Wonderland (traditional Chinese: 未來; simplified Chinese: 未来; lit. 'Future') is Hong Kong Mandopop artist Khalil Fong's third Mandarin album. It was released on 28 December 2007 by Warner Music Hong Kong and also is Fong's first album released in Taiwan. The album's first hit song "Love Song" received a lot of review and awards in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Due to many sales of this album, Warner Records released CD plus DVD second edition version, which included music videos of "Love Song", the second hit song "Sorry", the third hit song "How It Feels" (够不够) and four live performances at The wall live music house (這牆音樂藝文展演空間) in Taiwan.[2][1]
| Wonderland | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album 未來 by | ||||
| Released | 28 December 2007 (Hong Kong, Taiwan) March 2008 (Mainland China)[1] 29 March 2008 (Second edition) | |||
| Recorded | 2007 | |||
| Genre | Mandopop, R&B, Soul | |||
| Language | Mandarin | |||
| Label | Warner Music Hong Kong | |||
| Producer | Khalil Fong, Edward Chan, Charles Lee | |||
| Khalil Fong chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Soulboy | ||||
| ||||
Background
editThe album Wonderland carries Fong's hopeful for the world and his dream for music career. Although Fong has just shortly after his young debuted, these works are deeply influenced by American Motown dance, soul and R&B in the 1960s and 1970s.[2] He released albums in Hong Kong, but he insisted on only singing Mandarin songs. Fong started with the first innovative attempt album Soulboy in 2005, released his previous album This Love in 2006, and finally officially entered the Taiwanese mandarin music scene market at the end of 2007 with his new album. Fong's previous album This Love mainly describes different types of love, and does not focus much on the love between men and women. Therefore, under the flurry of requests from all walks of life in this album specially wrote this "Love Song" as the first wave of hit song to describe the love between men and women.[2][3]
Promotion
editRecord label Warner Music Hong Kong specially chose to radio broadcast "Love Song" on major radio stations nationwide on 14 February 2008 as a special music theme for Valentine's Day in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, bringing listeners into love theme.[4][5]
Composition
editWonderland continues Fong's independent creative working style and his usual musical style, and he has also made many attempts on this basis. At the same time, the love songs in this album are full of magic.[2][1]
The first hit "Love Song" is a slow rhythm and R&B type sentimental ballad, song lyrics that highlights the expression of affection for a loved one in light, straightforward terms, a song that fits well with people's ideas of love, and is direct, honest, and simple, the part of the last 3:00-3:35 music bridge is very attractive. Arrangement and composed are used from the piano, guitar, percussion and sring concerto, to the behind the music human voice harmony, what comes out of the multiple elements is a romance that appears to be sincere.[2][1]
The song "Warm" (暖) with lyrics by Chow Yiu Fai and it's a featured environmentally conscious love song, from the lyrics of "The butterflies are getting crazy" (蝴蝶越来越狂), "I'm afraid I'll never be able to watch the snowflakes together again" (我怕再不可以一起看雪花) and "As winter turns to summer, there are always things on my mind that I can't let go of, Is the intimacy melting away?" (冬变夏总有心事放不下,有没有亲密在融化?) depicting the story of a love affair that is no longer romantic when the temperature of raise warm the whole global world and climate change.[6]
Title and art work
editThe theme of the album was "Love and Environmental Protection". In the album cover of Wonderland, Fong was wearing big black glasses and a blue patent leather jacket, eyes bright and far-reaching.The design of the whole album with blue as the main color is not entirely based on the fashion trend as the basis of design consideration, but from the environmental protection theme as a consideration. Most of the earth's surface area is occupied by the ocean, so the earth seen in the universe is a planet covered by blue, and therefore blue has become another synonym for the earth. In addition to this, in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the version of "Wonderland" was released slightly differently compared to the mainland china, but the theme of environmental protection was more distinctive and prominent.[2][7] The difference between the Hong Kong and Taiwan released of "Wonderland" and the mainland released is that although the design is still blue and features a close-up of Fong's head, the difference is that there are two small holes on both sides of Fong's ears. The album was released at the beginning of the year and many people were puzzled and question by it and feeling that it was very abrupt and did not understand the deep meaning, which also attracted suspicion from all sides. In fact, this is exactly the ingenious design of the album cover. The optical disc surface blue and white is the earth's ozone layer of realistic embodiment, from the overall view, two small holes through the ozone layer is the location of the earth's ozone hole is located in the position, is intended to alert people, facing a variety of environmental problems on earth biological survival is being increasingly threatened, environmental protection is the people's survival and development of the most fundamental and most important.In the end, when introducing the mainland china version, this design of two holes idea was removed, Fong said that although the highlight of this design concept is gone, but it didn't affected the promotion of the theme.[7]
Release and reception
editThis album was first released on 28 December 2007 in Hong Kong and Taiwan and in March 2008 in mainland China. Each time his music work released, he redefined the Chinese music scene by introducing his combination of rhythm and blues, soul music and mandarin pop songs and also indicate his official entry into the mature stage of Chinese pop music. The song "Love Song" and album Wonderland make him award many Chinese mandarin music chart accolade in 2008.[8][9]
Track listing
editAll arrangement and songwriting is Khalil Fong.All producers are Khalil Fong, Edward Chan and Charles Lee.
| No | Name | Songwriting | Lyrics |
| 01 | Love Song | Khalil Fong | Khalil Fong |
| 02 | How It Feels (夠不夠) | Khalil Fong | Khalil Fong, Liang Rulan |
| 03 | Warm (暖) | Khalil Fong | Chow Yiu Fai |
| 04 | Love At (愛在) | Khalil Fong | Chow Yiu Fai |
| 05 | Park (公園) | Khalil Fong | Khalil Fong |
| 06 | Sweety Pie (簡單最浪漫) | Khalil Fong | FAMA |
| 07 | Countdown (十九八七) | Khalil Fong | Chow Yiu Fai |
| 08 | Wonderland (未來) | Khalil Fong | FAMA |
| 09 | Beautiful (忘了美麗) | Khalil Fong | Khalil Fong |
| 10 | Sorry | Khalil Fong | Chen Yuzhen |
| 11 | This Love (Acoustic Version) (The original version was included in the previous album This Love) | Khalil Fong | Chow Yiu Fai |
Music video
editThe song "Love Song" music video was director by Bill Chia (比爾賈) and released on 26 December 2007 by warner company."Love Song" on Warner Music Hong Kong on YouTube
- "Sorry" Director: Lu Laihui (呂來慧)"Sorry" on Warner Music Hong Kong on YouTube
- "How it Feels" (够不够) Director: Dabao Dao (大寶導)"How it Feels" on Warner Music Hong Kong on YouTube
Accolades
editOn 1 January 2009, the Commercial Radio Hong Kong's Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation was held in AsiaWorld–Expo and Fong won the Male Singer Gold Award, Singer-Songwriter Gold Award and Composer Award.[10]
| Year | Award | Category | Mentioned | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | |||||
| 19th Golden Melody Awards | Golden Melody Award for Best Male Mandarin Singer | Khalil Fong | Nominated | [11] | |
| Golden Melody Award for Song of the Year | "Love Song" | Nominated | [11] | ||
| 8th Global Chinese Music Awards | Top Twenty Hits | "Love Song" | Won | [12] |
References
edit- ^ a b c d "方大同未来3月初发行,新专辑封面曝光(图)" [Khalil Fong's Wonderland released in early March, new album cover revealed (photo)]. Sina Corporation (in Chinese). Sina Music. 20 February 2008. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f "专辑方大同未来". Sina Music (in Chinese). Sina Corporation. 7 January 2008. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
- ^ "访谈:方大同挑战杰伦力宏:他们不是R&B的标准". Sohu (in Chinese). 7 March 2008. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
- ^ "方大同"Love song"登陆内地成情人节主题曲". Sina Corporation (in Chinese). Sina Music. 14 February 2008. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
- ^ 吴开兴 (15 February 2008). "方大同为情人而唱电台推出情歌"Love song"". Sina Corporation (in Chinese). Strait Metropolitan Post. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
- ^ "听首歌,温暖彼此". WeChat (in Chinese). i深圳. 17 December 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
- ^ a b "方大同新专辑设计暗藏玄机环保概念成亮点(图)". Sina Corporation (in Chinese). Sina Music. 3 March 2008. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
- ^ "音乐才子方大同推出未来情人节献给恋人们". Sina Corporation (in Chinese). Tonight News Paper (Tianjin). 14 February 2008. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
- ^ "方大同谱写"Love song"主打歌透露单纯心境". Sina Corporation (in Chinese). Beijing Morning Post. 18 February 2024. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
- ^ "2008叱咤乐坛流行榜颁奖礼完整获奖名单". Sina Corporation (in Chinese). Sina Music. 1 January 2009. Archived from the original on 2 December 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
- ^ a b "文化部影視及流行音樂產業局-歷屆得獎入圍名單" (in Chinese). 16 October 2008. Archived from the original on 29 September 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
- ^ "全球华语歌曲排行榜颁奖,蔡依林独揽五奖(组图)" (in Chinese). 30 October 2008. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
External links
edit- Wonderland (Khalil Fong album) playlist on YouTube
- Wonderland at Discogs