Chapter 225: The Past and the Future

"Coming up next, we are about to reveal the 2016 Japan Record Awards Grand Prix winner!"

Host Yosuke Toriyama's excited voice echoed throughout the hall. Every guest in the seating area turned their gaze toward Miss Luo Quan, who was sitting in the front row, as if they had already known the result.

Miss Luo Quan, however, maintained a calm expression. Because before this, she had already received multiple major awards, including Best Arrangement, Best Composition, Best New Artist, and the Best Vocal Performance Award. Half of the time during tonight's awards ceremony had been spent with her on stage delivering acceptance speeches.

At the very beginning, she was still able to switch things up and perform different routines for everyone.

By the end, she truly had nothing left in her repertoire and could only repeat her acceptance speech from the beginning.

There was no helping it; she had simply won too many awards tonight.

Finally, the Record Awards reached their conclusion, and the award being presented was the most important Grand Prix—the award with the highest gold content in the entire Japanese pop music category.

In previous years, this had been the most fiercely contested award among singers. However, this year was an exception; as early as six months ago, the outcome of the 2016 Grand Prix had already lost all suspense.

The organizers of the Record Awards had no intention of keeping anyone in suspense and directly displayed the words "Don't Give Up" on the projection screen.

"As expected."

"Deserved."

"Convinced."

In the audience, a group of singers, composers, lyricists, and music producers were nodding. No one questioned the result.

Ryosuke Toriyama said with a magnetic tone: "Last summer, Japan suffered from earthquakes of magnitude 7.5 or higher for three consecutive days. At that time, many people felt that an unprecedented magnitude 9.5 earthquake was about to strike, and the entire society was plunged into an atmosphere of negativity and fear.

It was in such a desperate environment that one singer used her voice to encourage the public, telling them not to give up, not to admit defeat, and that before tomorrow arrives, there is still hope for everything!"

Ryosuke Toriyama paused and shifted his gaze toward Miss Luo Quan not far away: "I believe everyone knows who this girl is. Now, I announce that the song winning the 2016 Grand Prix is 'Don't Give Up' (Makerunaide). Please, Miss Luo Quan, come on stage to deliver your acceptance speech!"

Applause thundered. Miss Luo Quan, wearing a fresh, loose T-shirt, jogged onto the stage. She took the microphone from host Ryosuke Toriyama and, just like the previous few times, tapped it to test if it was working.

The host, Toriyama, did not step aside immediately but turned and chided her: "You've tapped it six or seven times tonight already. Even if there was nothing wrong with it, you're going to tap it into breaking."

The whole hall burst into laughter, and Miss Luo Quan herself laughed embarrassedly.

This was a small habit of hers; as long as she was going on stage to speak, regardless of whether the microphone had been used before, she had to tap it once it was in her hands.

"Sumimasen, I'll be gentler next time," Miss Luo Quan apologized, implying she would do it again next time.

Ryosuke Toriyama shook his head with a smile, turned, and stood behind Miss Luo Quan, handing the stage over to her.

"If I remember correctly, this is already my seventh time on stage," Miss Luo Quan said, glancing at an empty seat next to hers, which was covered in trophies, and counting them.

Miss Luo Quan nodded: "It is indeed seven; counting this one, it makes eight."

She took a breath and exhaled gently: "I still want to thank the judges for their affirmation. When 'Don't Give Up' first came out, I thought that perhaps because of the environment at the time, it would achieve some success, and there was also the intention to encourage the public.

So, I am not entirely without utilitarian motives. I also feel that there is nothing to hide about this point.

Saying this isn't to prove anything; I just want to tell everyone that I am actually just an ordinary person with selfish desires, an ordinary person just like everyone else. So, please don't mythologize me anymore, otherwise, I won't dare to make any mistakes in the future."

The audience laughed, feeling that it was truly rare for Miss Luo Quan to be so young and yet live with such clarity.

Miss Luo Quan smiled and said: "In addition, I also sincerely believe that these awards do not belong to me alone; they should belong to every musician who works seriously on their music.

Good music doesn't necessarily have to be proven by winning awards. All the ordinariness of the present is actually for the sake of soaring into the sky in the future.

I believe that in the future, there will be more young, new faces standing on this stage!

Thank you, everyone!"

Miss Luo Quan bowed, and the hall erupted in thunderous applause once again.

Her heartfelt words had touched the hearts of many musicians who were currently not yet famous.

In Japan's massive music market, there are countless singers making music, but very few who can truly succeed in the end.

Just like the idols in South Korea or the actors in China, there is always only a small handful of people who possess both strength and luck.

After Miss Luo Quan left the stage, the applause continued for more than ten seconds.

The trophies were the judges' recognition of Miss Luo Quan's talent, while this applause was the recognition of Miss Luo Quan as a person by all the guests in the hall.

From now on, the title of "Little Diva of Japanese Pop Music" could be said to be well-deserved.

As for why the word "little" was added, it was because she was truly too young, not even twenty years old, even though her talent and character had already met the standards.

To truly become a diva, she would probably have to wait a few more years; after all, she had yet to hold a proper solo concert.

In fact, Director Shi Cun had mentioned the concert issue more than once, and fans on Twitter had been asking about it constantly. Every time such a question appeared, it would receive tens of thousands of likes, so there was absolutely no need to worry about whether tickets would be easy to buy or if they would sell out.

But Miss Luo Quan simply wouldn't do it; she had no thoughts in that regard at all.

There was no special reason; she was just afraid of being tired.

A concert starts at a minimum of three hours. Previously, she had few songs, and singing through two albums only took a little over an hour.

But now it wouldn't work. With nearly thirty songs, most of which were relatively difficult, if she really sang for three or four hours, her throat wouldn't be able to handle it.

Furthermore, for a concert, just standing there singing wouldn't be appropriate; backup dancers and interacting with the audience were definitely required.

Singing and dancing for four hours—Miss Luo Quan felt that with her small frame, she would probably collapse from exhaustion halfway through on stage. She wasn't a physical monster like Wen Xia who exercised year-round.

Therefore, no matter how many people suggested holding a concert, Miss Luo Quan had only one reply: if you want to listen to songs, come to her livestream; she would sing during the livestream.

It was free, and the sound quality was even better than at a concert. At that time, the barrage and gift effects would be fully enabled, making it even livelier than the concert venue itself.

It was hard to imagine how helpless Miss Luo Quan's fans felt when they saw these remarks. There was no helping it; they were already fans, and now wanting to stop being fans seemed impossible.

Fortunately, Miss Luo Quan never slacked off when she needed to be diligent.

After the awards ceremony ended, Miss Luo Quan took a plane back to Jingcheng overnight.

In the taxi on the way home, she announced the news of her new album release on Twitter:

"In response to the requests of the vast number of fans, and to give back to the fans for their long-term support, I have decided to produce a mini-album.

This album will be completely free. Please look forward to it."

Netizens in Japan naturally knew about it long ago, because this was what they had fought for while surrounding Miss Luo Quan that afternoon.

However, fans in the West and China didn't know about this. One by one, they marveled at Miss Luo Quan's incredibly vigorous creative passion, which was simply as prolific as... that thing.

How long had it been, and she was already releasing a new album!

Soon, Miss Luo Quan posted another tweet, explaining the details of this mini-album:

"This mini-album has four songs, titled 'The Past and the Future'. You will know the specific theme after listening to the songs.

As for the songs, two of them are in both Chinese and Japanese, just like 'The Wind Rises'. Same melody, different experience. I hope you like them."

Before these remarks came out, Japanese fans were quite proud, constantly telling Chinese fans, look at how favored we are; Miss Luo Quan writes songs for us every time she returns to Japan.

As a result, now that the details of the songs were out, Chinese netizens became proud again.

And fans who listened to English songs were eating melons and watching the show the whole time; they had 'Love' to listen to and didn't care at all who was favored and who wasn't.

Although the album was completely free, platforms still had to spend a significant amount of money to secure exclusive licensing.

With Miss Luo Quan's current status, as long as the songs were released, it meant massive traffic. Regardless of whether the songs were paid or free, the platform would definitely be able to make money. Therefore, Tencent Music still gave Miss Luo Quan a good price and secured the licensing fee.

However, it wasn't an exclusive license because Bilibili also got involved. Boss Cheng's chat invitation and Zhou Zhou Yangwen's phone call came in at the same time, and Miss Luo Quan directly put them on speakerphone for a three-party talk.

Fortunately, Bilibili had quite a bit of investment from Tencent and could be considered half of their own people. Zhou Zhou Yangwen didn't particularly care about exclusive licensing either, so it was finally decided to split the copyright of this album with Bilibili. Of course, the licensing fee was also split in half.

As for the licensing in Japan, it was naturally secured by Sony Music. There was nothing to say; the friendship between the two sides was quite ironclad—so ironclad that every time Miss Luo Quan, such a big-name Japanese pop diva, released a song, no music company came to ask her for licensing, and none even made an offer.

They probably knew it was impossible to compete with Sony Music, so they simply didn't waste the effort.

As for Universal in English-speaking regions, they didn't have much interest in Miss Luo Quan's Japanese album this time; they just mentioned it, and after knowing that the album licensing was already settled, they didn't ask any further.

After all, their business focus was on the English-speaking market, and Japanese and Chinese were actually just niche markets to them; it didn't matter whether they secured it or not.

That night, Miss Luo Quan logically climbed the trending list: "Miss Luo Quan wins eight trophies!"

The content was very brief: Miss Luo Quan won eight trophies at the Japan Record Awards without any suspense, becoming the first newcomer in the history of the Japan Record Awards to win eight trophies. Her achievements in this year alone had already surpassed the lifetime achievements of who knows how many singers.

And right behind this trending topic was the news of Miss Luo Quan's upcoming new album.

Clearly, the latter trending topic was more interesting to fans and passersby.

Comment section:

"Did I read that right? Releasing a new album again?"

"I strongly suspect Miss Luo Quan has mastered a formula for writing songs; these new albums are being released too frequently."

"What formula? Miss Luo Quan has written so many songs; how many have you seen with the same style?

Some singers are the ones who have mastered the formula; except for the lyrics, the melodies are almost identical to Miss Luo Quan's songs, and there's still a bunch of idiots holding their feet!"

"Indeed, that these blatant plagiarists can still be popular is simply the sorrow of the music circle. The key is that those platforms don't care at all."

"So what can be done? The general environment is like this; if you can make money without using your brain, why would you want to create like Miss Luo Quan?"

"Don't overestimate these people. I think the speed at which these people copy is probably not as fast as Miss Luo Quan's speed of writing songs. There is a fundamental difference between a genius and trash."

"So I just listen to her songs. There are Chinese, Japanese, and English, and various musical styles are covered. Isn't this fragrant?"

"It's just a bit expensive."

"Good news, this album is a gift to fans, no charge."

"I am willing to call Miss Luo Quan the conscience of the music circle!"

"Such a singer, I will be a fan for a lifetime!"

………………

Looking at the comment section, Miss Luo Quan's image was becoming more and more upright, changing from being blacklisted by the entire internet to being praised by the entire internet.

Previously, she was nicknamed "The Vanguard of Internet Violence," but now it had evolved into "The Conscience of the Music Circle," which was simply a qualitative leap.

Although she didn't like either title—the former made her sound like some low-quality villain, and the latter sounded like a setup, standing her up like a target to be hit.

If it were in Japan, she could barely accept the title "The Conscience of the Music Circle."

After all, she had works, usually had no negative news, her fans were relatively widespread, and more than half of Japan had played her songs on loop; her popularity was also high.

But in China, to be honest, it really hadn't reached that point.

Although the quality of her ten songs was top-notch, to truly reflect their value, it still needed time to settle; after all, those songs couldn't be counted as world-class masterpieces like 'Time to Say Goodbye' or 'My Heart Will Go On'.

But in the Chinese music scene, the quality of these songs was definitely among the very best.

However, Chinese people have always liked to value the past over the present and would never admit that current singers could be more powerful than those of the past.

Under such a premise, for Miss Luo Quan to claim she was "The Conscience of the Music Circle" was truly a bit arrogant; after all, there were quite a few old seniors in the circle, and each of their strengths was quite strong.

Miss Luo Quan didn't know what the person who gave her this nickname was thinking, and didn't know if they were sincerely praising her or trying to attract hate for her.

However, things had reached this point, and she certainly wouldn't call on fans not to promote this nickname; that would be too pretentious.

Under any circumstances, strength and works are the most powerful proofs against all questioning voices!

Ps. Thanks to book friend Xiao Xiao Xiao Yu for the book coin tip! ===== CHAPTER 226 =====