Smart singer has formula for success

Yu Kewei's career has thrived since being a Super Girls contestant.[Photo/China Daily]

Yu Kewei was fourth in the immensely popular nationwide singing contest, Super Girls, in 2009, but her silken voice has taken her far ahead of the winners, many of whom have vanished from the music scene.

But success sits lightly on the down-to-earth singer, who has just released her second album.

She appeared for our interview with an assistant, whom she dragged through a busy street, unmindful of the amazed looks of passers-by.

"I'm just not that well-known yet," she says cheerily.

Her second album, Weijia Xingfu (Tiny Happiness), is a collection of slow love melodies. Compared to her first album that features a wider range of musical forms, Yu says this album marks both her and her record label's efforts to fit a specific musical style to her sweetly soothing voice.

One of her new songs, Shang Bu Qi (Emotionally Vulnerable), is of particular appeal to urban youth tangled in love relationships, and is already topping local music charts. However, it's not the first of her love odes to sell. Earlier this year, two songs from her first album Blue Short Pants, were chosen for a hit soap opera in Taiwan. Both dominated music charts on the island.

Yu readily attributes her success to being signed up in 2009 by Taiwan-based Rock Records, a prominent label in Chinese music.

Rock Records was one of the parties invited to judge the 2009 Super Girl competition, as an industry insider. After the show, Wang Jianhong, manager of Rock Records (China), sat down with Yu for a long chat. Yu, who grew up listening to songs from the label, says she felt privileged and was so excited that, although she's usually reticent, she could not stop talking.

Her eloquent expression of her career plans paid off and the company signed her. What followed was a performing career that has taken her from the Chinese mainland to the whole of Southeast Asia. Yu appeared at Rock Records' 30th anniversary concert in Beijing and Taipei, as the company's newest face. She is seen as a major driving force of the label's next 30 years.

Although still unclear about why exactly she was chosen, Yu is full of thanks, not just to the company but also her father.

"All this would not have happened if my father hadn't allowed me to make singing my career," she says.

Born in Chengdu, Sichuan province, Yu started participating in singing competitions at 17. At college, she was the vocalist of a popular band that won several national singing competitions. After graduation, her father supported her decision to reject a job offer as an office worker so she could be the in-house singer at a pub.

That experience allowed her to hone her skills for the Super Girl competitions. Before finally coming fourth in 2009, she had participated in the competition twice before, in 2005 and 2006, at the peak of the contest's popularity. Both attempts ended up in failure though.

"A good opportunity always comes to well-prepared people. I felt it was important for me to keep singing through those years," she says.

She disagrees with those who say the plethora of talent competitions rarely produce real quality. Yu is happy to see more young faces on stage, offering fresh ideas for Chinese music as well as more choice for audiences.

Yu's recipe for success is to hold on to one's dreams. The path may be difficult but will certainly yield fruit if you love what you are doing, she says.

"As long as I can sing, I don't find life hard. Even when working in the pub, I felt luckier than others as I was able to make a living doing something I truly liked," she says

"Even when I am no longer in the recording business, I will keep singing."