King of Cantopop Eason Chan sits on throne unchallenged

Eason Chan visits Beijing to promote his latest album.

It may have been that uniqueness that helped Chan win the top two awards－best Mandarin album and best Mandarin male singer－for his last Mandarin album, Rice & Shine, at the annual Taiwan Golden Melody Awards, akin to the Grammy Awards, in June.

In Beijing Chan spoke of the time in which Getting Ready had its genesis, saying the album was the fruit of a year in which he faced considerable professional difficulties.

His manager, who for Chan was a mother figure, retired, leaving the singer with the difficult task of finding a replacement. In addition, Chan says, he had been touring internationally for about seven years and he felt he needed a good break.

If all that were not enough, he was dissatisfied with the lyrics he was presented for the new album.

"Now things are falling into place and I am ready to move on to the next stage of my career and my life," Chan says.

Lyrics for the album's 10 tracks, among which are Unconditional, The Halloween Nightmare and Monologue From One Soul, were written by the Hong Kong lyricist Yuen Leung-poon.

The Hong Kong singer-actor Nicholas Tse, a longtime friend of Chan, wrote one of the songs for the album, Origin Destination.