Chapter 41: A Worthy Opponent
Although it was supposed to be a cappella practice, Shang Hanyou didn't actually rest on the sidelines. Instead, he took the initiative to say that he would sing a duet with Li Sishi.
It wasn't that he had any ulterior motives; he simply had high standards for his songs and wanted to practice them more to perfect them, while also mentoring younger artists—especially since he really liked the song, both its lyrics and melody.
Good songs should not be wasted, and since the duet version of this song will also be included in his new album, he will definitely do his best to make it the best it can be.
Thinking this, he looked at the sheet music and softly hummed the prelude, then habitually half-pinched his fingers in a delicate gesture and began to dance: "A hundred sorrows are hard to dispel, yet our love is deep..."
Li Sishi adapted well to his "resonance" using both hands and mouth: In the early days, people who practiced opera also liked to sing while making gestures, and the Hong Kong music and film scene has countless traces of the drama world, so it is natural that there are many singers with this kind of habit.
"The sea of love turns into a vast expanse, and a devoted heart is met with a cold wind..." Li Sishi softly sang along with his singing.
Classic hits that become popular and endure are rarely difficult to sing, being highbrow and obscure. Instead, they are popular and down-to-earth, making them easy to sing and quite pleasant to listen to, especially duets that require male and female singers to sing together.
To put it bluntly, no matter how beautiful a singer's performance is, if an ordinary person can't sing it in karaoke or will mess up the song as soon as they try, it will be very difficult for it to become widely known.
After all, this is an era where karaoke dominates all ages. Easy-to-sing ballads and fast songs that can create a lively atmosphere, as well as dance songs, are the two categories most likely to reach the top and become the hits of the year.
Li Sishi's voice is naturally gifted, and when paired with songs that are generally pleasant to listen to as long as they are not off-key, even casual a cappella practice sounds quite good; therefore, after singing a section together, Shang Hanyou's complexion clearly improved, and his demeanor became much more relaxed.
Having personally sat down to practice singing with her, he could tell that Li Sishi's timbre at that time was similar to his own now, especially outstanding in soft and gentle ballads, where her light and gentle singing was already full of charm.
She's already this good since she just started practicing singing. If she works hard to catch up on her skills and he helps her out a bit more, she should be able to reach the level he wants.
Fortunately, Miss Zhuang didn't trick him this time...
With a powerful new partner like Li Sishi by his side, Shang Hanyou undoubtedly felt relieved about the troubles that had been bothering him for so long.
The aftereffects of the Time Gate's Soul Diva syndrome have been largely cured by this new partner.
In this day and age, seniors are generally willing to guide juniors. In addition, Li Sishi is clearly a rising star that Miss Zhuang will put a lot of effort into promoting. Not only is she good-looking, but she is also very approachable and kind. Therefore, during the days when they were busy with their own work during the day and recording songs together at night, Shang Hanyou often shared his experience with her during their breaks.
"Those of us in this industry need to take good care of our voices, especially since our work often requires us to use our voices or stay up late..." No wonder Shang Hanyou, considered a Hi-Fi audio connoisseur by those in the industry, can't stop talking once he starts singing. "I usually drink these few types of voice-nourishing teas. You can ask your assistant to buy them from this list and brew them for you when you have time..."
Li Sishi listened blankly: Maybe human nature is really so cheap that once you get something, you don't want to cherish it. In the past, if you wanted to go to Shang Hanyou's concert, you had to buy tickets from scalpers at high prices. Even if you finally managed to get a seat in the farthest seat, listening to him speak and sing from afar felt like hearing heavenly music.
Now, this guy is sitting right next to you, talking and singing nonstop, but I'm starting to find him a little annoying and noisy...
He's so noisy...
No wonder he carries at least three huge thermos-sized cups of voice-nourishing tea with him when recording a song!
Unaware of Li Sishi's inner turmoil, Shang Hanyou, who was in the middle of a break and taking a sip of tea, couldn't help but glance at her with admiration: Li Sishi is such a good and well-behaved newcomer, listening to him so attentively and appreciating his singing.
In contrast, her fellow Miss Hong Kong winner, Yan Yingyi, was much fiercer. A few years ago, when they were all newcomers in the film industry and filming together, he also had to record songs, so he inevitably had to practice singing during breaks in filming, which made Yan Yingyi complain about the noise quite a bit...
However, Yan Yingyi is known in the industry for her fiery temper and direct speech. Perhaps it's not entirely because she's too noisy.
Maybe the filming work was just too arduous and demanding, so he just spoke without thinking.
After replenishing his "energy" with tea, Shang Hanyou launched into another round of eloquent speech: "Let me tell you, although our voice type is most comfortable singing love songs, it's still best to explore other genres as well."
6
Especially with upbeat dance songs, they really liven up the atmosphere at concerts.
"My first single hasn't even been released yet, and you're already this confident in me?" Li Sishi couldn't help but laugh.
“Talented people will never be buried.” Shang Hanyou smiled, a hint of nostalgia in his expression. “It’s not that sticking to ‘singing well’ is bad. I had a friend who was discovered because of his voice and singing skills, just like me. Back then, we even formed a duo and held concerts together at the Hong Kong Coliseum…”
"My friend and I are both unremarkable in appearance. We can only sing a few lines, unlike Hua Zai and Leo who can both sing and act."
"However, my friend always insists that singing is just about singing well and not doing anything fancy; unlike me, I need to learn and practice a lot of dance to control the rhythm of the concert so that people don't think it's too boring."
At this point, he sighed deeply: "Actually, all I want to do is stand on stage and sing well, but nowadays people don't have the patience to listen to a concert where all the performers are just 'singing well'..."
Upon hearing this, Li Sishi understood who the friend he was referring to was.
Although his friend had been living off his girlfriend for many years, his voice and singing skills were indeed quite good. In fact, in the early days, his technique was even smoother and more refined than Shang Hanyou's when he was just starting out, especially in the high range. Unfortunately, his technique stagnated and he couldn't maintain his skills, which caused him to fall far behind Shang Hanyou, who had always maintained his skills and continued to make breakthroughs.
“I took that to heart, and I’ll seriously consider the next album.” Li Sishi blinked.
Amused by her appearance, Shang Hanyou shook off his previous gloom and his voice returned to its previous clear tone: "We haven't even seen the results of the first disc yet, and you're already thinking about releasing the next big disc?"
A mini-album is commonly known as a "small disc," while a music album is naturally a proper "large disc."
"You just said I have the ability to hold a concert!" Li Sishi raised her voice angrily.
"Okay, okay, I was wrong, I was wrong, I'll explain it again..." Shang Hanyou has been filming a lot of comedies lately and is very good at catching jokes. This is how he made an apologetic gesture towards Li Sishi's angry face. Just as they were playing around, a petite figure passed by outside. Even through the gap in the blinds, a disdainful snort could be faintly heard coming from her nose.
"Who is that person outside?" Li Sishi looked at her assistant, Zuo Lili, who was sitting by the door.
"She's a new singer that Manager Chen has been heavily promoting recently, named Guo Lu."
"Yun, like you, Meili, sings love songs. Manager Chen and his wife had a lot of arguments with Ms. Zhuang about 'My Beloved' in internal meetings, wanting to give it to Guo Luyun as the title track for her upcoming album," Zuo Lili explained immediately.
Of course, there are some unsavory details that her professional assistant wouldn't reveal: when the two sides were arguing over the song at the meeting, the Chen couple were very dissatisfied that Ms. Zhuang was giving such a good resource to a "newcomer" with no foundation. They bluntly said that Li Sishi came from a beauty pageant background, not from a proper singing competition or a formal training background, and that there was a high probability that she would waste this hard-won good song, and so on.
The implication is that they feel Li Sishi is not worthy of singing this song.
In the end, it was Ms. Zhuang who managed to protect it. In order to secure this great song, the original "big album" plan was reduced to a "small album." They got the song but lost the production budget.
However, Ms. Zhuang later paid for the extra portion herself, so Li Sishi's album has the length of a mini-album but the production quality of a full-length album.
In order to prevent a child of Li Sishi's age from getting angry over this, Miss Zhuang deliberately said that the first dish would only be a small plate for her to test the waters—hoping that the child would understand Miss Zhuang's helplessness and good intentions in the future.
The assistant was feeling conflicted, and Shang Hanyou, who had heard this inside information, also spoke up: "Huasheng has been embroiled in fierce internal struggles in recent years, so you'd better be careful."
Although he was with PolyGram Records, the reasons why Huasheng Records, a record company affiliated with TBL, went from its glory days in the 1980s to its current decline are obvious to everyone in the industry.
If it weren't for the fact that big names like Le Yun and Pei Yansang still had their contracts and that the TV station would occasionally play some original soundtracks to keep things going, this once-great company that could rival PolyGram might have ended up like those memories that have faded into the dust of history.
Reminded by this, Li Sishi immediately thought of the Chen couple, the managers.
In her early years fighting for power at the television station, Zhuang Menghua had no shortage of battles with those "old guard" who held some shares. Even now that she has secured her position as the second-in-command, those defeated subordinates still occasionally try to cause her trouble.
Aside from the pursuit of profit, another important reason is that they feel it's wrong for a woman to act so arrogantly and domineeringly towards men, so they find her displeasing no matter what—this kind of thinking based on traditional feudal dregs still exists in many people today.
In her previous life, Zhuang Menghua focused most of her energy on her work at the television station.
So they didn't pay much attention to the trouble caused by the affiliated record company; however, Chen Dilin and Yin Longjuan were only bullies within their own circle. After Huasheng gradually declined due to the lack of good song resources, even their good-for-nothing Guo Luyun slunk away with them.
Now that her life has changed, she never imagined that this couple would see her as a thorn in their side.
"Thanks for reminding me, I'll be careful." Although I know these guys won't be able to keep up their evil ways for long, it's always good to be vigilant and cautious while someone is around.
Thinking of this, Li Sishi felt even more determined to sing these hard-won songs well—Guo Luyun's previous obvious dislike was simply because artists are usually the vanguard of the behind-the-scenes players.
As the higher-ups behind the scenes, they need to consider the social etiquette of adults, so they can only let their young artists come forward.
Tsk, she really needs to retaliate properly, right?
If it performs well after release, the EP will still be able to beat the album in terms of both reputation and the new price of subsequent restocks.
Although she didn't know the deeper details yet, Li Sishi was already full of fighting spirit. She grabbed Shang Hanyou, who was drinking herbal tea, and said: "Good brother, I'll never complain about your noise again. This time we must win!"
She's putting in a lot of effort on her solo singing, but on the duet singing, you're still half of the solution!
Shang Hanyou, who was almost startled by Li Sishi's grab and spilled all the tea in his thermos, was first stunned, then subconsciously looked up after putting the thermos back down and met Li Sishi's determined eyes.
This...this appearance...
The talented newcomer has finally found his form and met his match!
"Keep this momentum going, we'll start recording right away!" No further explanation was needed from Li Sishi.
This audiophile who loves to sing has already gotten excited.
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