In addition to acting, Andy Lau is a multi-platinum singer/songwriter who has sold over 35 million records and performs to over 100 packed arenas throughout Asia and North America. Since his debut album in 1985, he has recorded and released more than 50 solo albums in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and a host of other countries in Asia. In recognition of his singing accomplishments, Andy has garnered numerous music awards which includes honors from MTV and Billboard.
:: how he started ::
Andy wanted to stretch himself professionally and is determined to strike out as a singer as well. He was trained in singing under Tai Sze Chong since 1982. He began his singing career with Capital Records in 1985. However, public acceptance for his debut Cantonese album, 只知道此刻愛你 was slow in coming and lukewarm, as he failed to win any Best Newcomer in music awards ceremonies.
In 1987, his song 情感的禁區 became pretty popular, the album won one platinum.
His music started to make an impact in 1990 with his fifth Cantonese album, 可不可以 as it was honored for the first time in Hong Kong’s TVB Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards. With popular tracks like 可不可以 and 綠盡 , the album won two platinums and his songs became very popular in Hong Kong. His sixth album, 再会了 won more than three platinums.
With his increase in popularity, Andy won the Most Popular Male Singer award in TVB’s Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards in 1990. He launched his singing career in Taiwan with the Mandarin version of 綠盡 – 如果你是我的傳說 which was very popular in Taiwan as the album sold over four platinums.
In 1991, Hong Kong media crowned him one of the Four Heavenly King, together with Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai.
Andy is at long last recognized as a singer in his own right and solidified his status as a marketable singer. Many of his ballads topped music charts and became karaoke favourites, assuring him eternal popularity.
Fans in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan and South-east Asia started to snap up his albums. His Mandarin albums were selling very well in Taiwan and Asia. His Mandarin album in 1995, 真永遠 sold more than 800,000 copies in Taiwan.
In November 1999, after performing to a sold out audience in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Andy stopped by the BMG Entertainment International headquarters in New York to be presented an award for being BMG’s Best Selling Artist in Pan-China for three years (with total sales of more than six million albums from 1996-1999).
:: his music awards and achievements ::
In recognition of his singing accomplishments, Andy has garnered numerous music awards which includes honors from MTV and Billboard. He was ranked #1 for six consecutive years (1992-1997) in Taiwan’s Top Ten Idols and won the Asia’s Most Popular Singer in 1995-1996 Channel [V] U.S. Billboard Awards.
In 1990, he won his first Most Popular Male Singer award in Hong Kong TVB Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards for three consecutive years (1990 – 1992). In 1999, Andy reclaimed the Most Popular Male Singer award in TVB Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards after 4 barren years to retain Media Award (1999-2000) for the second consecutive year with a total of 15 awards, thus becoming the biggest winner in 1999′s Hong Kong music industry. Andy shared the Media Award with Eason Chan in 2002. Since 1990, Andy had won the Most Popular Male Singer award 6 times, beating the record held by Alan Tam.
Other than these awards, Andy had also won countless awards in Asia that got him listed in the Guinness World Record Book 2001. Listed in the book’s World Music column for Most Canto-pop Awards: As of April 2000, Hong Kong crooner Andy Lau had won an unprecedented 292 awards for a singing career that began in 1988. He has sold 20 million albums, 4.4 million in 1999 alone, and has cemented his popularity in the world’s Mandarin-speaking areas with recordings in Putonghua or standard Chinese. Between 1981 and 1999 he featured in 101 movies. With regards to being listed in Guinness World Records, Andy exclaimed “I’m very surprised!” he exclaimed, “I asked my assistant to grab a copy once I heard about it.”
In 2003, Andy became the first Asia Pacific Most Popular Male Singer at the TVB Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards. He won the award 10 times including an impressive seven consecutive years (2000 – 2006). He was also the first singer in TVB Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards ceremony’s history to win both the Most Popular Male Singer award (re-claimed after 4 barren years) and the Asia Pacific Most Popular Male Singer in 2004.
Andy sang along side of Jackie Chan, Emil Chou, Sun Nan, Han Hong, Wong Feng, Rain, Stefanie Sun, Karen Mok, Joey Yung, Nicholas Tse, Kelly Chen, Wong Li-hom at the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games closing ceremony on August 24, 2008.
Andy was appointed Goodwill ambassador for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games. He performed Everyone is No.1 with the disabled Chinese Orchestra before the opening ceremony, he also sang the 2008 Paralympic Games theme song 和梦一起飞 with Han Hong during the 2008 Paralympics Games opening ceremony on September 6, 2008.
:: his concerts ::
On the night of March 31, 1992, Andy made a historical debut as the first Chinese to perform at the Canada’s Toronto SkyDome, the world’s biggest retractable covered arena, entertaining 14,000 audience.
In 1993, Andy staged his first concert – a series of 20 shows – at the Hong Kong Coliseum.
Now a seasoned stage performer, Andy staged sold-out concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum in 1994, 1996 and 1999, 2001, 2004 and 2007.
In 2004, the 10th show for his fifth solo concert – Andy Lau Vision Tour was his 100th concert at the Hong Kong Coliseum.
Other than Hong Kong, Andy also held sold-out concerts in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, China, Macau, USA, Canada, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and Seoul. Andy had filled the stadiums with over 250 concert shows around the world.
:: his music talent and hardworks ::
Andy always bring surprises to fans in his singing career. Against all odds, Andy tries to sing in different language to open his market in Asia. He sang in Japanese — 再一次拥抱 , Hokkien — 世界第一等 and even Malay — Adakalanya Menghiris. Due to the changes in the trend of the music industry, Andy also tried rap for the first time in 黑蝙蝠中隊.
Andy also continually broadened his musical range by attempting to sing different types of songs and music by collaborating with different singers, song-writers and composers from various countries. To make his music more international, Andy collaborate with saxophonist, Kenny G in 1998 for the song 你是我的女人 which Andy wrote the lyrics for the Cantonese version. In 1999, Andy had more collaborations with international musicians in Giorgio Moroder – 爱你一万年 and Koji Tamaki – 痛.
In addition, Andy also a gifted lyricist, his first lyrics being 如果你是我的传说. Andy also tries to compose-music, 天天想你 being his maiden work. With his determination, Andy compose up to 60 songs. His efforts were shown in recent years with more of his self-composed songs included in his own album i.e. in the album – 你是我的女人 which contains eight of his composition. Moreover, Andy also compose songs for other singers, example are Leo Ku’s 親 親 我 好 嗎 and Eric Moo’s 心酸的情歌.
Since 1992, Andy’s albums were produced by his own production house – New Melody Production (renamed NMG in 2000), which gave him a new channel to experiment with different styles and approaches, bringing new music elements to his music. Whereas the distribution of his albums were handled by the record companies. Due to the lawsuit with CCT Telecoms in 2002, Andy switched to Catchy Entertainment to produce his albums. On 6 Dec 2002, he held a concert – Andy Lau, You’re My Pride Concert to mark his 20-years anniversary in showbiz and to thanks the many years support of his fans.
However things turns sour with Catchy Entertainment due to some financial dispute resulting the release his due-to-release album – 大 人 的 情 歌 being shelved and once again got into lawsuits with his collaboration partners. The case was settled out-of-court and Andy set up Focus Music for his music, his albums are currently distributed by East Asia Music.
In addition, Andy also set up his own recording studio – Q-Sound Studio.