DT interacting with fans during his performance in Quizhou for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of Maotai, China's famous alcoholic beverage. He looked nice in the floral jacket. He also posted a pix posing next to the giant Maotai bottles in his Weibo. He sang Marry Me Today with this female singer whom I don't recognise, could be a local singer. Haven't been feeling extremely well lately so unable to post much. Missed a lot on DT but rest assured he is having a great time travelling around China performing as well as promoting Kiehl: So cute. He was grounded when travelling to Beijing & had to cancel due to the heavy fog. He also performed in Beijing National Stadium, the famous birdnest which hosted the 2008 Olympics. Here's a lovely pix: The dancer later posted in his Weibo thanking him for his cooperation. Found out that his company is called Great Entertainment in english. Apparently the logo was designed by our vry own DT: I think it's a combination of the handsign for 'rock music' & a chicken which is his chinese horoscope. Note also the filmstrip - look out DT's movie coming hehehehhehehehe Here's the website where can listen to his new song My Everything as well as songs by PB33 & Mushroom, the two indie bands he signed up so far. The lead singer for Mushroom was also one of the PK singers in Million Stars singing a song by Yuan Wei Ren aka Xiao Pang. He got 24 losing only by 1, David was of course not judging which was only fair. Go here to watch all the episodes of Million Stars. Finally My Everything on youtube, make sure to listen rite to the end where there's a surprise:
At last, a new DT song even though it's commercial but it is for a very good cause - children - so close to DT's heart. Kiehl's & DT's new campaign to help needy children in Taiwan:
Even though it's not a great departure from his signature style but I love the sunshiness & his honey-toned voice. The vid is vry heartwarming too. Can't wait to hear the complete version. Also love the Kiehl's tee, wish I could get one. He looks so good in these pixs, the best I seen him so far. Some more info in chinese. Other DT news is Mushrooms related haha not food but the band. On Mon 9/12 which is also the Moon Festival, The Mushrooms held a concert in Shanghai where if 1000 people came, they would get to release their debut album. More details at this website which actually expressed what I initially felt that it was gimmicky. But I think it's just DT's way of making sure that The Mushrooms is ready to release their first album & that they get to control what they want to give their audience. Also whether they could get an audience in the first place. I don't know but I do believe in David & here get to see him in indie producer mode watching his protege band. The fact that The Mushrooms was singing Black Tangerine on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 almost seemed like a passing of the baton from DT, that this is the band which potentially could influence socially the young minds of China. If anyone could do it, I guess it's DT. A lot more news of DT but it's terrible that I don't have much time to blog at the moment. Just have to be patient till I can get it all out :(
Warning! Long post! Lotsa DT news so gonna do it all-in-one. First his guest appearance in Harlem Yu's new music program 哈音樂 was finally screened on 7/30 & repeated 7/31. He even blogged abt it in his Weibo. Of cos most of his fans, including myself, was expecting at least 30 mins enjoying DT chatting & singing 60s songs but it actually lasted abt 10 mins with not much singing:
Only nice thing was that he sang one of my fav Sarah Chen's song 梦醒时分 in his unmistakenably DT style. It was so so so good but much too short with Harlem butting in with his weird rock version. During Million Stars he was always advising contestants to find their own 'voice' & not to imitate cos you will never sound as good as the original. Here he is following his own advice & sounding so heartbreaking David Tao to me. Maybe his fault, if it's one, is that he could never sound anything but himself. However, it looked like he did it on the spot as they had to hold up a big cardboard with the lyrics & he was practising as he sang. Some enjoyable fanmade vids of his session with Lu Yu last mth.
Once again in the last vid singing Lou Dayu's 鹿港小镇 he still managed to sound like himself. This is one song that almost anyone singing cannot help but sound like Lou Dayu. However, he decided to stop out of respect for Lou Dayu. I don't know but I would have loved if he had sang more. It sounded great. I always wanted to hear him sing this song. DT had also been busy performing in various bigscale concerts in mainland China *sigh* but he was back in Taipei last Mon 8/1 to continue with his recording of Million Stars. Of cos they had to have a theme just for him - 'The golden tunes of Heavenly Kings & Queens'. 6 contestants dutifully selected his songs but only one went thru. The second theme was A tribute to Liu Jia-Chang & of cos the legend appeared onstage. David was trotted out to sing r&b version of Liu's latest song called Thinking of You which, for various reasons, was the hottest topic in Taiwan lately. I guess it took David maybe a grand total of 4 minutes (a bit less than for Sarah's song) to do his version. Besides a lot of versions of this song has already sprouted & this song is considered more a laughing stock than a geuinue hit. So why is DT adding himself to the list? Not trying to be disrespectful to Liu Jia-Chang but it sounded like a children song which is not really a problem but Jeremy's monotone singing borders on the ridiculous. There had been accusations of buying top spot ever since Jeremy's album debuted on top of G-music. Liu's appearance on Million Stars seemed more like a PR exercise & DT brought in to give Thinking of you some legit. Not sure if DT was in on it right from the start or it was sprung on him during the recording. To be fair to DT, I will give him the benefit of my doubt. He looked amazing & gorgeous here but doesn't prevent my growing anger at him. What are you really doing DT? He told us that he needed time for his movie & that he needed to reboot & go back to zero. In the meantime he had stopped talking abt his movie which is fine, I mean it's better than the empty promises for when the movie will come out. Now it seems to me that he is just cruising on his past success lately. He has no new works at all & yet he is able to get on all sort of gigs. He spends little to no time training his voice & it shows in his performances. I used to think that the chinese entertainment world underrate his talents but I am thinking I might be wrong. At the moment they seem to go out to indulge him cos they suspect he is one of the few chinese singer/songwriters able to shake up the music world if he wants to. The trouble is he doesn't want to, it's not challenging for him anymore & his heart is not in it. Now it's looking more & more like he had agreed to participate in the farce in Million Stars cos it appeared extremely likely that there is already a pre-determined winner as usual with such shows. The latest news on Million Stars was abt this 'talented' young female singer who is apparently as beautiful as her voice. Furthermore this girl is described as a men's magnet which borders on paedophilia considering she is only 15 yrs old. She has apparently been getting consistently high marks & praises from the judges & yet I don't have any impression of her at all - not her appearance, her voice nor her performance. She is currently at the top of the final 22. My only hope is that DT don't get to manage her or produce her album *sigh* I think I will most likely wipe this blog off the face of the earth if he has anything to do with this pre-adolescent girl. Still DT did it again, I think he has already earned his fee said to be substantial by inadvertently providing Million Stars with its only bright spark - Wu Jiru. He is also called David Wu but I think Jiru suits him more. Jiru's 30 secs debut was so bad that he would have been cast aside without any further thought. But DT's curiosity was probably piqued since one of the judges called him 'king of music arrangements'. He recalled him for Last Chance & Jiru shone with an impromptu rendition of Joanna Wang's For No Reason on his guitar. On a whim, DT awarded him his lucky star. Jiru went on to astonish in the 1st round with the most fabulous version of Daniel Chan's 心理游戏 on his guitar. Then in the 2nd round, Jiru showed his true colors when he orchestrated a sweet little musical duet with Bee Gees' How deep is your love. Using only his guitar, he managed to create almost a Broadway feel delighting the audience. He also managed to coax a wonderful performance from his lovely partner, Piya, who was subjected to the most horrible abuse from the judges during the opening rounds. They called her all sorts of silly names including Kungfu Panda cos they felt that she should be able to belt it out cos of her size. This gentle girl just want to croon like a bird, what's the hell is wrong with that? Anyway Jiru just bowled me over with his tremendous talent & feel for music. Like the way he had Piya sang high & he sang low in the chorus then switched it around for the ending. It was so goooooooooood!!! However Jiru didn't do well in the 3rd round crazily choosing one of Raine Yang's ballad. They all had to choose hits from this year only. This epi hasn't aired yet so I don't how badly he sang or why he cried, poor baby. He is a sensitive boy. He did dismally too for the next 2 rounds when DT was judging which was a pity as it would have been great if DT was able to hear him at his best as he was the one who saved him. However being such a talented & creative musician meant that Jiru can also be extremely flaky like DT ^_^ & it will require time & patience for him to shine again. Besides he has done extremely well so far. He is the only one of the 'saved' contestants who survived & made it into the top 22. Jiru will probably be eliminated soon like Piya but interestingly it seemed Million Stars had included him in the 10 contestants picked to appear in the Variety Show of Mr. Con & Ms. Csi. It could be a nod to his immense potential & marketability. He is overweight but weight CAN be taken off. He is tall & while not handsome, is modest & people-friendly with an extremely sweet smile. His voice is still not strong enough but that too can be trained. But that's only appearance, what Jiru has is not something that can be taught or trained. He has the soul, passion & integrity of a true musician. He is someone who is capable of shaking up the Chinese music world. He is not your trendy R&B singer/songwriter, in fact he doesn't do much R&B. He doesn't carry a guitar just to look like a musician, he can actually play the guitar pretty damn well. In fact he reminds me of the David Tao during his first self-titled album. Here are some vids of Wu Jiru going thru his rounds in Million Stars: Singing For no reason in Last Chance. From 6.10
Marvellous rendition of 心理游戏 - awesome guitar skills!
DT interacting with fans during his performance in Quizhou for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of Maotai, China's famous alcoholic beverage. He looked nice in the floral jacket. He also posted a pix posing next to the giant Maotai bottles in his Weibo. 
He sang Marry Me Today with this female singer whom I don't recognise, could be a local singer. Haven't been feeling extremely well lately so unable to post much. Missed a lot on DT but rest assured he is having a great time travelling around China performing as well as promoting Kiehl: 
So cute. He was grounded when travelling to Beijing & had to cancel due to the heavy fog. He also performed in Beijing National Stadium, the famous birdnest which hosted the 2008 Olympics. Here's a lovely pix: 
The dancer later posted in his Weibo thanking him for his cooperation. Found out that his company is called Great Entertainment in english. Apparently the logo was designed by our vry own DT: 
I think it's a combination of the handsign for 'rock music' & a chicken which is his chinese horoscope. Note also the filmstrip - look out DT's movie coming hehehehhehehehe Here's the website where can listen to his new song My Everything as well as songs by PB33 & Mushroom, the two indie bands he signed up so far. 
The lead singer for Mushroom was also one of the PK singers in Million Stars singing a song by Yuan Wei Ren aka Xiao Pang. He got 24 losing only by 1, David was of course not judging which was only fair. Go here to watch all the episodes of Million Stars. Finally My Everything on youtube, make sure to listen rite to the end where there's a surprise:
