Chapter 72: The Awards Ceremony
Seeing Le Yun's smile freeze and her bewildered look when she heard her name called, the male host on stage, holding the envelope, immediately became even more enthusiastic: "Yes, that's right, it's you—Le Yun, come up here quickly!"
Hearing the good-natured laughter from the stage and the audience, Le Yun's expression began to change to surprise and bewilderment, with a hint of helplessness in his eyes. He looked back at Li Sishi and the group of newcomers sitting behind him, and then at the smiles of the people around him. He had no choice but to obey the host's call and slowly stand up from his seat.
However, after standing up, Le Yun calmed down and roughly guessed what was going on. So when he came from the first row to the front of the stage, he relaxed and even joked with the host, "What? Which award is mine?"
"Hey, hey, hey, we already said it's the Best New Actress award, so of course none of these three trophies are yours. We just invited you up here to present the awards," the female host interjected.
"Oh, so you want me to present the award!" Le Yun cooperated by making a look of sudden realization, and then, following the female host's lead, he gave a few words of advice to the newcomers, saying that "newcomers should focus on originality and sincerity."
Then, Le Yun took the envelope from the male host and, accompanied by a rapid drumbeat, began to read out the list of winners: "Most Popular New Actress Award - Bronze, Lai Zhi! Silver, Huang Yingping! Gold... Li Sishi!"
A round of enthusiastic applause immediately erupted from the audience.
When this list was released, many people nodded to themselves: just as expected.
Lai Zhi is a signed singer with Kaihua, Huang Yingping is a rising star of Baoyiyin, and Li Sishi is the next big talent promoted by Huasheng... Undoubtedly, this year's newcomer award, in addition to valuing the achievements of the previous year, also has a hint of being more equitable.
Of course, it's not a prize-giving competition. The selection of the Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards has always been very strict about "sales figures." Achieving this result tonight is a test of the luck and quality of each record company and each new singer.
Although Li Sishi is a newcomer who came from the Miss Hong Kong pageant, she is really good in terms of singing skills, song selection, and luck. Compared with other newcomers of the same period, her singing skills may not be as good as some young actresses who focus on the music scene, but she has no shortage of key factors that affect sales, such as talent, luck, exposure, and appearance. After comprehensive comparison, it is obvious to anyone with eyes that she is destined to be the next rising star.
Moreover, although Bao Yiyin has promoted quite a few new talents...
She wanted to take over from the former top female singer of Bao Yi Yin who went to study, but none of the newcomers seemed to be able to keep up with their predecessors; so the market that is temporarily vacant is a good place for newcomers like Li Sishi to compete for popularity.
With the backing of TBL TV station, if it weren't for the various voluntary activities of Miss Hong Kong that bound her, Li Sishi might have already stood out among the new actresses and become the leader of her generation.
However, every cloud has a silver lining. Everyone knows that Li Sishi has caught Zhuang Menghua's eye—the current restraint to prevent her from developing too quickly is to lay a solid foundation for her. When the time is right, Zhuang Menghua will loosen his grip and shower her with film, television, and music resources. As long as she's not completely useless, even if she can't become the next Rong Juezhang, who excels in both singing and acting, she'll at least be a top-tier female version of Lingchen.
"As expected, a great teacher produces outstanding students!" The two hosts exclaimed frankly as they saw Li Sishi accept the gold medal for Best New Actress from Le Yun.
The major award ceremonies in the port city always seem to have acquaintances of the award winners, or their favorite idols or seniors, present the awards.
It's an unwritten rule.
Therefore, at this time, it is even more important to speak out freely. Firstly, it can dispel suspicions of "rigged results," and secondly, it can be used as a way to create atmosphere and make the program more effective.
Hong Kong people have always loved horse racing, a particularly local activity, which has led to the development of many terms. Among these, "horse racing manipulation" is the most common – meaning that the outcome of a race is controlled by human intervention. Later, media professionals gradually extended its application to music award ceremonies, beauty pageants, and similar competitions, eventually leading to the connotations of "cheating" and "behind-the-scenes manipulation."
A synonym for .
However, award ceremonies cannot "select the virtuous and avoid the nepotistic," so in order to show that they have not fabricated awards, they always try their best to create a good atmosphere and say nice things during each award ceremony, striving for an outcome that is accepted by most people.
"Thank you, thank you Le Ji, thank you for this award, thank you everyone for your support! It's not appropriate to call Le Yun 'Master' in this kind of setting, so Li Sishi directly used the name Le Yun is known to in the industry. After saying a few simple words of thanks as usual, she went backstage with the other two female newcomer award winners to prepare for their performance."
At the awards ceremony, each award winner has to sing their winning song live.
The order of appearance was also reversed, just like the award ceremony, from bronze to silver to gold. So, while preparing backstage, Li Sishi listened to Lai Zhi and Huang Yingping sing, and when it was almost time, she took the microphone.
Following the host's announcement, we arrived on stage.
"Next up is the award-winning song 'My Beloved' by Li Sishi, the winner of the Most Popular New Female Artist Gold Award!"
The soft blue lights moved gently across the stage, transforming the entire stage into the gentle ripples of the ocean. The soft and gentle melody, accompanied by melodious and moving whispers, provided an ultimate enjoyment for the soul simply by closing your eyes.
As for opening their eyes, that's another visually pleasing experience.
Over the past year, those Hong Kong tabloids that love to stir up trouble and grab attention have followed their old rule of criticizing every newcomer. They dragged out Li Sishi, who squeezed in time to release an album and suddenly appeared in the music scene, and compared her with other new actresses.
Ultimately, even the most acerbic tabloids had to admit one fact: those with better singing skills weren't as pretty as her; and those prettier than her... were nowhere to be found for the time being.
With the double crown of Miss Hong Kong and Miss Chinese International, and being the only contestant from the Hong Kong region to make it into the final three of an international beauty pageant, even if some people secretly resent her, no one dares to openly claim that they are more beautiful than Li Sishi.
Having a good appearance is the easiest way to attract casual fans and newcomers, especially for someone like Li Sishi who also excels academically. She can take a different approach by first attracting the most difficult-to-attract middle-aged and elderly fans, and then use that as a foundation to develop among younger people, achieving both popularity and a good reputation.
After Li Sishi finished singing her award-winning song, she politely bowed to the audience and then returned to her seat to relax and watch the performances of the three winners of the Best New Actor award.
Compared to her meteoric rise to fame, the winner of the Best New Male Actor award, while also a newcomer to the Hong Kong film industry, was far more well-known than Li Sishi: it was Long Qiwu, a member of the wildly popular Taiwanese idol trio "Big Cats".
After going solo, he came to Hong Kong to develop his career. With the foundation of the "Big Cats" group, Long Qiwu was a sensation in the Hong Kong music scene last year. His popularity was so great that he created a clear gap compared to other male newcomers of the same period.
After all, before the "Big Cats" group was forced to disband due to its members' successive military service, they were a popular boy idol group across mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and even appeared on the Chinese New Year's Gala in 1992.
During the transition period between the 80s and 90s, the boy band was at the top in terms of both sales and popularity.
However, having personally witnessed the era of the "Three Kings and One Queen" superstars in Hong Kong during the 1980s, Li Sishi didn't think much of this comparison to Lun Yongnan, Rong Juezhang, and Cheng Baiyang.
The youth version of the "Three Kings" boy band, created by the original "Three Kings," doesn't evoke much of a sense of infatuation. Instead, it conveys a feeling of sadness at the passing of time and the inability to hold on to it.
It's not that I don't like it, it's just that once you've seen the most beautiful things, you can't be satisfied with just a few more.
With a mix of contrast and reflection, Li Sishi sat in her seat as the host on the stage presented a series of technical awards, such as Best Composer, Best Lyricist, and Best Arranger. She smiled and clapped, earnestly accepting the moment the camera swept across the audience when the winners' names were announced.
After presenting all the technical awards, it was time for the presentation of the sixth to tenth Jade Solid Gold Awards in the second half of the event.
Amidst great anticipation, the host opened the envelope and read out a name that had already appeared on stage: "The sixth song is—Hou Beihua's 'Happy Birthday, My Lover'!"
Amidst another round of enthusiastic applause, Hou Beihua stood up from his seat with a broad smile to accept the congratulations from the three people next to him before slowly walking onto the stage to receive the award.
Because these four people were sitting not far in front of Li Sishi, Li Sishi could vaguely see Huo Gucheng, who had not yet been called up to the stage to accept the Golden Melody Award, and his smile showed a hint of nervousness.
However, the seventh song he was nominated for still didn't bring his name. Instead, he was called out by a name that was even more surprising than Hou Beihua's second award ceremony.
"Okay, if you have the ability, it's possible to go on stage a second time."
Let's congratulate Wah Jai... The next seventh hit song has a rather unexpected name—Li Sishi's "One, Two, Three, Each with Their Own Dreams!"
The audience erupted in commotion as Li Sishi stared wide-eyed in surprise at the close-up shot that followed.
"That's right, not only talented people can get a second chance on stage, but newcomers with talent can also win awards..." After calling out names, the male host continued, "I believe that among the people here, there aren't many who haven't sung this song, right? Especially those young women who fight tooth and nail at karaoke, eventually singing it several times and turning it into a unique kind of repeat song. This was one of the interesting things that happened in the music scene last year..."
As Li Sishi stood up from her seat with a smile, Le Yun, who was sitting directly in front of her, patted her on the back with a smile. The gesture was not strong, but it was very encouraging. It was clear that he was genuinely happy for his little apprentice who had broken the rules again.
Li Sishi gladly accepted her master's gift.
As he patted her encouragingly and turned to walk out from the middle of the second row, his smile froze for a moment.
The reason was simple: many of the people sitting in the front row were her seniors, and while they were silently congratulating her with smiles, they were also, like Le Yun, reaching out their "wicked hands" to pat her on the back...
This "arduous journey" of Lee Sze-sze on her way to receiving the award has become an unforgettable scene in the records of later generations when they look back on the Jade Solid Gold Awards ceremony of that year and explore the prosperity of Hong Kong music in the past.
As a super newcomer who broke the unspoken rules of winning awards, Li Sishi was patted on the shoulder by her seniors on the way to receive the award, which was a sign of encouragement and blessings. At this time, she was dressed in a very youthful, cute and harmless manner, and was almost an adult.
Later, that ever-changing beauty and film legend never appeared again as she was, like a pampered little lamb being gently stroked and sent out by her seniors.
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