100 Songs of Chinese Music
91. A Low-key Life (低調人生) – Sandee Chan (陳珊妮)
Sandee Chan has one heck of an eclectic discography. She actually composed Shino Lin’s Annoyed song (listed in #20), if you have a varied Chinese music library- Chances are you’ll run into her name in the composer credits. She’d been nominated for a number of producing and composition awards before she was recognized for her album Then We All Wept In Silence (後來，我們都哭了) in 2004. She plays a lot with electronic and classical sounds- her 2008 album If There Is Only One Thing That Is Important (如果有一件事是重要的) is probably my favorite.
But this 2013 track is a prime example.
92. Drinking Song (酒歌) – Shan Ren Band (山人乐队) [clip]
93. Let You See (給你看) – Buddha Jump (佛跳牆)
This is Penny Tai’s second showing on this list (she featured in #75), this time with her band Buddha Jump, who launched their debut album back in 2011. I should try to get an interview with them and ask them about the name. xD
94. The Freak Show – Chen Huiting (陳惠婷) [clip]
95. Arrogant (囂張) – Ellen & The Ripples Band
I’m an Ellen Loo late bloomer fan. The one thing that surprised me the most is that though my Canto friends were the most enthusiastic about her, Ellen sings a lot in Mandarin. I picked one of her Cantonese tracks for variety purposes :)
Her 2nd album released in 2012 titled You Quietly Hide Away (你安安靜靜地躲起來) is really REALLY good.
96. Cliff – FiFi Rong
FiFi Rong can be hypnotic at times. This is an extract from her 2013 album Wrong, which you can get on iTunes or listen to/purchase on Bandcamp.
97. Black White & Grey (黑白灰) – Khalil Fong (方大同) [MV]
98. Unlove (愛不愛) – Waa Wei (魏如萱) [MV]
99. Heavenly Glorious China (天耀中华) – Yao Beina (姚贝娜)
When Yao Beina participated in the second season of The Voice of China, she won hearts. She participated in a number of sountracks [1][2], she even did the commercial Mainland Mandarin version of Let It Go [clip]. Later, she was even invited to the popular CCTV Spring Festival Gala, to celebrate the arrival of the year of the Horse. Sadly, later that year, the cancer she had battled three years before came back, and took her life this past January 16th.
She left us with this gorgeous performance, a cover of the song by Xu Qianya (徐千雅).
100. Speaking in Tongues (口的形狀) – Yoga Lin (林宥嘉) [MV]
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So that’s it! LOL- If you’ve made it through the whole list, did I miss any worthy artist to make the landscape of Chinese music more interesting?
For everyone’s help, I made a YouTube playlist which you can enjoy (almost) in one go, unless YouTube decides to play you more than a handful of long commercials. It’s only missing 5 tracks not available there.
What are your favorite artists on this list!? Let me know in the comments!
Such a great feature! “Mama Get Me a Guitar” is cute. The Chin Tsai song is so good- what is the title? Either characters or pinyin romanization. Wow at Ding Wei. Laure Shang has such a cool voice. And I’ve probably said before that I really like the clarity of the voices of the Tibetan/-influenced? singers.
The Chin Tsai song is The Forgotten Times (被遺忘的時光) :) – and yes, they all have such quality to their voice. I love it.
/correction I was looking up DaiQing Tana & Haya Band and apparently they’re Mongolian. -headdesks-
Mongolian-Tibetan. Daiqing Tana’s song is called Migration (迁徙), same as the album. The 30min show on YouTube has different songs, including a version of Faye Wong’s Red Bean… if not mistaken.
and I forgot that the song was in Infernal Affairs!
My favorite new one is #4, Chinese Cabbage. Every time it comes on, I have to sing lol and my mom was listening to it, and translated saying it’s a super sad song! Something about not having your mom and your dad re-marrying, and being poor with your brother having something to wear and something to eat, while you are left with just broth and asking for something to wear.
You have to be grateful of the excess many live in now, the biggest complain has to be that iPhones and Galaxy phones are getting bigger. Seriously. Grateful for the food that I enjoy every single day.