Chapter 208: The Last Glory

"If she heard those words, I'm afraid she'd be very hurt."

Zhou Yi, who hadn't drunk any alcohol, simply took a sip of plain water and teased Zhou Jianhui about this rare outpouring of true emotion: "She has always held you in the highest respect."

If it weren't for the debt of gratitude Zhou Jianhui owed as her discoverer, how could Sun Yanzi have released seven albums in three years on the original timeline, let alone held two concert tours, before throwing in the towel long ago?

Had he not appeared, by 2005, after Zhou Jianhui was forced to leave Warner Bros. due to internal strife, Sun Yanzi would have also left Warner Bros. in 2006, joining EMI at the invitation of her former manager, Chen Zeshan.

After that, it became the greatest testament to the differing influences Zhou Jianhui and Chen Zeshan held over Sun Yanzi—

Without the bond of gratitude to Zhou Jianhui, Chen Zeshan's bottomless hype surrounding the "Light Against the Light" album infuriated Sun Yanzi, causing her to angrily stop releasing records for four years straight, dragging it out until her contract expired, while Chen Zeshan was utterly powerless to do anything about it.

"That won't happen. I think if she heard me praising you like that, she'd just nod along and praise you too."

Putting down his wine glass, Zhou Jianhui tilted his head back slightly, looking at the magnificent chandelier in the living room of the private box, and raised his hand to state with certainty: "As a Singaporean, she knows better than anyone what a tremendous achievement it is for a Chinese singer to sing English songs well enough to break out internationally.

"For Chinese, or even for Chinese-language singers, English songs are about more than just vocal skill; the most important thing is whether the song itself hits the sweet spot in the hearts of foreign listeners.

"If good vocal skills were enough to guarantee huge sales, Jacky Cheung's English album sales wouldn't have been such a Waterloo."

Hearing this, Zhou Yi was momentarily stunned: "Jacky Cheung's English album?"

This wasn't because he was ignorant; in his past life, he truly had never heard the English songs on Jacky Cheung's English album, and that memory simply didn't exist in his mind.

"Right, it's normal you don't know. I guess Qian Jiang didn't take that album seriously, so he didn't mention it to you."

Zhou Jianhui, who was in an unusually good mood tonight, cheerfully revealed Jacky Cheung's failure from last year: "After PolyGram was acquired by Universal, Jacky Cheung didn't stay at Universal for long either; he quickly moved to Universal Music Taiwan.

"In December last year, he even released an English album called 'Touch of Love'. Universal Music Taiwan claimed that sales had already exceeded 600,000 copies up to that point, and total sales within the one-year sales period could break 700,000, but in reality, it was just puffing up their cheeks to look fat."

At this point, Zhou Jianhui showed a bit of a smug expression: "Putting aside the fact that the audience was basically just the Chinese community, Universal Music Taiwan itself even bought back quite a few records to boost sales figures."

This was the reason he was so happy tonight.

Even a top-tier superstar like Jacky Cheung, whose vocal skills were beyond reproach, selling English songs turned out this badly, which was enough to illustrate the difficult situation Chinese singers faced in the Asian music scene and even the global music market.

"In terms of vocal skill, Jacky Cheung wouldn't be lacking even if he went to Europe or America; what was he lacking? He lacked English songs that could make him popular.

"Some musicians in the Western music scene wouldn't give the best songs even if they were paid, and some individuals would even be perfunctory, giving them a piece of trash."

Zhou Yi's massive hit "The Lazy Song" perfectly avoided this point: for a singer of this caliber, a singer-songwriter is still the most sought-after; if others won't give good songs, write your own.

Considering Zhou Yi's consistent style, plus the song "Lazy Song", Zhou Jianhui had no doubt at all about his ability to produce a whole English album.

The only thing he worried about was Zhou Yi's temper, which wouldn't tolerate being wronged; if something happened then, it would likely bring a lot of controversy to him.

After all, Zhou Yi's arrogance in front of the media previously had the style of a Western hiphop star; that very famous American, Eminem, was also constantly spitting fire face-to-face.

Oh, no.

Compared to him, Zhou Yi should be classified under the category of civilized harmony and humble friendship.

After all, when he scolded Chow Yun-fat, he didn't use any swear words; "Stubborn" was still a very inspirational and very positive song, and even now, broadcasts could still be heard playing it occasionally in schools across the two sides of the strait and Hong Kong, almost becoming the second, third, or fourth school song for primary and middle school students.

"Li Wen's situation was a bit better than Jacky Cheung's, but not by much, so for her album this year, she invited many big names from the music scene to participate.

"Jay Chou's creative team was all hired by Li Wen: lyricist Fang Wenshan, composer Jay Chou, arranger Michael Lin..."

Unlike Zhou Yi, who was an army of one, with the explosion of the "Fan Texi" album, Fang Wenshan and Michael Lin had also formally established their core status within Jay Chou's team.

Having mixed abroad, Li Wen knew the importance of arrangement; when inviting Jay Chou, she directly scooped up all three of them to create the song "Opera Face".

Furthermore, just today, Li Wen's team officially released this new song to the public for chart promotion, paving the way for her new album "Promise" to be released on October 22.

"Sony even specially held a new song launch party for Li Wen today, and even invited Jay Chou to the scene to sing "Opera Face" with her, determined not to change the schedule."

Talking about Sun Yanzi's biggest rival this month, Zhou Jianhui, who viewed Li Wen as a stepping stone for Sun Yanzi to reach the throne of the Queen of Heaven, clearly did not take her lightly.

He had never underestimated Li Wen; on the contrary, he greatly admired her.

And based on his understanding of Li Wen, if she didn't have absolute confidence in "Opera Face", she absolutely would not have released it so grandly at the new song launch party.

Listening to Zhou Jianhui's various predictions after drinking, Zhou Yi couldn't help but nod inwardly.

Standing from the perspective of a successor like him, the quality of "Opera Face" was absolutely solid; whether looking at the ranking or the popularity, this song was Li Wen's final peak.

The next day, when major entertainment newspapers in Taipei were all reporting on the intimate interaction between the jumping and dancing Jay Chou and Li Wen on stage at the Li Wen new song launch party on the 12th of the island, the song "Opera Face", riding on the accumulated terrifying popularity, landed directly at number seven on the Zhou Bang radio chart on chart day—

And right in front of "Opera Face" was the song written, composed, and arranged by Zhou Yi and sung by Sun Yanzi: "Your Smile".

This extremely rhythmic pop-rock song, after fermenting for many days, remained a long-lasting hit, killing everyone on the ground with its extremely high reputation and popularity.

That glaring row of Zhou Yi's name even made fans of other singers in Taiwan recall the "difficult" days a few months ago when Zhou Yi himself had bombarded the weekly charts of major radio stations.

"I wonder if 'Your Smile' can beat 'Opera Face'..."

Even Zhou Yi, looking at the relevant materials in his hand, didn't dare to make a firm promise at that moment. However, just as his gaze was still fixed on Li Wen, the last gasp of two veteran singers in the music scene caught him completely off guard—

On October 14, the song "If This Doesn't Count as Love" from the album released by Jacky Cheung of Universal Music Taiwan on September 26, after undergoing a long period of chart grinding, re-established his dignity as the God of Songs of the 1990s, breaking into the top ten in one fell swoop;

On October 16, Rock Records' Wakin Chau released his personal album "Forget Worry Grass", and the lead song from the album, "Is There a Song That Will Make You Think of Me", joined the battlefield with its lyrics full of true emotion—

This man, once hailed as the "King of Heaven Killer", seemed not to have admitted defeat; after striding into the new century, facing the new generation of singers led by Zhou Yi, he picked up his killer instincts again.

On October 16, top Queen of Heaven Wang Fei released her personal eponymous album "Wang Fei", landing directly on the charts with extremely high popularity as well.

At this moment, three singers from the end of the century who had all experienced confusion simultaneously bloomed with the afterglow of their era, and together with Yu Chengqing, who also represented the older generation of singers, they engaged in close-quarters combat with the new generation of musicians on the charts: Zhou Yi, Jay Chou, Sun Yanzi, Wang Lihong, Dai Peini, and SHE, determined to defend their last glory!

(End of this chapter)