Filed under: album
:February 2007:
I’ve always loved to sing both English and Mandarin songs since young. I remember fondly the times I spent singing to classics like "Casanova", "The one you love", and Mandarin classics like "最后一夜" by 蔡琴 ，"细水长流" by 梁文福 etc etc, at the backseat of my dad’s car. The first cassette tape I asked my dad to buy for me at 10 years old was "Bad" by Michael Jackson and I still remember the exhilaration experienced when the heavy drums hit me.
We all understand the issue of bilingualism in Singapore - if you’re a Chinese educated in Singapore, you are either better in english, or in chinese. If you reckon you are truly equally proficient in both, then you belong to the 1% of the whole population (statistics from yours truly). But the truth is, these people along this spectrum can understand both languages (only differ in level of understanding). The only thing I should be concerned about is, preference.
The issue of which language to take for this ep tore me apart at the very beginning. Because if I can’t even come to a decision, then nothing can start. But as a cafe-pub-wedding singer, I am used to singing a mixture of English and Mandarin songs at any one performance, and I wasn’t trained to be choosy. So when the time came for me to choose, I was so lost. My initial decision was to do all English because I’ve been composing English songs for the past 3 years.
But one day, a friend Peter sat me down in Jurong Point’s KFC for 2 whole hours to analyse for me why I should do all Mandarin if I am capable of doing so. I don’t think I can ever forget it. The strongest emotion I felt was, fear. It was a tie between pragmatism, and artistic-fulfillment. Don’t misunderstand me - I love my Chinese songs, but I reckon I can find more creative sparks in the English ones.
After some struggles with none other than myself, I decided to do a cha-pa-lang album, and to add icing to the cake so to speak, add a French cherry to it.
I think I just want to do what I want to do, especially since I’m initiating this project and am not puppeted by any record label. So what’s up with the boundaries by myself? Like what Juliet said, I should rejoice in the fact that I have so many choices I can take, so let’s flow with it.
I never wanted to restrict myself to one genre or one language when I compose. It is not these that matter. What matters is the stories to be told through my songs.
That’s all I truly want.
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