kiss, The Sadder You Get’ is a quintessential tale of ‘good deeds rewarded’. After Mr. Wu Guojing composed ‘The More You Kiss, The Sadder You Get’, it was initially overlooked within the industry. It wasn’t until Mr. So Yong Kang stepped in to ‘help out’ that this song, which later became one of the ‘hottest singles’ in the history of ‘Cantopop’, was saved from obscurity. The mutual admiration and support between these two friends made the success of ‘The More You Kiss, The Sadder You Get’ even more precious. Building on the success of ‘The More You Kiss, The Sadder You Get’ in 1998 as a new pinnacle, Mr. So Yong Kang gradually became an artist with a comprehensive development in ‘film, television, and music’. His portrayal of professional roles in ‘The Court No. 1’ and ‘Healing Hands’ before and after 1998 allowed us to remember a ‘versatile’ So Yong Kang, not just as a powerful singer. After the millennium, as the golden age of ‘Cantopop’ faded, the number of singers who could carry the ‘Cantopop’ flag outside of the ‘Greater Bay Area’ became very limited. However, among this limited list of singers, Mr. So Yong Kang’s name is still there. Especially in 2011, his song ‘Who Are You’, with lyrics by his friend Huang Weiwen,凭借其中一句’Your tear stains resemble green rust, stubbornly planted in the corner of an eye, forever, unerasable’, became another representative work of Mr. So Yong Kang in the ‘Cantopop’ music scene, recorded in the classic ‘Cantopop’ playlist. In 2010, he formed the ‘BIG 4’ with friends Xu Zhi’an, Leung Han-man, and Zhang Weijian, demonstrating Mr. So Yong Kang’s quiet efforts to revive the former glory of ‘Cantopop’, always on the road. In the Chinese music scene, Mr. So Yong Kang is not only an unparalleled powerful singer individually, but also a frequent creator of excellent duets. In addition to the first representative Cantonese duet ‘Never Liked Being Lonely Alone’ released in 1994 with Peng Jiali, followed by ‘Together Is Really Not Easy’ with Tang Baoru, ‘Long Night Ahead’ with Kit Chan, ‘Still Not Enough’ with Li Chai Hua, and the duet classic ‘So Yong Kang’s Makeup Room’ published in 1999, all demonstrate his duet strength, and those that remain have become the classic duets that men and women often sing in the K-song era. Finally, it is worth mentioning that as a male vocal representative of ‘Cantopop’, So Yong Kang has contributed greatly to the jazz and HI-FI aspects of ‘Cantopop’. His preference for jazz can be seen from the name he gave his son, ‘So Jazz’. His 2000 release ‘SOUL JAZZ’ and the 2017 release ‘LOVE FROM THE LAST CENTURY’ further embody his reputation as ‘Jazz So’ and ‘HI-FI So’, showing that Mr. So Yong Kang is a silent inheritor of the diversification of ‘Cantopop’, which deserves another round of applause.
As the So Yongkang’s Dongguan Nancheng Tai Space concert on January 11th draws near, the anticipation for this music event has been growing. It is expected that both his solo works and duet pieces, whether they are love songs revealing the male perspective or jazz or high-fidelity improvised performances, are all worth looking forward to. After all, the opportunity to immerse oneself in such a live performance by a male singer who has been quietly working in the Chinese music industry for 35 years is rare. At least this editor in Beijing has been waiting for him for 35 years, so this time must be cherished. On January 11th, let’s gather at Dongguan Nancheng Tai Space and sing along with ‘Kang’, reminiscing on the classics of ‘Cantonese music’. Opening time: January 11th, Saturday, show starts at 20:00, the exact duration of the performance is subject to the live event.
