My 'shining star' of the month
The shining star of the month section will as the name suggest will include a person or a group from most walks of life who are on the rise and my aim here is to basically show their potential and maybe some media like pictures, audios etc. This is only of my opinion and does not reflect how really well they are. It's up to 'you' to decide that.
September's shining star is Khalil Fong.
Khalil Fong (方大同 // Fong Tai Tong) was born in Hawaii and he's a Chinese soul // r&b // pop singer. I say Chinese rather than Hong Kong or Mandarin because even though he is classed as a Hong Kong singer because he started his career based in Hong Kong, his album 'Soul boy' and recent works have been in Mandarin so where his target audience lies, I'm not so sure yet. Speaking of his only debut album, 'Soul Boy', I will discuss that shortly. I've collected most of the information from his sites and then from Khalil forums that his somewhat hardcore fans have created.
It's quite hard to find good pictures of Khalil but personally; even though I don't find him attractive in any way, he has a lot of talent for a young guy and a new artist. Firstly, he can speak English, Cantonese and Mandarin fluently even though he was born in Hawaii and as a person who is a Chinese born in a foreign country, I (and many of my friends) find it's difficult to learn our 'ethnic' language not because we're westernised or something but because we don't have the provision of education. My Cantonese although lacking in literacy have been fluent because I choose to speak to my parents and my friends who understand Cantonese. It also pays to have lived in an area for a long period, which Khalil has done. He has lived in Hawaii for 6 years before moving to Shanghai for another 6 years. Then he lived in Guangzhou for about a year before finally residing in Hong Kong about 8 years ago. So Khalil is in his early 20s.
His specialty is clearly soul and r&b but his influences is interesting. His favourite artists include Buddy Holly, Jackie Wilson, Eddie Cockran, The penguins, Elvis and Ritchie Valens, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, John Coltrane etc. etc. With these influences, it creates an interesting and refreshing music as heard in his album 'Soul Boy'
What I liked about Khalil aside from the ability to write and compose music is that his voice is really smooth and just right for the different kind of songs in his works. You can hear this in the two songs I have provided. The first is 'southern sounds' which has a jazzy romantic feel to the song and with his smooth soft voice, it really complements with the piano and the other percussions. To me it sounds like something from a long time ago with a modern twist and this is more evident towards the middle that almost acts like a crescendo. The second is a music video of the song 'Spring Breeze'
方大同 - 南音 // Southern Sounds
I've already made a comment on 'Spring Breeze' over at my '
radio
' section but basically it's a song that I find very catchy even though the arrangement sounds so simple. I just find the vocal arrangements so beautiful as well.
I'll finish his piece for now and it will definitely be subjected to editing as soon as I can find more media of him. As far as I'm concerned, Khalil is a rising soul // pop artist but the main problem I feel he's having is finding his main target audience and his appearance. I'm not saying he's not good looking but I have read some negative feedbacks from some forums about the way he looks. His talents and potential as a singer however should be noticed a lot more.
Tracklist for the album 'Soul Boy'
1. Prologue
2. 妹妹 // Little Sister
3. 春風吹 // Spring Breeze
4. 每天每天 // Everyday
5. 女人 // Girl
6. 叫我怎麼說 // Tell how to say it
7. 哪怕 // Who is afraid
8. 南音 // Are we able to
9. 我們能不能 // Dance
10. 跳 // Summary
11. 總結 // Quickly to the fair
12. 趕場 // Waiting for you
13. 等著你回來 + Hidden Track
~ Pancakes
[07 // 09 // 06]
