She was the wounded older woman of Cantopop, a drama queen to her dying day, with both the deep voice and the depth of emotional expressiveness. She could sound sultry, strong, poignant, proud. She could, in the ebb and flow of voice and emotion, move you to tears. (Like Jacky Cheung: I heard him live at Snow Wolf Lake last year and what he had wasn’t only vocal power but also emotional precision, working his way round even a bad song to your heart.)
She wasn’t like Teresa Teng, who, in spite of the nominal sorrow of her songs about parting lovers and all, didn’t really sound sad. Teresa preferred to wrap her wounds in pretty plasters, so in the studio and on stage, she had maybe two modes: sweet and sweeter. Faye Wong is her heir. They have similar soprano ranges and Faye, in her trip-hop cool-cat way, is as emotionally mute as Teresa.
In my years in karaoke, because I began as a soprano in school, I have tried to ape them and other girl-women. But what I have found is that, actually, I am a better wounded older man (Wu Bai) than whimsical wispy girl (Rainie Yang). And it was nice that night, when I was at last old enough to inhabit an Anita Mui song and mean every word. Almost.Between a mike and a cake at Party World.
3 comments:
I know exactly what u mean.
Am trying to think of my Anita-Mui equivalent... perhaps its those black-women anthems. (I wish there were more of them at ktv.)
N by the way, altho I missed our ktv crowd at your bday, i was pleased that you were so happy that night :)
must go get my hands on Tanya's best-of
yes, your anthems! and yes, tanya...it is gettable at the pirates?
i have a new anita - frances yip. saturday, i went k-ing with my mother (and my baby brother) and we took turns to sing the theme song of Shanghai Tan (long ban! long lau!). we being my mother and i (my brother kept to jay chou). well she was way way way better. but she has about 30 years on me...
i think of tuesday as part two of my party btw. tuesday was also your party with mr b, yes, but when the girls got there, it became our reunion...?
hehehe yes ktv - and singing - is clearly in your blood. FRANCES YIP! Wow.
yup it was my party with mr b, and then our reunion. (i cdn't leave town without doing both, so i had to cram it all into one session, forgive me.) it all felt too short. i could still hear the songs in my head 48 hours later in Beijing.
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