Chapter 306: The Real Star

When Warner Music officially announced that Zhou Yi had concluded his American promotional tour, not only Avril but the entire American music scene breathed a sigh of relief—

This aggressive marketing strategy was simply too outrageous, leaving the record companies dizzy; every day they had to send specialists to follow Warner's heels, learning this novel internet marketing and promotion method.

Eminem, crushed to the point of extreme frustration, could only vent threats in front of the media due to the rebound in sales; privately, he too had received the company's analysis report and was preparing to start learning new marketing knowledge—

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.

This time, Zhou Yi played dirty, catching him off guard with novel internet marketing, but next time it won't happen.

A true man never falls into the same pit twice!

And as the sole officially designated internet news channel for Zhou Yi in the domestic market, the theme displayed by Sina undoubtedly made all the night owls who spent every day squatting on Sina refreshing news feel exceptionally excited—

"Making history, Zhou Yi is awesome!"

"Zhou Yi has made something of himself, what a face! Just returning once and Sina even made a special topic for him."

"Actually, Xie Tingfeng has one too, just on a different aspect; the detail level is comparable to Zhou Yi's American trip, even surpassing it; even the expenses on the public front since the incident occurred, totaling a full ten million Hong Kong dollars, have been dug up."

"... Xie Tingfeng fans should thank you for the reminder."

With the official announcement of Zhou Yi's imminent return, a cheerful atmosphere instantly filled major domestic internet communities.

As the number one new generation figure in the mainland music scene and the number one new generation figure in the Hong Kong music scene that collided in the early millennium, when the two were jointly known as the Twin Stars competing against each other domestically in sales and popularity, no one ever expected that the treatment of the two now would be so vastly different—

One walked into CCTV-12 Legal Channel, and his starlight dimmed from then on; the other ascended to CCTV-1 Comprehensive Channel, and his future became brilliant from then on.

The gap was so great it was sigh-worthy.

"I originally thought the more arrogant Zhou Yi might be the one to fall first, but I didn't expect this kid not only didn't get into trouble but became even more fierce."

"Nonsense, Xie Tingfeng competing with Zhou Yi? Does he have that strength? Xie Tingfeng only dares to snap at reporters; Zhou Yi took down Zhou Runfa domestically and Eminem, who is said to be a Guo Tianwang-level singer, internationally."

"It's not that I look down on Xie Tingfeng, does he have this track record?"

Similar remarks were basically one-sided; under the double heavy hammers of the Hong Kong police and the courts, the Xie fans, refined again and again, were helpless no matter how stubborn their mouths were—

"Just forcing the Twin Stars. Speaking solely of the domestic record market, in the future, the only ones qualified to sit at the table with Zhou Yi are the other two of the Golden Melody Awards Three Sticks. At most, add Wang Lihong; his 'The One' is quite popular domestically too."

"Not just the Golden Melody Three Sticks, don't leave Zhang Shaohan out; legend has it she closed the door and even handed Zhou Yi a stool..."

"..."

The moment of glory arrived; Zhou Yi fans, who had been raging online for nearly a month since Zhou Yi stepped onto the World Cup final stage, began to "settle accounts."

F4, whose popularity continued to explode due to the broadcast of "Meteor Garden" in other Asian regions, did not escape either; their genuine illiterate performance at the Golden Melody Awards and the backstage legend of being beaten were once again dragged out to be thoroughly whipped.

However, although their record sales couldn't compare, their global popularity couldn't compare, and they made a huge joke at the Golden Melody Awards, F4's explosive popularity within Asia could still support F4 fans in going a few rounds with Zhou Yi fans—

For this, F4 fans invented many limiting terms; once the scope was drawn, Zhou Yi was inferior to F4. Under the influence of this spiritual victory method, they managed to barely withstand the relentless bombardment from Zhou Yi fans for a time.

But this situation obviously couldn't last long, because on the very same day Zhou Yi returned to the country, the American edition of Time magazine was released in the United States—

On the cover of this American main edition, where no Chinese artist had ever appeared before, Zhou Yi sat in a chair, casually crossing his legs, his ten fingers interlaced and placed before his abdomen—his gaze, looking down on all beings like an Emperor, was filled with silent dominance!

"Spikechow, the Pop King from China."

On the cover, the introduction to Zhou Yi was just this simple line of English—Zhou Yi, the Pop Music Guo Tianwang from China!

No excessive explanation was needed, because Zhou Yi was already famous throughout the world in the United States.

"The first Chinese singer to top the US Billboard Hot 100, the first Chinese singer to achieve three consecutive weeks at number one on the US Billboard Album Chart."

"North American record sales exceeded 3 million copies in three weeks; global total sales exceeded 7 million copies."

"All twelve songs in his first English album 'The Attitude Show' ranked in the top fifty on music charts in thirty-two countries worldwide, making him the first Chinese singer to achieve such an impressive result in the global music market."

"He changed the landscape of the world music scene!"

As the first male singer to appear on the cover of the American edition of Time magazine, the shock Zhou Yi brought to the Chinese entertainment industry in 2002, and even to the social strata, can be imagined.

This was an era where public intellectuals ran rampant, constantly indoctrinating the Chinese people with "Chinese people are simply not as good as foreigners" and "The moon is much rounder abroad."

But Zhou Yi's sudden emergence broke this concept constantly indoctrinated by public intellectuals: he not only had not received any study abroad education from Western schools but was even a local born and raised—

From a small township, through the Gaokao "defying heaven to change fate" to Peking University, and then to Warner, the trajectory was clear and traceable.

"In three weeks, 'The Attitude Show' record sales directly created revenue exceeding 230 million US dollars, making it one of Warner Music's best-selling albums from the late nineties to the present."

"Countless music critics believe this album will definitely qualify for the list of the greatest albums of the 21st century in the future, because this signifies the arrival of a new era..."

As the most influential news weekly under Time Warner, anyone could see that Time Warner was favoring one of its own, piling on all sorts of sickening praise as if it were free.

Even Zhou Yi himself, upon seeing it, would have to curiously ask if he was really that awesome.

At noon on the 24th in the Imperial Capital, in "News 30 Minutes," one of the most important news programs of CCTV-1 and CCTV-13 News Channel, the host rarely spent a full five minutes reporting on the matter of "Zhou Yi conquering the American music scene."

At the same time, the host's wording was extremely particular—

"It is reported that international superstar Zhou Yi arrived at the airport at exactly 9:00 AM this morning; the airport was overwhelmed by enthusiastic fans coming to pick him up..."

International superstar!

Stamped and concluded!

Correspondingly, tickets for Zhou Yi's upcoming concert were impossible to get; ticket prices for the upcoming Imperial Capital venue even soared to two thousand yuan per ticket!

Many fans were also furiously cursing Warner—

"Damn it, what is Warner doing! Why don't they hurry up and let Zhou Yi hold more shows?! What can just these few shows do?! Are they enough to fill a tooth gap?!"

"Do any good brothers or good sisters have tickets for Zhou Yi's concert? Can't buy them anymore, they're all gone, wuwuwu."

Taiwan fans, for whom the concert was officially out of reach due to the Taiwan connection, began to look for opportunities to come to the mainland on one hand, and on the other hand joined local fan group activities to charge for their idol—Damn it! Are you guys ever going to let Zhou Yi in to hold a concert!

No one ever expected Zhou Yi to stir up such a situation, leaving everyone completely numb.

Now that Zhou Yi had become an international superstar, the combat power of that group of fans was simply too strong.

Everyone at Warner was in pain yet happy—

Zhou Jianhui had even started planning to discuss with Zhou Yi about working overtime in the future.

Not just the mainland and Hong Kong. Taiwan was temporarily inaccessible for concerts, but Zhou Yi had opened markets in Japan, South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, France, and other countries.

If this really happened, it would truly be the "Star" World Tour.

A true world tour!

A true Star!

I'll rest tonight; a dull pain in my chest is spreading to my back, and the doctor told me to get an electrocardiogram tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)