Lee-Hom Wang “Music Man” word tour 2009 beijing concert

Lee-Hom Wang “Music Man” word tour 2009 beijing concert

Time&Date：August 22th, 2009.19:30:00

Venue：Beijing Workers Stadium

Price(RMB)：TBD

Lee-Hom Wang is a four-time Golden Melody Award-winning American singer-songwriter and actor who has achieved highly recognized success in Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, and throughout Southeast Asia.

He coined the term "chinked-out" music to describe his music, which is heavily influenced by traditional Chinese music. Wang is managed by and records albums with Sony BMG Taiwan. Since 1995, Wang has contributed in over 25 albums, and has sold approximately 15 million records. In addition to his music, Wang also participated in several films, his role in Ang Lee's Lust, Caution gaining the most attention. He is also an environmental activist, and was invited to be one of the first torchbearers for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, carrying the torch in Olympia, Greece on March 24, 2008. He was also invited to perform in the closing ceremonies. His album Change Me was dedicated to raising eco-awareness among Chinese youth. Wang was listed among "The 100 Most Inspiring Asian Americans of All Time" by Goldsea Asian American Daily.

Musical style

Wang's music ranges greatly from album to album. Although he is classified as an R&B artist, Wang demonstrates competence with many styles of music ranging from traditional Mandopop, Broadway, jazz, rock, R&B, gospel, acoustic, Indipop, hip-hop, to rap. Much of the styles were infused with Chinese flavor.

When he first debuted, he sang old school pop and acoustic R&B ballads. Starting from Revolution , Wang began to test out R&B pop music, but quickly jumped to a quirky style of dance pop for Impossible to Miss You. Starting from Forever's First Day , Wang began composing rock songs with heavy electric guitar melodies and less emphasis on dance pop. Nonetheless, Wang still concentrated in light R&B music. The One and Only became Wang's only fully produced rock album.

Unbelievable began a new road of music for Wang. Aside from the usual R&B grove, Wang contributed hip hop and rap that was not clearly emphasized in his past albums. "Not Your Average Thug" was a newly composed R&B style with huge American influence. "Can You Feel My World" was a different style of R&B, and the song contained huge uses of the piano and violin as the accompaniment. Fast dance songs like "Ya Birthday" and "Girlfriend" incorporated rapid rap and heavy drum rhythms. "Girlfriend" included a heavily emphasised chinese flute and a music style that is influenced by Indipop.

Shangri-La was the first chapter of Wang's new style, chinked-out. Chinked-out is a new kind of musical style developed by Wang that involves modern "west" music of R&B, Hip Hop, rap, and Dance, along with "east" music of heavy Chinese instrument influences, more notably the koudi, tuhu, and ijac. "Deep Within the Bamboo Grove" emphasized the music of different minority tribes in Yunnan and other remote areas of China.

Heroes of Earth displayed a different side to chinked out. Instead of ethnic minority music, Wang focused on Beijing opera and Kunqu. Leehom used instruments such as the erhu, guqin, and guzheng to infuse his new album with another side of traditional Chinese sound. "Beside the Plum Blossoms" dealt with fast kunqu melodies. In the last 50 seconds of the song, Wang rapped over 250 words, increasing in speed towards the middle and then slowed down. This was to emphasize the accelerating and descending beats of traditional Chinese opera.

Nonetheless, Wang is still very notable for his modern love ballads like "Forever Love" and "Kiss Goodbye", both which are sung with piano and string instrument accompaniments. A new song, "Dramas of the East" , was released as the theme song for a TV program in mainland China , on April 6, 2007. The song included Beijing opera with rap and pop rock, previewing Wang's new turn in his music.

Participation in 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Wang was chosen as one of the few Chinese torchbearers to run in Greece. Wang was torchbearer number 17 on March 24, the first day of the torch relay. He also attended the torch lighting ceremony before his run. Wang took the torch from Liu Hongliang, son of the first Chinese to attend the Olympic games, Liu Changchun. Wang represented the newest generation of singers from Taiwan and China. He was chosen mainly because he is devoted to helping save the environment, as shown in his latest album Change Me.

Another reason he was chosen is due to Wang's enthusiasm in the 2008 Olympic Games Theme Songs Competition. His single One World One Dream was chosen as a Olympic Games participation song. The single was written, sung, produced, and scored entirely by himself. Wang sang along with Jackie Chan, Stephanie Sun, and Han Hong in the song for "The One Man Olympics" which was about the first Chinese to be in the Olympics. Wang also sang in the 100 days countdown theme song Beijing Welcomes You. He also sang along side Stefanie Sun, Wang Feng，and Jane Zhang in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Torch Relay Theme Song, Light The Passion Share The Dream. He is also one of the candidates on vote for performer of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Theme Song. In the closing ceremony, he sang "Beijing Beijing, I Love Beijing" alongside Hong Kong singer Kelly Chen and Korean singer Rain.