王力宏——一个学者型的流行音乐人

脑子有点充血，心跳有点快，被吸引了，镇静。自己其实不能算是王力宏的粉丝，但是这几天却陷入着迷的状态中。了解到他的信息越多，那个原本平面的偶像越发立体起来，仿佛认识了很久的感觉。真实、亲和、诚恳、专注、努力、可爱，由内而外的散发着吸引人的魅力，以致产生希望他不是娱乐圈的巨星，而是一个可以结交的普通朋友的想法，一个可以坐在咖啡厅，谈很久，有很多话题的好朋友。

今年国产电影从花木兰以来一直很让我觉得很失望，直到看到《大兵小将》。“弟，追我一路，辛苦吧！”天，已经很久没有看到这样从骨子里散发出男人魅力的演员了。即使满脸污秽，长发散乱，却掩饰不住清秀的面容。爽朗的声音，坚毅的眼神，挺拔的身躯，儒雅的气质，文而不弱，武而不莽。这样的形象让我无法和那个唱《龙的传人》的王力宏对上座。

于是，又找出《色戒》再看一次，当时为什么没有注意到这个演员。在这部片子里，王力宏的演技是有体现的，开始的有些拘谨，随着剧情的发展而渐入佳境。李安给他的戏份太少，并且那个中规中矩的角色是很难出彩的，没有太多发挥的空间。应该感谢成龙，让更多人看到他是一个好演员。那个原本在我印象里是和费翔一类的歌手，让我产生了好奇。

整个周六哪也不去，一直在听王力宏的音乐，《唯一》、《不可思议》、《盖世英雄》、《心跳》。。。。。。王力宏居然写了这么多歌曲，有十多张专辑。当听到《Can you feel my word》，眼眶忍不住湿润，重复听了一遍一遍，带着慢摇滚式的抒情，无奈、慵懒的歌声深深击中我的软肋。不过，要是鼓点可以再弱点可能会更好。

已经很久没有花这么多时间来听中文的流行歌曲了，并且被感动得一塌糊涂。他的音乐传递了他的聪慧和认真，扎实的基本功，渊博的音乐知识，使他得心应手的玩着音乐。多才多艺、好口碑的人品，再加上足可以和吴彦祖媲美的外型，难怪会有这么多忠实的歌迷。

还有致命的一点，出生于一个好家庭，那是一个真正知识分子的家族，这种几代积累的优良气质不是普通人可以模仿出来的。所以我们才可以在他身上感受到不同一般演艺圈人的脱俗气质，没有物质的俗气，没有名誉的强烈欲望，认真的做自己想做的事。我只能感慨，为什么美国的教育可以让中国久违的儒雅、绅士、宽容、善良得到延续，还可以在这样浮躁的世界里仍有做事如此专注、忘我的人，真诚的面对周围的一切，清澈得如一潭清泉。

大家评价他是优质偶像、音乐才子等等，我觉得他是学者型的流行音乐人。他非常清楚自己想做的音乐，剖析不同的乐风，不断的进行各种尝试，对艺术忘我投入，却不失对音乐的理智。若干年后，如果翻开华语流行音乐的历史，会有一页是属于王力宏的，相信历史会给予他对音乐贡献的肯定。

http://www.leehom-cn.com/bbs/thread-219203-1-2.html

谁知道王力宏他想干什么？

最近编辑部内部流传着一些接头暗号---“摩西摩西，你知道王力宏亲自拍戏了嘛?”“蛤？？”“摩西摩西，你知道王力宏就在上海拍戏吗？”“蛤？？”“摩西摩西，你知道王力宏戏里有谁吗？”“蛤？？”“曾轶可哦！！”~~哎哟哟？事情大条喇？

————————前言
低调小将

等了一年零N个月，力宏的专辑还没有出世，但《大兵小将》却已经上映，可惜宣传的时候大多见大兵不见小将，唯一一次北京首映会上，力宏面对媒体的时候也比大哥话少很多，但这次见到他，真想问这孩子是不是逆生长的？还在叫他老王？请改口！多日没见，力宏可比前些日子精神了不少，简而言之就是帅！可能是因为广告跑完了，电影演完了，马上要过年了，一切都在休养生息中，所以皮肤白的放光，坐在大哥旁边安静地颔首地像个乖乖的小孩子。

如果时候给做艺人的基本素质打分，见到大哥之后，你会知道什么叫满分，一场记者会，前前后后全部能够打点得到，话说得不过不失，圆满得体，而力宏呢，则真如林凤娇所说，与大哥形成巨大反差，在大哥定格的笑容旁，观察脸上不规律的一颦一笑，倒也有趣得紧。入行这么多年，力宏参与电影宣传的机会想必比专辑、演唱会宣传要少很多，眼前的媒体记者对他来说显然有些生疏，于是就瞪着一双充满好奇的大眼睛安静地坐在成龙一旁，时而像聆听教诲一般的点头，时而去观察台下的媒体，不叫他的时候绝对不说话，偶尔叫到他的时候，也是字斟句酌，慢慢地吐出那些不够流利的国语。


倒是大哥，可能看力宏太过沉默，时不时地把话题往他身上转，更少不了满满的称赞。在大哥的眼里，力宏的片酬的确颇高，但这位男演员绝对是合作过不会后悔的。在片场，次男孩每每都按时到场，低调地做他的“小牌”，永远抱持新人的态度，听从导演指挥，叫他去哪儿就去哪儿，叫他躺下就躺下，哪怕是脏污的地面。平日里，此男孩吃住行都和剧组一起，宅在屋里的时候也不会有情况，只会埋头苦写那些音乐，。出乎意料的是，此男孩在戏里被摧残得那么丑，也是他自己要求的。

不仅低调谦逊，而且执拗，干一件事，就一定要把他干好。如果你有在电影院看过大兵小将，也可以注意一个细节，那是笑点。最后花絮时，所有人都在笑场，而力宏呢，还在保持一个表情，一个姿势，导演不喊Cut，便继续投入于角色中。

自始至终的认真在王力宏身上并不少见，但，最近的力宏渐渐地给了公众一番感觉：他要跳出去！他要挣脱旧旧的束缚。这欲望其实早已蠢蠢欲动，从《摇滚怎么了》开始吗？不不不，甚至可以从《can you feel my world》开始，总觉得，在时机成熟的时候，他一定会做些出人意料的事，去打开大家的视野，让大家看到“啊？王力宏也可以这样？”然后再来一句：“啊。他这样也不错呢！”

《大兵小将》够不够大胆？男主演之一，超多的武戏，长时间拉练一般的拍摄过程。透过荧幕，你再看不到他参加代言，宣传时有些疏离的眼神，可以感觉到这个男人是有将心投入进去的。上映之前，看衰力宏的人不少，不奇怪，但看过媒体场，原本没有抱太大希望，牙尖嘴利的记者们，不少都在给力宏暗暗竖大拇指。

就像成龙所说，到了他这个年纪，这个收入，这个资产，这个名气，拍电影已经不再是为了票房，而是为自己留下什么。对于音乐，王力宏所处的位置也一样，所以对他的专辑等待的焦虑逐渐转化成了期望他在音乐上有更多的创意，甚至在另一个领做出一番成绩。譬如，他那部比陶喆更快拉来投资，更快投拍的电影，到底是一番怎样的情景呢？就在小编一筹莫展之时，有料到！！在这个全民可以做“记者”的年代，王力宏的新戏自然没有逃过上海宏迷犀利的眼睛和相机。

平地一声雷！？

“首先声明，我不是标题党。下午我还发帖问力宏是不是和刘亦菲在拍什么戏。本来以为没什么机会看到他们了，结果临近晚饭时间，我和室友偷偷潜入他们的拍摄场地，竟然也大摇大摆地看着他们拍戏十分钟有余，但最终还是被发现赶了出来····

事情经过;

晚饭时间，下班回来的室友因为要去男友那边和我同路穿过校园，我向其透露力宏在此地拍戏一事，她便兴致大增，正好走到他们拍片之地，两人交换一下眼神，疾步上前偷瞄片场。这场戏的拍摄在学校已经很久没用的教学楼里，那里曾是多部电视剧的取景点。我们看也没人管，就蹑手蹑脚径直走到了拍戏的核心区，在拍的片段是N多人冲上去围着某男照相{不知道此男名字，但曾出现在多部电视剧中，觉得好眼熟}，导演突然喊Cut，我和室友一转头，天···此人正是力宏筒子，距离不到两米！！我俩心花怒放，定睛观察，只是觉的比想象中的矮了一点，服装奇怪了一点，整个感觉像穿着藏服，头发卷卷的，染黄了，比之前在电视上看到的黑了许多，不知道是不是故意晒黑的··总之造型有点独特··没看到他演戏，就看到他在那边指手画脚的，指导其他演员，和他们交流。
转角突然冒出两个人oh my god···没错,刘亦菲和他的助理···裹着个棉被，披着个头发，面无表情走进我们的韬奋楼。我和室友没有停下脚步，装作啥也没看见，只不过时不时回个头，后面那个谁，oh my god···竟然是曾轶可···

补充：看他们挂着的工作牌，的确叫《玩转大明星》

--------------------摘自网友yumwei发言


力宏果然是要么不出牌，一出牌就吓死人呢，以上这个帖子在王力宏的贴吧一出，就造成了不小的轰动，回帖甚多，担心者有，佩服者有，被雷劈到者有，看热闹者有，观光团有的有，曾轶可的粉丝有。甚至有人看到力宏一身古装，认为这部剧会有“穿越”的情节出现呢！淡定，淡定，其实我们可以在广电总局影片备案中找到这部《玩转大明星》的剧情：杜明汉从小就是一个超级巨星，他隐藏身份和好友魏志伯出行，谁知被音乐学院民乐系的女孩刘美青吸引，于是两人一起考入民乐系，与刘美青成为同学。刘美青偷偷参加杜明汉地签名会，证实了他的身份，生气离去，杜明汉再次出现在校园，帮助民乐系招生，同时举办演唱会，他在演唱会上对刘美青表白，两人尽释前嫌。

这样看来，男主角杜明汉非王力宏莫属了，那么曾轶可？在大家还不确定消息是否属实时，曾轶可的经纪人默认了，但却表示由于签订了保密协议而不透露细节。不过据知情人士透露，她在片中应是饰演民乐系的学生，需要演奏古筝和扬琴，甚至还是男主角与女主角感情出现问题时的调停人。

无论你对这一部据的期待值如何，一定要佩服一记力宏格局。所谓的传统艺人与选秀艺人的隔阂有多大，差距多远，在他心中似乎并不那么重要。就算退一万步，这样一次合作，起码可以使的影片在拍摄过程中，不用一分钱的宣传费，赚足媒体的关注度！这算是金牛座勤俭持家的本性吧！？

于是，虎年的王力宏彻底从一个阳光偶像变成了一个谜题，因为你再也不知道他下一步要出什么牌，电影？音乐？还是其他什么领域的尝试？或雷的你外焦里嫩，或美得你不知所措，但你只能照单全收。谁让他早就唱了---“我不是谁的玩偶”。

source:【2010-03-25/当代歌坛468期】

BOY NEXT DOOR

B Magazine, January


He sings, he dances, he acts, he composes songs, he works as a producer of many major records- and he is only 24. Lee-hom Wang, young, handsome, and sociable, seems almost too perfect to be true. But the young pop star who has captured the hearts of million insists that he is just a naughty boy next door.

Say the name "Wang Lee-hom" to any teenage girl in Hong Kong, Taiwan or China and you're likely to get an excited scream in return. Wang, 24, has only been in the music industry for fives years but, with his musical talent and sunny good looks, he has already established himself as one of the most popular pop icons in Asia. Whether it's Hong Kong, Taipei, Shanghai or even Xi'an, hordes of fans bombard airports and hotels in hope of catching a glimpse of Wang.

Luckily, we successfully suppressed the news that Wang should be arriving at our studio for make-up and that he would be going to Big Wave Bay for the photo-shoot (and even changing his top in front of everyone), otherwise, a squad team of fans would certainly have shown up.

With so many reports of prima donna pop star hearthrobs these days, it's easy to imagine Wang as a spoiled brat from hell. His bio states how he started playing violin at age six, taught himself the guitar by 13, compoosed his first songs at 15, and went to music school and became a pop artist at 19. All this might indicate something of a precocious talent. Happily, nothing could be further from the truth.

Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Wang has an American flair to his personality that is obvious when he speaks. "Yo, dude!" He exclaims at some foul-looking foamy substance washing up on the shore. What's most likeable about Wang, however, is his ability to combine the best of both worlds. Despite his upbringing in the States, Wang speaks and reads Chinese, loves his heritage and even aspires to be the link bridging Chinese and international pop cultures. At present, he seems to be on the right track.

Having won the Best Male Artist of the Year and Best Producer of the Year in 1999 for his album Revolution at the Golden Melody Awards, the Taiwanese equivalent of the Grammies, Wang has been nominated again this year in six categories, including Best Arranger of the Year (Descendants of the Dragon) and for top Golden Melody Son gof the Year with his newest song Forever's First Day. He has also recently been inteviewed by CNN as one of the most successful Chinese pop artists. And with his natural good looks and charm, he has recently been picked for the second time as one of the winners of Top Ten Idols, an event held by Taiwanese publiclation Ming Shen Bao. Last November, Wang was selected as one of the sexiest male artist by Esquire magazine in Hong Kong.

None of this success wa sexpected in 1993, however, when Wang causally joined a talent search contest in Taiwan. "I was 17 years old, and i was on summer holiday. My mum and i were sitting in a restaurant and we spotted this poster on the wall about a talent search show, " Wang recalls. 'I had nothing to do, so Ithought, 'why not.' I didn't take it seriously at the time."

With a guitar and one of his own songs, Wang instantly attracted the attention of the record company that hosted the competition and was approached with a contract. "I just treated it as a summer job," says Wang. "Studies always came first and I had a deal with [the record company] to only work on the albums during the breaks I had from school." The contract meant forfeiting his entry into the final, but Wang wasn't really in it to win anyway - after all, he has never been a stranger to awards.

Since elementary school, Wang has won awards in everything from maths to essay competitions. He was ranked second in the American High School Thesis Competition, held by Cornell University in 1993, and was accepted as a member of Golden Key National Honour Society with his painting titled Eagle. He later graduated with honours from Sutherland High School and received a scholarship fro Pittsford Musical Inc. of the University of Rochester in 1994. Having passed the violin exam of Eastman Music School, Wang entered Williams College majoring in music.

Besides working on his degree, Wang spent a lot of time at Williams singing with an accapella band called the Springstreeters. His combination of passion for music and talent with poeple was already becoming apparent. "I fell like we grew up together," Wang said in an inteview with the school's journal, about his days with Springstreeters. For his final year project, Wang penned a musical entitled The Bite That Burns! and received an A for his work. Wang still speaks of the experience as one of the happiest moments in his life. "It was such hard work but everyone who was involved enjoyed it. They were doing it for free and they did it because we're friends. I appreciate that spirit and motivation."

Despite his formal music training, Wang was keen to enter the pop scene - despite claims that it was a waste of his talent. "In classical music we have Yo-yo Ma, but there is no internationally recognised Chinese pop star," Wang explains. "There is a huge potential there." Wang thinks it's a good thing that there are so many Chinese artists who have achieved international appeal, such as Jackie chan, chow Yun-fat and Lucy Liu, and he hopes to achieve the same in pop music and be a good role model for Chinese youths around the world.

Neither does he mind the ever-increasing commercialism of the pop industry. "My view on music is that it has to be commercial," Wang says. "If it's good, people love it and buy it." One crucial difference here is that Wang is not in it just for the money and fame. He's not led by commercialism but merely plays into it. "My goal is not to make a lot of karaoke hits, make lots of money and be famous, otherwise i would have made more than one album a year," Wang says. "Music must come first. When it's good, it becomes commercial."

Besides his remarkable musical talent, Wang's career has also been blessed by man notable musicians around the world. It was the late Seth McCoy who taught Wang how to sing. McCoy, who passed on a few years ago at 68, was among the very first black soloists to break through the boundary of racism and sing for Metropolitan Opera. It was McCoy who inspired Wang to think about his heritage. " Seth told me the world is not Rochester; here you're Wang Lee-hom, but outside there, your're a foreigner."

After his pop career kicked off, Wang met Jim Lee, a respected and experienced music producer who has worked with many notable pop stars such as Karen Mok and Coco Lee. The pairing has proved to be sensation in the pop music industry. And it was with Lee that Wang worked in producing the highly popular track, Revolution. "Lee taught me a lot how to be a producer - the techical side of things," says Wang. "He is my mentor."

Back in New York, where he spend about half of the year churning out new songs, Wang also works with many big wigs, one being Alex Richbourg, drumer programmer for Janet Jackson. In one of his newest songs City of Pleasure, Wangs works with Richbourg to combine Chinese elements, such as ping-pong ball and kung fu sounds with Western style drum grooves. This is apprently the path Wang wants to take in bridging the two worlds he is familiar with.

Wang's passion for his heritage is also noticeable in his reaarangement of the song Descendants of the Dragon. Originally sung by Wang's uncle, Li Juan-fu, Descendants of the Dragon became a legend in Chinese music when it was released in the 1980's. It was at a time when China was recovering from an especially turbulent and destructive periold in its history and moving on to becoming a world power. The song touched a chord for many chinese people, at home as well as around the world.

While Li has given up singing and moved on to heading Yahoo Taiwan, his nephew is picking up the ball to take the legendary song further. "Twenty years ago, when my uncle sang this song, it had a more local meaning. Now, when you talk about chinese people, you are talking globally," Wang said in a recent interview.

Another of Wang's musical inspirations is Stevie Wonder. Wang quotes one of Wonder's 1974 hits, LIving For The City as what he thinks music creation should be. In the middle of the song, The music lowers and thre is dramatic interlude about a black man visiting New York City, and being tragically framed for drug possession. "[Stevie Wonder] does all these different voices; he doesn't mind doing these things that might make others think of him as an idoit," Wang says. "He believes in what he is doing."

Wang's attitude to life and his career seems to be a winning formula, and work has never stopped pouring in. Besides his newest album, Forever's First Day, and the single, Time To Fall In Love, this talented homeoby, as Wang often refers to himself, has just finished the shooting of his first two movies. China Strike Force, in which Wang stars with pop legend Aaron Kwok and Japanese bombshell Norika Fujiwara, was released last month, while In the Names of Heros, with Hong Kong hearthrob Stephen Fung and pop princness Gigi Leung, is expected to be released this month.

Yet if there is one more thing that Wang has succeeded in over the past years, it must be the art of dealing with people. Like many other up- and-coming pop artists, Wang has had his fair nubmer of publicity headaches. Rumours about his sexuality and who he has been dating recently, as well as whispers along the grapevine that he stepped on Aaron Kwok's toes for wanting to sing the title track for China Strike Force, have all, at one time or another, got this homeboy frustrated. "I personally didn't mind [the sexuality rumour]. What upsets me is the way that the question came out," Wang says vehemently. "I was at an event for something totally unrelated and then out of the blue there was this question. It was rude and disrespectful."

At other times, Wang is weary of how reporters are so interested in his love life. "I was at this press conference once promoting my album, and thre were a few minutes out of an hour-long press conference where some reporters asked about this song i wrote about lost love," Wang recalls. "The next day, i read the paper and the headline was "Wang Lee-hom's Lost Love". There was no mentioning of my other songs. I was like, 'what the hell?' " Needless to say, recent sightings of him at a restaurant with Karen Mok have fuelled furthere speculation about the duo's relationship.

Wang sees nothing in these rumours and looks on them with a laugh. "I've wised up to see things as they are; there are always good things and bad things said about you." Wang sums up the experience: "Some people might say, you've put on weight, and then others say, you're skinnier. I say, 'screw it' "

Wang has foudn the perfect solution to getting his thoughts across without them being twisted by the press. He now writes a weekly diary on Sony Music Taiwan's website in Chinese and English. "If people care to read about it, then they'll know." And mandy do. The content of the diary has been recapped in many of his fans websites and Wang receives many responses each week.

In a couple of months, Wang will return to the life he loves most: making music in the studio. He is expecting to release his first English album in Japan next year. It's not going to be a holiday - as a matter of fact, work in the studio can get quite stressful and intense. "I don't deal with stress very well, I sink into it," Wang says. "When I'm stressed, I become high-strung and can't eat and sleep; I don't change my clothes and I don't take a shower." Sounds horrible, but when that stress is a result of your passion, it can be ironically pleasurable. "I feel much better now, having spent my day off practising piano in pure unadulterated solitude. I spent quality time today...and am much happy this way, Wang wrote, closing one of his recent diaries.

Scholar--Wang Lee-Hom

ICON, December 8, 2001

Born with Taiwan canto-pop, bred on American arts and letters, Lee-hom Wang is now made famous on mainland water. But the serious musician in him can't get over being just another pop star. Formal training in college once provided substance that doesn't quite translate to the masses, as fellow alumnus Val Wang tells us.

It's hot in Beijing, damn hot, and you're on the street looking for relief. The quandary is as epic as Coke vs. Pepsi: Robust or Wahaha bottled water? Or, more clearly put: a bottle plastered with the face of some bland pop star unscrewing the top of a Robust bottle, or some other guy in a white T-shirt and a, shall we say, flamboyant pose with his arm over his head holding a Wahaha bottle? You reach for the Wahaha and, even if you couldn't care less, you wonder briefly: Who is this guy? And why that pose?

He's Lee-hom Wang, best known as a Taiwanese pop star and less well-known as a graduate of Williams College (1998), an elite liberal arts university of 2,000 students tucked away in a self-proclaimed "Village Beautiful" of 10,000 people located in scenic New England called Williamstown (Massachusetts). It was far away from the maddening crowds of Taipei.

Williams was also my alma matter. I graduated a year earlier than Lee-hom and came to China shortly afterwards. I'd heard that Lee-hom was a pop star in Taipei, but how big of a star he was didn't hit home until one thirsty day earlier this year. With every bottle of Wahaha I imbibed, my question grew: how did I end up as a struggling freelance writer in Beijing while he ended up a pop idol in Taipei with four Sony Music albums to his name and billions of water bottles splashed with his visage?

I caught up with him in Shanghai, where he is currently taping a kung fu movie directed by Stanley Tong and starring some Hollywood stars too big to even tell me about. Also riding high off of his recent album, "Forever's First Day," he was only too happy to indulge my curiosity.

Prodigy

Lee-hom's career started one Winter Study, a month-long term at Williams designed to give flight to creative independent projects or, alternately, to invoke existential despair in those left behind on campus to cope with the New England winter.

So while I was drinking my brains out trying to forget that it was the dead of winter, he was in Taipei on a project to study the demographics of the pop music phenomenon and produce the first album that would turn himself into a pop music phenomenon.

He did have a head start, of course. He'd trained in violin at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York since age six and by the time he got to Williams at age 18, he somehow had already landed a recording contract with Sony Music.

At Williams, he helped to found the folk music club Williams Grassroots Music, sang in the a cappella group the Springstreeters, got into the small jazz scene and, his senior year, wrote and directed the yearly musical entitled "The Bite that Burns," a vampire musical that he admits was somewhat "frivolous." Me? I can barely recall what I did through most of college.

Summer vacations were spent in Taiwan cutting records and Williamstown provided a contrast to that lifestyle. He welcomed the tranquility of Williamstown that some of the rest of us resented so much. "I was so overexposed in Asia, so social. You meet a thousand people every day," he says. "But back at Williams it was quiet, so peaceful. You could walk around Spring Street and no one would ask you for an autograph."

Being a huge pop star was a new twist on the old hybrid identity issue. "It was a way to strike a balance of my two identities: being born an American kid used to having a private life and being a public figure [in Taiwan]," he says, without a trace of angst. "That's what fate has dealt me."

What it seems fate has also dealt him is a nice niche market. After he graduated from Williams with his music degree, he went to the Berklee Institute of Music in Boston and spent time laying down tracks for his third album. With the music theory he learned in college, he has produced and arranged all of his own albums. "A lot of my friends who are great musicians have become lawyers and I-bankers," he says. "I realized that success is not about how great you are on the piano. In pop music, it's about bringing new stuff in, a unique perspective as a composer."

Though raised in the States with little formal education in Chinese, he sings most of his songs in Mandarin, supplying one of the most satisfying ironies of his story. He had to begin with the Chinese 101 class at Williams and work his way through four years with the famed textbook couple Gubo and Palanka before he had the reading and writing skills it took to pen pop songs. Now he speaks English sprinkled with Chinese phrases delivered in a dulcet Taiwanese accent.

Probing Pop

His tender sound and juvenile following might conjure comparisons to Backstreet Boys, but whatever criticisms might be lobbed at the vacuity of pop music, Lee-hom doesn't consider it a fall from his upbringing in classical and jazz music. "It's what you can say in the music that's important," he says. "I don't feel like my creativity has been stifled."

His latest album has funkier beats and more rockin?songs than his earlier work, crafting a harder image for Lee-hom than the usual fare of winsome love songs. It also reflects his ambition to make music with "dongfang yinsu" (Eastern elements) but with "international arrangement and production techniques," music that't universally appealing but with "established Chinese cliches" so you know it's "Chinese music." On this note, he delivers a remake of "Descendants of the Dragon" (Long de Chuanren), a patriotic song from the early 1980s written by Taiwanese singer He Dejian and popularized by his uncle, Li Jianfu. The lyrics are simple and passionate ("The distant East has one great river; its name is the Yangtze River./ The distant East has one river; its name is the Yellow River./ The ancient East has one dragon; its name is China./ The ancient East has one people; they are descendents of the dragon.")

He evens adds his own flourish at the end with a rap about two immigrants from Taiwan who go to the States with "no money no job no speak English nobody gonna give 'em the time of day."

When I ask Lee-hom how Williams College fell short in preparing him for the life he lives now, he says, without a trace of irony that "nothing can prepare you for the real world." His tumble from the ivory tower led to pop stardom and its own particular phantasmagoria sold-out stadium concerts, sides of Taipei buses plastered with his mug for an American Cotton endorsement, tabloid stories about his love life.

When it comes to transmitting more than music to the masses, his Williams education is useless. "If I say in an interview how Gustav Mahler influenced this one song on my pop album, they're not going to care, not going to know what I'm talking about," he says.

Thank goodness for the internet. Lee-hom writes to his fans every week on the Sony Music Taiwan website. He uses it as a forum to talk about those things "a classical composer at a concert of a premiere of their work would," like the chords, scales, and keys his songs are in, his inspirations and concepts.

The Wahaha endorsement is all part of the China campaign, a natural corollary to being a pop star in Taiwan. The match was made when the Hangzhou-based Wahaha went looking for a young singer and found Lee-hom looking towards the mainland. Some combination of his popularity, his image and his singing "expressed the inner spirit" of the drink, said Ms. Yang of the Wahaha Advertising Department.

However, at this point, 97% of his albums that are sold in the mainland are pirated. While it will take years to fix the problem, Lee-hom isn't worried. Fame on the mainland "won't go away for the rest of your life. It's not like in Taiwan where people's tastes are always changing."

And about that pose, let's just say that it was the last of hundreds they asked him to do. "I didn't want to do it, but I'm a nice guy, so I did," he says, though he had a bad feeling about it. "I just knew it [was the one they were going to use.]"

All Hail the New Prince

The Teens , January 2002


The talented and charming lad of Chinese pop talks about his growing-up years, his passion for music and his first real girlfriend.

Sitting comfortably in a chair, in the quiet poolside lounge of Four Seasons Hotel, LeeHom, paused when asked to comment on the cover shot of his debut album, Love Rival Beethoven. With a smile and after some hestitation, he said: "I think it's kind of cute".

Yup, that was a cute LeeHom back in 1995 then. He has since matured into a suave gentleman, and hailed as the Chinese Prince of R&B music - with no less than 10 full albums, one single, one cantonese EP and three movies in seven years under his belt.

Music-wise, the 25-year-old New Yorker has also grown from strength to strength. "My music has gone through so many different stages. In Love Rival Beethoven, my music background was pretty broad - classical, pop, rock and lots of other different styles," said LeeHom. "But I did not really study jazz. After that album, I studied jazz a lot and became a jazz piano player because that was what I majored in college."

It was the beginning of his second year in Williams College, Massahusetts, US, when he released his debut. Jazz influence got into his second album, If You Hear My Song. "From the second album onwards, you start to hear more jazz. Now I'm writing in a more unique style because I've become more comfortble with myself as an artiste, more confident with my own writing," he said.

To Call His Own

The confidence that keeps growing results in LeeHom writing almost all the songs in his last two album. "For the last couple of albums, I really wanted to do something from my heart because I am a composer," he gushed. "I've written songs since I was really young. It is something that I love to do, so I want to share this with my fans. It's really nice composing the entire album by myself. But I don't object to singing other people's songs; I do so all the time in concerts," he said.

That's not to say LeeHom only appreciates singers who write their own stuff. "You take N'Sync or somebody else who does not write his own songs. They both make great sounds but they feel different."

Mother Tongue

The person who wields the biggest influence in LeeHom's career is his mother. "She's an amateur opera singer," he revealed. "She's been most involved in my career for the last few years in terms of managing me, especially at the beginning, because I didn't really speak Mandarin."

But LeeHom never gets this weakness hinder him. Although the singer-composer had weekly Mandarin lessons in his primary school days, he attributed his present improved proficiency in Mandarin to his mother's coaching, and his innate ability to pick up languages well. In fact, he's now good enough to pen lyrics for his Chinese songs. "I think I'm a pretty fast learner, maybe because the language is also very musical," he said.

Pink Floyd & Broadway

As a kid, LeeHom was a Top 40 fan and listened to Michael Jackson. But he also plugged into rock bands like Led Zappelin and Pink Floyd. It is this love for rock tht led the guileless LeeHom to the shock of his life. "The first concert I went to was Heart when I was 12," he recounted. "It was the first time I saw people taking drugs, getting drunk. I went with my brother and it was like: what are these people doing? That was really hard rock. But Heart is a great band," he added.

"I also listened to a lot of classical music. I'm a serious violin muisc then. I played in the youth symphony orchestra in New York, so I also listened to orchestra music," said LeeHom. "There's also Broadway muisc because that's very integral in New York culture. When I was 13, I began performing in broadway musicals in school.

Acting Up

With a solid grounding in music, you may wonder why LeeHom dabbles in movies as well. "I've been doing plays but the thign about movies that atttract me is that they are more realistic than plays," he explained. "In plays, you have to project your voice so everyone can hear. But in movies you can talk softly."

When asked if he would make more movies, the long-haired singer said: "I think it depends on how good the movie is. If it's going to be a good experience, I would jump on it because good movies are hard to come by and also the schedule is uncontrollable. It's unlike producing albums beacuse most of it is my own time. In movies, it involves the schedule of hundreds."

The Nomad

LeeHom counts travelling as his hobby and lifestyle even.

"The life that I live is so nomadic. There isn't much time for me to spend at home or with friends," he lamented. "I write in the road, produce on the road, record with my computer. I have two suitcases and that's everything I own. I don't have a car or a house. But I enjoy that kind of lifestyle."

Looking back, the singer has chalked up enough traveling to fatten his passport with two inches worth of extensions. Well considering LeeHom started travelling overseas at the age of 12 (he went to Mexico with his family then), it is no wonder at all!

Turning Bad

While international artistes like Robbie Williams and Eminem can get away with vulgarities and obscene acts onstage, does LeeHom think Asian artistes can do likewise? "It's tougher to some extent. It has always beend the case. Robbie Williams uttered some vulgarities when he was in Taiwan. If he were a Chinese artiste, he would be dead," he noted.

No Life But Rumours

With a heavy schedule producing and promoting albums, concert tours and movies, does LeeHom have a life? "No," he shakes his head and adds: "I definitely chill out in clubs and hang out with friends but it's harder when I am producing albums," he explained. "This album The One and Only was produced in Singapore, Hongkong, Taiwan, Boston and New York. So when I'm flying all over the place, it's really hard to meet up with friends."

Very few artistes are unscathed by rumours; LeeHom is no exception. over the past year, rumours cirulated that he was gay. And there was the well-publicised romance he had with an Eurasian Hong Kong model. How does he handle the rumours?

"It doesn't bother me much now," he stated. "At that time, of course, I was emotionally affected. Anybody would, especially when they are not true. I don't want to come out and make the news bigger," LeeHom explained. "I do music and I want to focus all my energy on this. I've no desire to use tabloids to promote myself. I don't want to waste my energy holding press conferences to deny my relationship with certain people or to say that I am not gay because it's just not in my interest.

The Real Girlfriend

LeeHom first fell in love when he was 13. That was, in his own words, a crush. He had another girlfriend at 15, but that was not a serious relationship.

He reveals more: "My first real girlfriend actually sings in this latest album. I was 17 then. She's an opera singer. She sings on the last song [I Want] in the album. We're still great friends," he maintained.

Well, go get the album if you want to know the name of this Prince Charming's maiden fair!

Maturing Into His Own Groove

THE STAR Malaysia, November 22 2001

by Brian Cheong


After his 'fun' movie outing in China Strike Force last year and a year-long absence from the music scene, Wang Lee Hom returns with a brand new CD that is about his most remarkable effort yet.

Young he may be but American-born, Taiwan-based singer Wang Lee Hom is no chip off a boyband block. Where almost everyone his age gunning for pop fame is doing it with toned bodies and pretty faces, Wang goes one up by actually writing his own songs, producing his own albums and playing the instruments.

Wang, sporting much longer hair that makes him hunkier, is back with a new album, The One and Only, a sturdy roster of work that is simply his best yet.

It features Wang in top form when it comes to instrumentation and vocalisation. This is a new, more mature Wang at the helm. After five years in the business, the 24-year-old may have finally found his groove.

"I think this album is a transition for me in terms of the way I work and the way I produce," he said in a recent interview.

"I feel that being a producer, other than the musical aspect, it also has a lot to do with communicating with people, communicating with musicians and finding the right people to work with. I felt that I handled all the aspects better than before. The production went much more smoothly than did my previous albums."

Unlike many of his peers, Wang has the luxury of taking an entire year to work on one album. Smiling, he said: "That's in my contract (with Sony Music Taiwan). I think that alot of time you can't rush yourself to create or to be inspired. Some take faster that I do, some slower, but the most important thing is to find your own pace. From my past experiences, one album per year is perfect."

His busy schedule compelled Wang to take his songwriting on the road. One of the tracks on the album, An Quan Gan (Sense of Security) was written when he was on the way to the airport in Taipei. "I was finally on my way home to New York after a long stint abroad. It tells of the feeling of being able to go home and reunite with your loved ones."

The album, which Wang described as his 'diary' from the past year, is varied in style and instrumentation, making it one of the year's most successfully eclectic albums by a Chinese artiste.

Take the song Jie Bu Liao Ni (Addicted to You) for instance. Not many Chinese singers would dare venture into the depths of laidback jazz and blues in gloomy lounge vibe. But Wang not only did it, he triumphantly mixes what is essentially a Western musical style into a rare Chinese pop treat.

"This song is an example of the spirit of the album. I got a bunch of friends from Berklee (College of Music in Boston) and we went to a friend's studio. "There were three guys; myself on the piano, a drummer and a bassist, and we were having such a great time. We wanted to jam abit and so the bass player started playing this and the drummer started playing and then I started playing and then we were like 'Hey! That sounds really good.' The guys went out for some beer and I stayed back to work on the melodies, and soon the melodies were done and that was it.

"The song writing process (in general) was really painless and natural because nobody ever wrote anything down. It just kind of happens spontaneously." On Wo Yao (which Wang translated to be "Yearnings of My Childhood Spirit"), Wang experimented with surreal mood.

"It's not a love song, for a change, but a philosophical song about what I think are ideals in life. It's about the dreams I had as a child, about strangers coming together on the streets and dancing to whatever music that's playing.

"The female voice on the album belongs to my ex-girlfriend from high school. We've known each other since I was 13. I've always wanted to record her voice and I thought this song was most appropriate."

The mournful title track, one of the best songs from the album, was written while Wang was on a rare holiday in Greece.

"I wanted songs that can translate well onto the stage. So I've set out to make a very 'live' album. There is no electronic music on this album. The sound throughout is very 'live' which is why I think all the songs come together so well on the album.

"It is a successful album because it is able to fulfil the original inspirations that I had at the beginning. I had an idea of how I wanted the album to sound and this album is poretty close to what I had in mind."

Wang has not only grown much more self-assured as a producer, he has quite obviously moved up another level as a song writer and singer.

"Working with my lyricist (Taiwanese He Chi Hong), I learnt about not making my songs too personal. It's very easy, when you have all the control, to make your songs too persoanl and people might not relate to your songs.

"I've learnt how to hold back a little, yet at the same time keep my feelings in the songs."

On vocals, Wang has always applied the same rule. "I understand my voice and I know which songs are suitable and which are not. So when I write songs, I think about my strength and weakness and what I'd like to feature vocally. It's the same thing when I write for other singers; I think about their strengths and weaknesses.

"Of course, my instrument has grown stronger like any muscle when you constantly work it. I really enjoy performing the songs on this album and it's very natural for me when I perform them."

While music remains Wang's priority, he is not at all averse to doing a little acting on the side, despite a somewhat ho-hum debut in China Strike Force. He will next apeear in the long-delayed Tekken, which was shot right after China Strike Force.

"I think for my fans to see me in movies, it's kind of like a novelty, a fun thing to do. I would do another movie but I don't know if I want to do another action movie. I'd like to do some other stuff," said Wang who never ceases to explore unfamiliar terrain.

王力宏的旅人心事

2002年2月份 VOGUE


这日子，过的其实连他自己都觉得有点迷糊，不是已经进入宣传期尾声了吗？怎么仍旧马不停蹄的做空中飞人，“我想很重要的一个原因，是为了二月份在香港红勘的演唱会吧，那之前有很多的准备工作，然后期间又穿插进一些不同的事情”，例如前阵子刚推出的写真歌谱，总之工作似乎是不停的，生活的步调，自然因此变得紧凑。

除了黑了点，瘦了点，眉宇之间的神情慢慢走离男孩的青涩，逐渐展现属于男人特有的刚毅之外，王力宏大体而言其实没有多大的改变，对人仍旧是礼礼貌貌的拘谨，说话仍旧是那好像得经过千锤百炼的慢条斯理。这可能是因为面对媒体的关系吧，他一次又一次的强调，私底下的他，可不是这么“典型斯文” 的，比较随性，比较自由，比较可以放开胸怀，比较愿意??谈阔论，比较能够和人开玩笑，总之比较自在。

他说这其实是一种障碍，“我始终觉得我不是一个口才很正很棒的人，不只是因为讲中文的关系，英文也一样”，担心没办法将自己真正想讲的话，正确传达，“所以在舞台上，在做现场表演的时候我可以很放，是因为透过音乐的这个屏障跟距离，让我觉得安全，或者应该说，我比较习惯，也比较擅长用音乐和人沟通吧。”

一如他眾所周知的古典背景，也就像他周身上下自然散发的贵族特质，在还没走进流行音乐的领域之前，王力宏曾经一心一意的以为，自己这辈子就是要当个职业小提琴手，“那应该是在我十七八岁的时候吧”，当时心下真是这么笃定的认为着，然而在家人反对，又得不到太多鼓励的情况下，心却开始七上八下的犹豫了起来，在难以抉择之下，干跑去问老师觉得自己是不是适合走这条路。“我那时候水准其实挺差的”，没想到老师听他这么一问之后，立刻笑笑的回答说：如果你还需要问我，就表示你根本不适合，因为你没有那个决心，因为音乐是一条很苦的路。

“哇，我那时候真的觉得好难过，好沮丧，甚至有一种无法形容的慌张和茫然，可是他说的好像又是事实”：“因为小时候对自己的未来虽然也有过很多幻想，比方建筑师啊，警察，救火员，动物园的管理员，但自从接触了音乐，更准确应该说是开始创作之后，我整个人就完全被它栓住了”。

“怎么说音乐呢？”话锋一转，他的思绪汇到更早更早以前，“你们都知道我成长在一个，可能可以说是最复杂的环境里吧，纽约，英文有个句子叫做shorterm memory span，当你什么都不知道的时候，反而是一种幸福，大量的信息虽然会带给你力量，但相对也会变成一种负担，让你混淆了自己的位置，不知道自己到底是什么，这其实很容易变成一种灰涩，会有很多负面的东西出现。就是好像什么都有一点，却偏偏
又什么都不是。”其间有个重大关键，叫做种族身份的迷思。

大多时候，他总是一个人，从一个国度到另一个国度，从一个城市的风景转换到另一个城市的面貌中，就像是一个旅人的心情，四海为家，却又处处不是家，王力宏把寂寞转换成为音乐，把生活的碰触变成音符，用音乐记录下他行进步伐中的点点滴滴!

“所以我真的很感激我拥有了创作，拥有音乐，因为创作这件事情让我了解了自己，对我来说，它就好像是一个隐形的朋友，它会问我很多问题，会不断不断的考验我，然后我必须要很诚实的面对它，很透明的把自己放在它的面前，把自己所有的一切都交给它。”

人都说他温文，阳光笑容里无法和叛逆发生联想，王力巨阀却说，做音乐的人，其实没有一个不叛逆，“因为它原本就是一个很逆向的东西”，他的叛逆不诉诸行为，却隐藏在音乐的世界中，其间居住着他内在或纠结或澎湃或不平或吶喊或抒情的活动。他将他的心情，他的生活，他的体验都放在音乐里，企图从中寻找一种自己与外在风景可以协调相处的平衡。

“很庆幸音乐的那扇门为我开了，而且是可以和更多人沟通的流行音乐”，露出了一个爽朗的笑容，“要不然现在的我，搞不好已经是一个医生了”，大笑，这曾经是家人对他最大的期望。要是那扇门永远都不曾打开，会觉得遗憾吗？好奇问他，“遗憾当然会有，但我相信我仍旧会是一个快乐的人吧，毕竟人是不可能没有遗憾的，就好像我虽然走进了流行音乐的世界中，我还是会有遗憾，遗憾我花了那么多的时间在录音室里，结果我的小提琴退步成这样，不也是很可惜的一件事情吗？”

“不过我不会后悔，因为我觉得人生只有一条路，你既然已经做了决定的选择，就好好的去做吧”；“任何事情都必须付出代价的，在我选择音乐，选择自由的同时，或许其实就已经付出了孤独的代价。”

过去一年的365天里，王力宏住了361天的饭店，尽管身边围绕着各种各样的人群，也许是歌迷，也许是记者，也许是工作人员，也许是哥作的伙伴，但就某种意义来说，他其实一直都是自己一个人，从一个国家到另一个国家，从一个城市转移到另一个城市，流转在不同的脸孔，不同的景色中，他说常常很喜欢在三更半夜的时候，一个人在街上走，除了是享受某种自虐的孤寂之外，同时是想对自己证明说：这就是我的家，“我想我和其它亚洲歌手很不同的地方，就是我在这些地方其实是没有家的，我心里永远觉得我不在家，我始终在旅行，对，就想是一种旅行，旅行的过程中，会有一些里面的不安全感，会有着某种奇怪的享受，我试图把我所经过的每个地方都当成家，但又其实清楚这些地方都不是我的家，那是一种很奇怪的感觉。”

如果能够改变自己个性上的某一点？王力宏突然爆出一连串的大笑声说：我好希望，我能够有足够的勇气和陌生人说话。就像是个旅人般的生活，“陌生”几乎等于是他生活的常态，飞机上，行走间，公车里，或者日常生活中的每一件事，身边永远充斥着一个又一个的陌生人，常常，他很希望能够开口跟他们说话，聊些什么都好，你这双鞋很好看，你长得很漂亮之类的，“总之可能是一些很霹雳的话”，偏偏大多数时候，他总是害羞的开不了口，要是哪天鼓起勇气做到，他便会开心个一整天，觉得自己很屌，“我其实很喜欢和人沟通，就像音乐对我而言，除了一种内在世界的抒发之外，更重要的意义，是它能够和人沟通。”

“寂寞吗？你说的是男人的寂寞，还是人的寂寞？”“其实都一样啦，寂寞时候最没脑的方法，当然就是想办法让自己变得很忙，忙到你回饭店之后就已经累垮了，根本没力气多想。而如果真的寂寞的话，我想我还是会拿出那句话吧，把寂寞变成一种享受，一种真实陪伴你的感觉，我觉得这就是音乐，是音乐人原本就应该要忍受的一种折磨，这样你的作品才会有肉，不是吗？”

话题进入短暂的沉默中，王力宏神情交杂在某种复杂的状态里，“我不是没有想过，我要这样子过一辈子吗？要过到什么时候呢？到少女不尖叫或怎么样吗？但反过来想，人原本就是寂寞的啊，一个人生一个人死，有什么呢？不知道，我只知道，我现在其实还蛮习惯，蛮喜欢这样的生活，谁知道未来会有什么变句呢？也许突然夹带着强烈冲击力的某件事情，某个人，就让我突然改变了，谁知道呢？”未来的事，就交给未来吧。

如今的王力宏，仍旧一心一意的随性过生活，像个雷达似的接收者四周的纷沓，把生活的感动变成歌，“生活是创作最大的原动力”，他的心思都在音乐上，放在创作里，几近疯狂的，“我最大的渴望，是能够做出我闭着眼睛时所听到的声音，我希望只要我能‘听’得到，我就能够做得出”，如今的他，仍旧会不断的旅行，不断的移动，不断的感受，不断的自虐，仍旧，不断的创作，在生活的每一个步伐里。

"我始终相信，这世界上的每一个人都是不一样的，每一个人都有着属于他自己的精彩，这是创作最有趣的地方。"王力宏说。