Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Lotus Wang Resumes the No. 1 Position on G Music Charts

Lotus Wang (王彩桦, pinyin: Wáng Cǎihuà) returned to the top of the G Music album charts with her record, 有唱有保庇 (untranslatable into English, so just called BoBee). The album had almost 20 percent of sales for the week 7 to 13 January, marking it’s second time in the top position (it was also number one three weeks ago).

The Taiwanese entertainer is an unlikely pop success story. It comes after 25 years in show business, where she started out singing in dance halls and hotels before moving on to TV hosting and acting. Then last year, at the age of 41 years, she decided to record an album, which must make her one of the oldest artists to release a debut pop record. 2010 turned out to be a year of new beginnings for Wang – she also published her first book in July.

Wang's initial plan was to release a cover of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance, but copyright restrictions put paid to that idea. Instead she looked closer to home and Korean girl group T ara, covering their catchy dance tune Bo Peep Bo Peep. Wang’s Taiwanese version, the title track of her album, has proved to be just as infectious as the original. A barrage of promotional appearances in the last month or so helped propel Bobee, with its mix of Taiwanese and Mandarin language songs, to the top position on the music sales chart.

2 comments:

  1. She's not a household name, she's not a pretty-as-a-model
    chanteuse, her voice has seen better times, and she's over the hill,
    as far as pop music divas go.
    But 41-year-old ''Lotus'' Wang -- her Taiwanese-English nickname name
    -- is headed for the stars, and the future is looking good.

    Yes, Chiai-hwa Wang was picked by CNN's 15-minutes-of-fame-maker Phil
    Han to be the network's ''Best Viral Video of the Week'' pick, and her
    music video, complete with
    dancing Taoists gods and quirky choreography went viral. Over a
    million hits so far and counting,

    Wang's techno hit, titled "Bobee" [保庇], is a catchy tune that asks the
    local deities in Taiwan for protection, stock market success, health
    and good luck, and it already has engendered a number of copycat
    videos as well.

    In the video, shot in Taiwan, Wang is accompanied by three dancing
    deities and there's no stopping it now. A star is born.

    But who is this self-described "B-grade entertainer"? It's been an
    uphill climb in the real world of her real life, and most people here
    never heard of her before CNN annointed her.

    Call it Cinderella comes to Taiwan: Lotus grew up poor, knew lots of
    gloom and doom as a child, and as one pundit put, she had has nore
    down than ups in her life -- until now that is.
    Thanks to YouTube, social network sites such as Twitter and Facebook
    and Plurk, not to mention CNN's global reach, Lotus is looking at
    stardowm with a golden lining. SHe's already
    making a few TV commericals endorsing all kinds of local products, and
    no doubt she will publish a book soon, too.

    Her Cinderella life? Her mum died of cancer when she was still in
    diapers, and her dad was businessman who never made any business deals
    that caught fire.
    Her teen years were spent waiting tables at a sidewalk noodle shop,
    and through the help of some friends, "singing" in dance halls,
    burlesque venues and other gangster-controlled joints.
    It's not something she likes to talk about today, but the CNN
    spotlight has turned this once-ungly duckling into a glittering queen,
    and she is not about to let this inernet-fuled
    opporunity get away from her.

    But Lotus Wang has a winning personality, it turns out, and internet
    fame suits her fine. Her self-depreacting humor is for real, but at
    the same time, she's been down so long,
    it's looks like up to her now.

    She has already released her first CD and several of the tracks on it,
    in addition to ''Bobee'' have been well-received. According to local
    news reports, one of her tunes, titled "Mother", is about
    saying sayonara to the dearly departed, and Taiwan's funeral parlor
    industry has decided to use it as its theme song.

    Although some bloggers have compared her to Ayumi Hamasaki, the
    Japanese pop singer (who recently married her Austrian boyfriend in
    Hollywood) and America's dancing queen Beyonce, Lotus Wang will have
    none of that.

    "I'm just a nice Taiwanese girl with a dream," she told reporters.

    Now it's a dream fueled by the ethersphere and social media, and watch
    "Bobe" hit the 2 million mark soon. There's no stopping a girl named
    Lotus.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Dan for all the background info - very informative. And that published book you predicted, it's already happened!

    ReplyDelete

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