This afternoon I was listening to a Taiwanese streaming radio station and a favourite classic song by Taiwanese singer, A-Mei 張惠妹, was played which I haven’t heard for ages. A-Mei’s first two albums released were two of the biggest selling albums of the 1990s and many of her songs became classics in the second half of the 90s as well. So I have chosen 3 of the ballads from her to reminisce including the song that I heard today 原來你什麼都不要…
(more…)May 15, 2022
August 2, 2021
Best Sisters Forever (Taiwanese Short Film OST) 網絡短片《親親壞姊妹》主題曲
Best Sisters Forever 親親壞姊妹 is the third of the 10-film GagaOOLala series that first aired on July 2, 2021. It is a short film of about 38 minutes duration only. One of the stars is a well-known music composer from Taiwan, Kuo Heng-Chi 郭蘅祈 (known by his stage name of 郭子 prior to 2014) and the theme song sung by him is a cover of the song he composed way back in 1999 for Taiwanese singer, A-Mei 張惠妹, included in her millions-selling album 《我可以抱你嗎？愛人》 (Can I Hug You, My Love?).
(more…)June 12, 2021
Pass By 擦肩而過 – Sam Lee 李聖傑
Recently Zhejiang Satellite TV 浙江衛視 has been showing old music clips of songs from their 2016 variety singing show Sound of My Dream 夢想的聲音 on their YouTube channel. As a result, a song performed by Sam Lee on the show became one of the most viewed music clips the last couple of weeks on their music channel. Hmm, and then I realized I haven’t listened to his songs for a number of years, and dug out one of his hits from 2008 to listen to again. Interestingly I have not seen a lot of the Mandopop music videos pre-2010, or until music companies started to upload old MVs onto YouTube, so it is also the first time I have watched the MV for this song! So here it is…
(more…)June 5, 2021
Foolish Heart 太傻 – Della 丁噹
This is a new cover of a hit Mandopop song from the 1990s by Della 丁噹. The song was composed by Malaysian singer Eric Moo 巫啟賢 in 1993 to give to his junior, Mindy Quah 柯以敏, another Malaysian singer for her first album. Eric covered the song the next year, 1994, and his version also became a classic and has been a favourite of mine ever since. I have included all 3 versions below.
(more…)February 15, 2021
November 28, 2020
The Goodbye Kiss 吻別 – Jacky Cheung 張學友
The Goodbye Kiss 吻別 is the biggest Mandopop hit of 1993, and also one of my favourite songs. Sung by Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung, it is one of his best loved Mandarin song. In 2004, Danish band, Michael Learns To Rock, covered the song with English lyrics, and I have also included their English version below.
(more…)November 27, 2020
Stardom 天后 – Andrew Tan 陳勢安
One of the biggest Mandopop hits of 2010 and also an all-time favourite song of mine. Andrew Tan is a Malaysian singer and this song was a hit in Chinese-speaking communities all over East Asia at the time… The Chinese title 天后 is Diva if translated literally. The resolution of the video is not the best but here it is anyway, enjoy!
(more…)August 9, 2020
Rainy Night 下雨的夜晚 – Sodagreen 蘇打綠
One of my all-time favourite songs from 2015! This song was recorded live with the GermanPops Orchestra in Berlin. MV has English subtitles…
(more…)July 17, 2020
Yi Jian Mei (A Spray of Plum Blossoms) 一翦梅 – Fei Yu Ching 費玉清
Xue Hua Piao Piao, Bei Feng Xiao Xiao…
Truth is stranger than fiction! This 37-year-old Mandarin song from 1983 is sweeping across northern Europe and Down Under recently, making it into the Spotify Viral Top 10 in Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and The Netherlands, even taking the No. 1 spot in late June in some countries, now it is also charting in Denmark, Finland and Switzerland. What’s going on?
(more…)June 5, 2020
Last Train 末班車 – Ricky Hsiao 蕭煌奇
One of the biggest hits of 2011 by Taiwanese blind singer Ricky Hsiao (蕭煌奇). I love this original version by Ricky which is more about acceptance, but I also love the live version by Shin (信) from season 4 of I Am A Singer (我是歌手4) which is a very powerful rendition more about reluctance to let go.
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Corner Café 