Leon Lai is a Hong Kong-based actor and Cantopop singer. The media refer to Aaron Kwok, Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau and Leon Lai as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings.
Born in Beijing, China as Lai Chit, Leon was an only child. His family were originally from Meixian (Hakka). His parents divorced when he was four. He migrated with his Malaysian Chinese father, Lai Xinsheng to Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution in China. At the age of fifteen, he attended King's Way Princeton College and returned back to Hong Kong at the age of seventeen. Before he became a singer in Hong Kong, he worked as a salesperson for a mobile phone company. He uses the stage name "Li Ming" or "Lai Ming" which literally means "dawn".
After getting the second-runner-up in the 5th New Talent Singing Awards, held by the TVB in 1986, he went to be taught singing by Dai Si Zong and in the same year, he also obtained an artist contract from Capital Artist. However he didn't get to release any albums for four years. As a result, his teacher, Dai, arranged to have him signed a contract with Polygram (now known as Universal Music) and then got the contract with Capital Artist annulled after some negotiation.
In Polygram, he released his first album "Leon" and subsequent album "Meet In The Rain" which propelled Leon into instant stardom. His debut album went gold. After several years at Polygram, Lai then signed a new contract with Sony Music on March 23, 1998.
Leon has been associated with many female celebrities since he began his career. One of his most famous rumoured ex-girlfriends is Shu Qi. Apart from Shu Qi, he has been rumoured to have relationship with Dai Yun Hui, Wang Zu Xian, Vivian Chow, Kathy Chow, Seto Asaka, Michelle Reis (Winner of 1988 Miss HK Beauty Pageant), Sheila Chan (Runner-up of 1988 Miss HK Beauty Pageant), Kim Hee Sun, Lee Na Young, Mango Wang Xiu Lin. He is currently in a relationship with one of the famous models in Hong Kong named Gaile Lok.
He was ranked 8th among the top 10 of the celebrity power rankings released by the Chinese edition of the Forbes for the year 2003.
Leon's portrayal as Lai Xiao Jun in Comrades: Almost a Love Story was represented in a wax figure at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong.
Leon is known for his statements with deep meanings. His words, "I don't eat breakfast on an empty stomach", was voted the best "Golden Words" by netizens. He is subsequently considered the "King Of Golden Words".
Together with Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau and Aaron Kwok, Lai was among the four most popular male singers during the 1990s, when the media referred to them as the "Four Heavenly Kings" (Chinese: 四大天王). On June 29th, in the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars, Leon, along with Aaron Kwok and Jacky Cheung had their hands imprinted to be added along the Avenue.
In the early stages of his career, he mainly sang cantopop, but due to the influence of producer Mark Lui, he expanded his repertoire to include popular electronic songs with compelling music videos. In 2002, he was selected to sing "Charged up", the 2002 World Cup theme song for the Greater China Region.
In 1996, he collaborates with composer-producer Steve Barakatt on his album "Feel". In 1998, Leon's Korean song "After loving you" managed to reach the Top 10 in a Korean pop chart. He was the first Hong Kong singer to achieve this.
He won numerous singing awards before announcing in 1999 that he would no longer accept any awards in Hong Kong. He won the "Most Popular Male Singer" award in 1993 and 1995 for TVB Jade Solid Gold. He has also won the "Song of the Year" award four times. In the 1996 year of awards, Leon Lai won a personal record 16 awards in the Hong Kong music scene. A tie with fellow singers Sky King and Jacky Cheung. This gives both artists one more award. The 4 stage Joint Award of Best Musicians. Awarded to the musician with the most awards won in the year ending award shows. Lai's music career gradually declined from the late 1990s. While he is still releasing new albums from time to time, his record sales are now less than impressive and his position has been overtaken by the newer generation of cantopop singers.
His song "All Day Love" released in 2000 got into trouble with the Chinese authorities for drawing passages from the China National Anthem, "March of the Volunteers". The starting tune also sounds similar to the Anthem tune. He was warned against using the song for commercial purposes.
In 2004, Leon Lai formed a new record production company, "A Music", East Asia Record Production Company Limited, with Peter Lam. The first album produced by the company, "Dawn" was released in September of that year. The album, "Dawn", was released with minimum promotion as Lai went to the Mainland for a movie shoot on the day of the album's release.
In order to bring in new excitements for his music, Leon invited a famous music producer Jonathan Lee Tsung Sheng from Taiwan in 2005 to produce his new mandarin album "A Story". However, by doing so he had to give up the opportunity for a lead role in a big budget Taiwan movie "Gui Si" due to conflicts in his schedules.
Leon returned to the Hong Kong Coliseum on April 13, 2007 to perform in his one night only Leon 4 in Love Concert where he performed not only his own hits but also hits of the other three heavenly kings namely Aaron, Andy and Jacky. He performed a total of 18 songs, all of which are newly arranged by Mark Lui. He subsequently released an album titled "4 In Love" on May 3, 2007, comprising 16 of the 18 songs he had performed in the concert.
Leon released his new single on October 30, 2007 for his fans to listen and download on MOOV. The song titled, Think of you written by Lin Xi, composed by Lee Sang Jun, arranged by Mark Lui, Chen Yi and produced by Lee Han Wen.
Apart from being a solo artist, Leon has co-operated with other artist in a duet. Some of his better known collaborations are "Love Until the End" and "A Happy Family" with Vivian Chow, "Really Wish to Be Like This Forever" and "It's Still You" with Priscilla Chan, "Song of the Star" with Alan Tam, "Never Give Up" with Jacky Cheung, "Why did I let you go?" with Janice Vidal.
In the period before he participated in the New Talent Singing Awards, he enrolled in the ATV actor training class, however he didn't complete the training with no apparent reason. Then, he applied for admission to the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts but his application was rejected.
After the New Talent Singing Awards, he had some opportunities to star in a few TV series. On one occasion, he went for filming of a romantic serials titled, Fengyun era, in Taiwan. There was a stark contrast in height between Leon and the popular lead actress who is only 1.60 cm in height. The actress then demanded that Leon squatted while filming so as to make up for the height differences. Leon had to act through all the scenes with the actress while squatting but he had to endure it as he was not popular at the time. However not long afterwards his new TV series, The Breaking Point which turned out to be a resounding success and propel him to widespread fame in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
In 1996, Lai was nominated for the Best Actor award at the 16th Hong Kong Film Awards for the film Comrades: Almost a Love Story.However, he did not win.
The next year in 1997, he managed to win the award for Best Original Song for the film Eighteen Springs both at the Golden Horse Film Festival and Hong Kong Film Awards.
He was again nominated for the Best Actor and Best Original Film Song award for the film City of Glass in 1999 at the Hong Kong Film Awards but he only managed to win the award for Best Original Film Song which he shared with Lin Xi and Dick Lee.
Leon was considered by Lee Ang to act as Li Mu Bai in the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, however he had to turn down the offer as he had advertising contract and live concert about to start which would not match his shaven head as was required for the role.
He collaborated with Cecilia Cheung in 2001 for the first time in the Wong Jing directed romantic comedy film, Everyday Is Valentine. In the film, Leon played a serial liar.
In 2002, Lai took the spotlight at the Golden Horse Awards, the Chinese-language version of the Oscars in Taiwan. He won Best Actor for Three: Going Home. Leon played a minor role as Superintendent Yeung Kam Wing in Infernal Affairs III in 2003. In 2004, Lai starred with Faye Wong in the romantic movie Leaving Me, Loving You, the story of which he co-wrote with Wilson Yip and he was also the creative/production controller of the movie. However, the movie was a flop. The movie raked in HK$ 10,529,501 in the box office.
In 2005, Leon acted as one of the seven warriors, Yang Yun Chong, in the Tsui Hark directed Wuxia film, Seven Swords. In the same year in the film Moonlight In Tokyo, Leon unexpectedly acted as a Chinese retard who pretend to be a Korean gigolo in Japan and thus shedding his idol image. He won the Golden Deer Best Actor Award from Changchun China Film Festival for his portrayal in Leaving me Loving you in 2005.
In 2006, Leon starred alongside Fan Bingbing and Rene Liu in a love and horror, thriller film titled The Matrimony where he played a cinematographer Shen Junchu, the love interest of Manli and Sansan. JunChu was pressurised into marrying Sansan after the untimely demise of his true love Manli in an accident. The film was released on Valentine's Day on February 8, 2007. In the same year, Leon wrote and directed a musical film titled A Melody Looking which was shot in New York. It features Leon and the rest of the Amusic family of singers namely Janice, Jill, Emily, Charles and Chapman. This film marks his debut as a director.
In 2007, Leon starred alongside Kelly Chen ,Donnie Yen and Guo Xiaodong in the Cheng Xiaodong directed action and romantic movie Jiangshan Meiren which means An Empress and the Warriors. He acted as a woodland medicine man whom have a romantic relationship with a princess. The action will be choreographed by the director himself who had previously choreographed for movies such as, Curse of the Golden Flower, House of Flying Daggers, and Hero. The movie will be released on 1st March, 2008. Leon and Kelly will be singing the movie theme song, "Fly With Your Dreams" which is written by Lin Xi and composed by Mark Lui.
He underwent training in Peking Opera for playing the lead role as Méi Lánfāng in the biographical film Méi Lánfāng which will be directed by Chen Kaige. The shooting of the film is still ongoing in the year 2008 and it also starred actresses Zhang Ziyi and Gillian Chung.
Apart from being an actor, he took part in the production of advertisement for "Dress Casual Day" of the Community Chest. In the recent years, Lai has participated in many charity events. He has been a member of The Community Chest Campaign Committee and in December 1995, his contribution to children is further recognized by being appointed as UNICEF Special Representative to Youth at UNICEF Headquarters in New York. He is a goodwill ambassador for the UNICEF Committee of Hong Kong. He appeared at a recent ceremony in Beijing in which Sunrider International presented UNICEF with a generous donation. He also occasionally helps other non-profit organisations to raise funds.
Leon tryst with serious charity work started when his father had carcinoma of the rectum at an advanced stage. The doctors said he was incurable. But when his father went through an operation, he prayed to the Buddha to let the operation be successful and he will do a lot of good things to thank heaven. The operation was successful and his father got cured. So when the cancer foundation and the U.N. organization approached him for help, he started getting involved in charity work actively.
Leon bought the first donation ticket, numbered 000001 at a "Children's Education Fund Raising Campaign" launch event at PARKnSHOP's Skyline Superstore in Tsuen Wan to encourage people to contribute to a meaningful social cause. The funds raised will be donated to the Community Chest.
Lai has been elected as one of The Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) in 1997, giving him a formal recognition of his professional endeavours and commitment to the community. He was also awarded the Medal of Honour (M.H.) on 12 October 2003 by Tung Chee-Hwa, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR.
Ever since his decision not to receive any music award in HK, he has not appeared on the TVB Jade Gold Solid Awards Ceremony even as a guest, but in order to secure more funds for charity, he agreed to perform in the ceremony as a guest performer on Jan 8, 2005. Leon co-operated with Mark Lui to compose the song "8858". The song will be used as the promotional song of the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF). The title of song means "Help me (sounded like 'bang bang wo ba' in Putonghua)" and the number "8858" represent the SMS number people can use to donate the money.
In a surprising move in 2005, Leon appeared in a Hong Kong government television advertisement requesting the public to support a gradual political reform package tabled by the ruling government rather than asked for rapid political reform. This marks the first time he got himself involved in a politically motivated advertisement.
Leon was selected to be the ambassador of the 6th Winter Asian Games to be held Changchun in 2007 and will also sing the Games' theme song and take part in the torch relay.
(Note: the indication of a # next to the title means that it was a supporting/minor role.)
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