Author: Maurice Lee
Sammi Cheng is a top pop singer in Hong Kong. In her forties and after 30 years in her singing career since the age of 16, she still retains the peak position as an idol and impacts millions of people in Hong Kong. She sings, leads the fashion trends, donates money, helps the young and preaches the gospel of god to every man. She is now the most influential non-political woman leader in our city.
In 1988, she took part in a singing contest; and became a pop singer. Her life is event-filled and action-packed, with crests and troughs; and good and bad times. She went through depressive disorder, career frustration and marriage crisis. Sammi pushed them back one by one. She is the phoenix from the flames, resulting in the present reincarnation and immortality. I was able to acquaint her in the past. She is gigantically charming. Without the stage make up and costume, she was just an amiable sheila who talked and acted sincerely and naturally. Her personal style is the girlish tone and jest. One day, I saw her standing alone in the countryside of Hong Kong Island in the middle of the night and waiting for a taxi to come. I was concerned and asked, “Is it safe?” She laughed, “Why not? Taxi drivers won’t bite!” This is Sammi.
Of equal importance as the facial appearance, talent, taste, eloquence and social attitude are the 4 attributes of a female artiste which determine. Sammi unfairly owns such 5 qualities. Among all her distinctions, her taste and striving for the 100% effectiveness of such taste are more than obvious in the concert #FOLLOWMi Sammi Cheng World Tour that she lately presented. For many, she was certainly a goddess of love, beauty and victory. Her concert was a pronounced spectrum of creative ideas sent out to entertain the audience. One of the shinning ideas was to install in the air several sheets of LED net lights which displayed breathtaking colour patterns and video images. The sheets were finally put down encompassing her body as a pretty LED skirt while she was singing. The concert was not only about popular entertainment (though many of the songs were meant for ‘karaoke chanting’). The 2 hours of great time uplifted our mood and updated us on the latest hairstyles, make up and fashion trends. Sammi has conveyed the most intense emotions that one could feel.
The pop music industry in Hong Kong has been declining since the 1990s. Sammi belonged to the nineties. After her period, young pop singers in Hong Kong, due to limited production and marketing budget, were unable to emit the kind of glamour and appeal that their predecessors used to enjoy. A lot of young boys and girls still sing very well but they pick, if not picked by, the wrong time. Some come to terms with getting more powerless and mediocre each day. Some intruded ‘Cantopop’ of Hong Kong with songs full of vulgarity like bad language because those songs excite.
Well, music artistes of today learn from the past, but they have to study the present methods especially the ways to viralize their songs if they want a future in music. ‘You have to beat the king to be the king. No one is going to hand you a gold medal.’ For that, I really admire young singer Show Keung (姜濤) who practises the new ways to drum up his fans.
