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Leon Lai BBS, MH
Chinese name	黎明
Pinyin	Lí Míng (Mandarin)
Jyutping	Lai4 ming4 (Cantonese)
Birth name	Lai Chit (黎捷)
Ancestry	Meixian, Guangdong, China
Origin	Hong Kong
Born	11 December 1966 (1966-12-11) (age 43) Beijing, China
Occupation	Singer, Actor
Genre(s)	Cantopop, Mandopop
Instrument(s)	Singing
Label(s)	1990 - 1998 PolyGram 1998 - 2004 Sony Music 2004 -Amusic
Years active	1986 - Present
Spouse(s)	Gaile Lok
Official Website	www.amusic.hk
Awards Hong Kong Film Awards Best Original Film Song 1999 City of Glass Golden Horse Awards Best Original Song 1997 Eighteen Springs Best Actor 2002 Three Going Home New Talent Singing Awards 1986 Second Runner-Up

Leon Lai is a Hong Kong-based actor and Cantopop singer. The media refer to Aaron Kwok, Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau and Leon Lai as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings. He uses the stage name "Li Ming" or "Lai Ming" which literally means "dawn."

Biography

Lai was born in Beijing, China as Lai Chit (黎捷). His family was originally from Meixian. His parents divorced when he was four. He migrated with his Malaysian Chinese father, Lai Xinsheng to Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution in China. At the age of fifteen, he attended King's Way Princeton College and returned to Hong Kong at the age of seventeen.^[1]

Career

Early years

Lai initially worked as a salesperson for a mobile phone company.^[1] After being awarded second-runner-up in the 1986 5th New Talent Singing Awards, Lai received vocal coaching from Dai Si Zong (戴思聰). In the same year he also obtained an artist contract from Capital Artists.^[2] Lai did not release any albums for four years.^[3] As a result, his teacher, Dai, arranged to have him signed a contract with Polygram, later known as Universal Music.^[4]

Music

In Polygram, he released his first album "Leon" and subsequent album "Meet In The Rain" which propelled Lai into instant stardom. His debut album went gold.^[5] After several years at Polygram, he then signed a new contract with Sony Music on 23 March 1998.

Together with Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau and Aaron Kwok, Lai was among the four most popular male singers during the 1990s, when the media referred to them as the "Four Heavenly Kings" (Chinese: 四大天王).

In the early stages of his career, he mainly sang cantopop, but due to the influence of producer Mark Lui, he expanded his repertoire to include popular electronic songs with compelling music videos. In 1990 he won his first 1990 Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards and 1990 RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards.^[6][7] He also followed up to win the "Most Popular Male Singer" award in 1993 and 1995 for TVB Jade Solid Gold.^[8][9] In 1996, he collaborated with composer-producer Steve Barakatt on his album "Feel". Two years later in 1998, he became the first HK singer to reach the Top 10 K-pop chart with the song "After loving you".^[10] In 1999 he announced that he would no longer accept any more awards in Hong Kong. Lai's music career gradually declined from the late 1990s.

In 2002 he was selected to sing "Charged up", the 2002 FIFA World Cup theme song for the Greater China region.^[11] In 2004 he became the first Hong Kong singer to represent the territory at the first Asia song festival held in South Korea.^[12]

Lai was selected to be the ambassador of the 6th Winter Asian Games to be held Changchun in 2007. He sang the Games' theme song and took part in the torch relay.^[13] He then joined Michael Wong and Janice Vidal held a three day "Magic Live" charity concert at Star Hall, Hong Kong from 9th Nov to 11th Nov, 2008.^[14]

Duets

Apart from being a solo artist, Lai has co-operated with other artists. Some of his better known collaborations are "Love Until the End" and "A Happy Family" with Vivian Chow, "Really Wish to Be Like This Forever" and "It's Still You" with Priscilla Chan, "Song of the Star" with Alan Tam, "Never Give Up" with Jacky Cheung, "Why did I let you go?" with Janice Vidal.^[15]

Company founder & singer

In 2004, Leon Lai formed a new record production company, "A Music", East Asia Record Production Company Limited, with Peter Lam. The first album produced by the company, "Dawn" was released in September of that year. The album, "Dawn", was released with minimum promotion as Lai went to Mainland China for a movie shoot on the day of the album's release.^[16]

In order to bring in new excitements for his music, Leon invited a famous music producer Jonathan Lee from Taiwan in 2005 to produce his new mandarin album "A Story". However, by doing so he had to give up the opportunity for a lead role in a big budget Taiwan movie "Gui Si" due to conflicts in his schedules.^[17]

Lai returned to the Hong Kong Coliseum on April 13, 2007 to perform in his one night only Leon 4 in Love Concert where he performed not only his own hits but also hits of the other three heavenly kings. He performed a total of 18 songs, all of which are newly arranged by Mark Lui. He subsequently released an album titled "4 In Love" on May 3, 2007, comprising 16 of the 18 songs he had performed in the concert.^[18]

Actor

In the period before Lai participated in the New Talent Singing Awards, he enrolled in the ATV actor training class, however he didn't complete the training with no apparent reason. Then, he applied for admission to the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts but his application was rejected.

After the New Talent Singing Awards, he had some opportunities to star in a few TV series. On one occasion, he went for filming of a romantic serials titled, Fengyun era, in Taiwan. There was a stark contrast in height between Leon and the popular lead actress who is only 1.60 cm in height. The actress then demanded that Leon squatted while filming so as to make up for the height differences. Leon had to act through all the scenes with the actress while squatting but he had to endure it as he was not popular at the time. However not long afterwards his new TV series, The Breaking Point which turned out to be a resounding success and propel him to widespread fame in Hong Kong and Taiwan.^[19][20]

In 1996, Lai was nominated for the Best Actor award at the 16th Hong Kong Film Awards for the film Comrades: Almost a Love Story.However, he did not win.

The next year in 1997, he managed to win the award for Best Original Song for the film Eighteen Springs both at the Golden Horse Film Festival and Hong Kong Film Awards. He was again nominated for the Best Actor and Best Original Film Song award for the film City of Glass in 1999 at the Hong Kong Film Awards but he only managed to win the award for Best Original Film Song which he shared with Albert Leung and Dick Lee.^[21]

Lai was considered by Lee Ang to act as Li Mu Bai in the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, however he had to turn down the offer as he had advertising contract and live concert about to start which would not match his shaven head as was required for the role.^[22][23]

He collaborated with Cecilia Cheung in 2001 for the first time in the Wong Jing directed romantic comedy film, Everyday Is Valentine. In the film, Leon played a serial liar.^[24]

In 2002, Lai took the spotlight at the Golden Horse Awards, the Chinese-language version of the Oscars in Taiwan. He won Best Actor for Three: Going Home. Leon played a minor role as Superintendent Yeung Kam Wing in Infernal Affairs III in 2003. In 2004, Lai starred with Faye Wong in the romantic movie Leaving Me, Loving You, the story of which he co-wrote with Wilson Yip and he was also the creative/production controller of the movie. However, the movie was a flop. The movie raked in HK$ 10,529,501 in the box office.^[25]

In 2005, Lai acted as one of the seven warriors, Yang Yun Chong, in the Tsui Hark directed Wuxia film, Seven Swords.^[26] In the same year in the film Moonlight In Tokyo, Leon unexpectedly acted as a Chinese retard who pretend to be a Korean gigolo in Japan and thus shedding his idol image.^[27] He won the Golden Deer Best Actor Award from Changchun China Film Festival for his portrayal in Leaving me Loving you in 2005.

In 2006, Lai starred alongside Fan Bingbing and Rene Liu in a love and horror, thriller film titled The Matrimony where he played a cinematographer Shen Junchu, the love interest of Manli and Sansan. JunChu was pressurised into marrying Sansan after the untimely demise of his true love Manli in an accident. The film was released on 8 February 2007.^[28] In the same year, Leon wrote and directed a musical film titled A Melody Looking which was shot in New York. It features Leon and the rest of the Amusic family of singers namely Janice, Jill, Emily, Charles and Chapman. This film marks his debut as a director.

In 2007, Lai starred alongside Kelly Chen ,Donnie Yen and Guo Xiaodong in the Ching Siu-tung directed action and romantic movie Jiangshan Meiren which means An Empress and the Warriors. He acted as a woodland medicine man whom have a romantic relationship with a princess. The action will be choreographed by the director himself who had previously choreographed for movies such as, Curse of the Golden Flower, House of Flying Daggers, and Hero. The movie will be released on 1 March 2008. Lai and Kelly will be singing the movie theme song, "Fly With Your Dreams" which is written by Albert Leung and composed by Mark Lui.^[29]

He underwent training in Peking Opera for playing the lead role as Méi Lánfāng in the biographical film Forever Enthralled which was directed by Chen Kaige. The shooting of the film has completed in the year 2008 and it also starred actresses Zhang Ziyi and Gillian Chung. He is directing the music video of the film where he and Zhang Ziyi will sing the film theme song, "You Understand My Love".^[30]

For the first time in his career, Leon will be playing a role of a beggar in the Peter Chan directed film Bodyguards and Assassins. The movie, set in 1905 Hong Kong, is about a group of people protecting Sun Yat-sen against assassins send by the Manchu Government.^[31]

Community

Apart from being an actor and singer, Lai is actively involved in the Community Chest. In the 1990s he began serious charity work when his father was diagnosed with carcinoma of the rectum. The doctors said it was incurable. But after operation, his father survived the miraculous surgery. When the Cancer Research Foundation and the U.N. organization approached him for help, he started getting involved in charity work actively.^[32]

Lai's first work with UNICEF in a China polio eradication project in 1993. He managed to raise substantial funds accruing from his supporters, fans and concert ticket sales. In July 1994, he was appointed the International UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and thus becoming the first Hong Kong citizen to be given this position. Since the year 1994, he has been involved in various fund raising activities of The Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF (HKCU). These activities include seven charity concerts, three charity chocolate sales and charity walkathon. Leon along with HKCU representatives visited Rwanda, Gansu of China and Brazil to study the work of UNICEF and to help promote public awareness to help children".^[33] In December 1995, he was appointed as "UNICEF Special Representative to Youth" at in the New York headquarters recognizing his contributions for the welfare of the children.^[33]

Lai have also been elected as one of The Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) in 1997, giving him a formal recognition of his professional endeavours and commitment to the community.^{[34 ]} He bought the first donation ticket, numbered 000001 at a "Children's Education Fund Raising Campaign" launch event at Tsuen Wan PARKnSHOP's Skyline Superstore in 2001 to encourage people to contribute to a meaningful social cause. The funds raised was donated to the Community Chest.^[35]

He was awarded the Medal of Honour (M.H.) on 12 October 2003 by Tung Chee-Hwa, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR.^{[34 ]}

Ever since his decision not to receive any music award in HK, he has not appeared on the TVB Jade Gold Solid Awards Ceremony even as a guest, but in order to secure more funds for charity, he agreed to perform in the ceremony as a guest performer on 8 Jan 2005. On 13 May of the same year, Leon co-operated with Mark Lui to compose the song "8858". The song will be used as the promotional song of the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF). The title of song means "Help me (sounded like 'bang bang wo ba' in Putonghua)" and the number "8858" represent the SMS number people can use to donate the money.^[36][37] In a surprising move in Dec 2005, Leon appeared in a Hong Kong government television advertisement requesting the public to support a gradual political reform package tabled by the ruling government rather than asked for rapid political reform. This marks the first time he got himself involved in a politically motivated advertisement.^[38]

Other

Lai was ranked 8th among the top 10 of the celebrity power rankings released by the Chinese edition of the Forbes for the year 2003.^[39]

Lai's portrayal as Lai Xiao Jun in Comrades: Almost a Love Story was represented in a wax figure at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong.^[40]

Lai is known for his statements with deep meanings. His words, "I don't eat breakfast on an empty stomach", was voted the best "Golden Words" by netizens. He is subsequently considered the "King Of Golden Words".^[41]

For the first time, Lai was invited to be one of the judges of the 2008 Miss Hong Kong Beauty Pageant.

Incidents

Commercial anthem incident

In 2000, Lai's song All Day Love (全日愛) got him into trouble with the Chinese authorities for drawing passages from the Chinese National Anthem, March of the Volunteers. The starting tune also sounds similar to the anthem tune. He was warned against using the song for commercial purposes.^[42][43]

Concert

At Hong Kong Coliseum :

(Note: # indicate literal translation)

Source:^[44]

Advertisement

Music Pop Chart

(source:^{[46][47][48][49]})

Awards

Source:^[50]

See also

• Cinema of Hong Kong
• Music of Hong Kong
• The Community Chest of Hong Kong

References

External links

This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

• A Music
• Leon Lai Family (Hong Kong) 黎明家族 (香港) - fansite
• Leon Family (Taiwan) - fansite
• Leon Lai Fans Club 黎明之友 - fansite
• Leon Lai at the Internet Movie Database
• Leon at UNICEF