Music Obsessions – January 2026

Posted in Music Obsessions by Kim

After a few years of making this a bit of a share of my favorite Cantopop and Mandopop artists, I’m taking it a little easier this year and reverting back to the old format of sharing my favorite song discoveries of the month. Take it as a year off from the other format to charge up a few other artist selection since my indecisiveness made it a lot more complicated and always created the dilemma of this segment taking more time than what it had originally intended to be as a fun quick music share.

For this little segment, I’ve decided to set up a Spotify playlist for anyone that would like to track the music that’s been on this segment and will add to it every month. You can find it HERE.

小雨Little Rain-黄龄Isabelle Huang

I can’t find an actual music video for this but Isabelle Huang has been recently a favorite on my playlist. Her voice is very unique and her songs has this lovely mix of traditional Chinese instruments paired with modern music. This one is one of my favorite as it has this elegance that I enjoy a lot.

You Are The Sun In My Life – Yuanyi Lu
(“Shine On Me” Theme Song)

If you checked out my What’s Up January 2026, you’d know that I am surprisingly a big fan of this series. This series does have this wonderful thing where it doesn’t rely too heavily on its soundtrack to create the mood. In reality, the soundtrack blends really well into the series and its theme song is probably my favorite and reflects the essence of this series very well.

Forever Forever – Jay Chou, Jerry Yan, Vanness Wu, Vic Chou, Mayday Ashin

I think anyone like myself that was into the Taiwanese entertainment scene in the 2000s as their main time frame when the series and culture started spreading around Asia, this team-up is probably the most nostalgic especially when its reuniting 3 of the 4 members of F4 boy band after the original Meteor Garden series trend ended. With that said, its so great to see Jay Chou, Mayday Ashin and Jerry Yan, Will Chou and Vanness Wu unite together for this song.

戰愛 Fight For Love- 姚冠宇Austin Yao
(“She’s Fiercer Than Gunfire” Theme Song)

I don’t particularly like to talk too much about vertical series but my big discovery is Austin Yao and I think the best one so far is She’s Fiercer Than Gunfire which has a Hong Kong 90s triad film type of vibe. The intro to this song appears at all the scenes that the male lead shows up and then it ends with the full theme song at the end of the whole series which is how I found it and have since really liked it.

Overdrive – TWS

I find K-pop usually completely by accident. In this case, Overdrive was really because I was surfing through reels and saw a few videos where celebrities have been using this song as the background to dance with it as promotional material for whatever series. I can’t even remember who it was for, maybe it was the Shine On Me pairing that was what started it all. Either way, it got me curious whether what they were dancing was actually from the music video and wanted to check out the whole song. Its a pretty catchy and fun tune.

Hard to imagine that I’m already late for the January Music Obsessions but from now on, it’ll probably be like this where its going to happen in the following month or whenever I have enough music to post. Let me know what you think about this selection and what you’ve been listening to!

20Dec2025

Music Obsessions – Spotify Wrapped

Posted in Music Obsessions by Kim

While the direction of Music Obsessions is going to take in 2026 is still undecided, its time for the annual Spotify Wrapped share. I’m always excited to share this since its always a fun time since they always add some new twist. Like this year, I realized, I listened to music pretty much that matched my own age. I always thought I listened to older music but apparently, that’s not the case. While I am surprised that some songs didn’t quite make it there but its pretty fun to see some unexpected songs on this list especially the game soundtrack although.

Let’s start with some of the stats:

Listened 10,187 minutes
Top Genres: C-pop, Cantopop, Soundtrack, K-pop, Rap
Listening age: 38
Listened to 966 songs
Listened to 504 artists
Top 5 Artists: Justin Lo, David Tao, JJ Lin, Eason Chan, Leehom Wang
Cloud State Society
Repeat-Heavy Day: March 28 The day you built a carousel of Cantopop and C-pop repeats
Most Energetic Day: May 10 The day you let K-pop, C-pop and game soundtracks power a 60-minute sprint
Most Nostalgic Day: Sep 18 The day you “ironic” and “Changer” time-travel your afternoon
Biggest Music listening Day: Nov 3 The day you let Cantopop and C-pop run the full playlist marathon

跳楼机 Jumping Machine – LBI

單車 Bicycle – Eason Chan

被人- Joker Xue

Soda Pop

Spider Queen’s Song – Tone
(from “Figment” Game Soundtrack)

As an ending song pick, the song I thought might make it but didn’t is this one:

Julie – Thome

2025 has been an exciting year. While Music Obsessions has been a really fun outlet for the most part, the focus on the singers and their bios did end up taking a toll and taking more time than I had anticipated, not to mention digging up some news from some singers that I didn’t expect to find since I don’t follow Asian entertainment news nowadays. With that said, as the end of the year comes by, I doubt that I’ll be ending this segment as it is a lot of fun but might find another format to do it next year to keep it going every month in a more feasible way for the limited blogging time I now have.

Thanks for everyone that’s followed this segment and hopefully I’ll see you next year regardless of a new format or just a more freestyle way of approaching it as I continue to share music that I love.

With that said, if you use Spotify, how did your Spotify Wrapped go?

23Sep2025

Music Obsessions – July 2025

Posted in Music Obsessions by Kim

While we’re a few months behind on the Music Obsessions, I’m going to keep going with my initial list and do some catch-up. July’s month was for Fish Leong, a singer that I still absolutely love to listen to and a karaoke favorite for myself and even performed the first song on this list once for my graduation performance in Chinese School eons ago. I’m not sure if that’s embarrassing or not but regardless, suffice to say that I’m a huge fan and while I’m a little out of touch of her more recent work, she’s always been a constant on my playlist.

Born in Malaysia, Fish Leong debuted her singing career in 1997 in Taiwan upon the discovery by Jonathan Lee, a singer and producer that I should really mention in one of these Music Obsessions since he’s also rather renowned, who eventually became her godfather. She was eventually signed by Rock Records. Her second album Courage in 2000 was the album that set her career on its way and to date has sold more than 20 million records to date (info source: Wikipedia)

For me, I think what sets Fish Leong apart is that the songs she sings is pretty relatable on different stages of life and the lyrics all tell really vivid stories. In her earlier songs, you can hear the youthfulness and naivety in her songs from different stories from a younger person in love but as she gets more mature, you also get songs diving in the rock genre like Wings of Love and further on, one of the most unique albums that I love is her Silk Road of Love album which has a more enchanting vibe while having some songs that feel more deep and meaningful.

勇氣 Courage (2000)

Fly Away (2003)

燕尾蝶 Wings of Love (2004)

絲路 Silkroad of Love (2005)

可樂戒指 Coca-Cola Ring (2006)

再見，少年 Farewell, My Lad (2019)

麋鹿 The Wanderer (2023)

23Apr2025

Music Obsessions – April 2025

Posted in Music Obsessions by Kim

Known as one of Hong Kong’s “Four Heavenly Kings” (along with Jacky Cheung that covered before), Aaron Kwok started his career in the 80s but found his peak success in the 90s especially known for his focus in dance pop genre. Originally expected to take over his family’s gold business, Aaron Kwok’s entered into the entertainment industry by going through both TVB training programs for dancing and acting. Eventually his popularity came after appearing in a Taiwanese Honda motorcycle ad.

When he entered the music industry at 1991, he took his influence by Michael Jackson and started the fast-dancing trend. While his career started in Taiwan, he did eventually shift back to Hong Kong and Cantopop and has been known for his love for stage performances. In 2007, his concert at Hong Kong Coliseum created a new entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the largest revolving stage.

Much like a lot of the stars that flourished in the Hong Kong entertainment circle, Aaron Kwok is a well-rounded star who not only excelled in music and had his own angle with his focus on dancing but also has proved his excellence in acting with a lot of nice selections in his filmography. Even if you didn’t grow up during his rise, some of his biggest hits like his breakout hit Loving You Forever, no one can really forget the iconic dance move.

對你愛不完 Loving You Forever (1990)

狂野之城 Crazy City (1994)

愛的呼喚 Love’s Call (1997)

Para Para Sakura (2002)

Exit (2024)

3Mar2025

Music Obsessions – March 2025

Posted in Music Obsessions by Kim

This month’s Music Obsessions, we’re going back to the 2000s (when are we not, right?) and looking at Candy Lo, a singer that I’ve always thought has a unique voice and her music was a different vibe in that decade.

Candy Lo started out as the lead vocalist in a Hong Kong indie rock bank called Black & Blue in 1995 which lasted for a few years and had 2 albums released where she also wrote all the lyrics. In 1998, she broke out as a solo artist and released an EP including her first solo hit Trash. Later that year, she also released her first full-length album albeit disappointing sales. Her albums afterwards did release with a balance between appealing to the mainstream audience and staying true to her individualism and indie music influence.

Having her own struggles with the Hong Kong music industry, Candy Lo announced her retirement in 2011 after a 2 year hiatus in 2005, she still did release ten albums in the thirteen years initially in the business with various hits in that timeframe. She did return to the music industry in 2014.

垃圾 Trash (1998)

深藍 Dark Blue (2000)

喜歡戀愛 Like to Love (2001)

三角誌 Love Triangle (2003)

落地開花 Fall & Blossom (2003)

命犯桃花 (2004)

17Feb2025

Music Obsessions – February 2025

Posted in Music Obsessions by Kim

February is here and while I was thinking about doing some type of lovey-dovey post, I figured I’d just keep the normal structure and highlight another singer instead but let Spotify’s shuffle decide the next one from a few choices I couldn’t decide between and here we are: Jordan Chan.

Starting out his career in the entertainment business in 1985 in the TVB Dancers’ Training Class, he was a backup dancer for years and followed big stars at that time like Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui before making his film debut in 1994 in Twenty Something. However, his big break happened in 1996 with the first Young and Dangerous in the role as Chicken which turned out into a massive franchise. This started off his music career as well as his first album launched in 1997.

While most of early career focused around the success of his songs from the Young and Dangerous franchise’s background music, he eventually established his style in the 2000s for leading the wave of hip hop infused Cantopop and started off adding rap and R&B into his music. While Cantopop is his main focus, there was a few years where he broke into the Taiwanese market and released a few Mandarin hits and had some collaborations with Jay Chou as well. In the recent years, Jordan Chan has had a renewed attention for his involvement in Chinese variety shows, one that I talk about a little called Call Me By Fire.

Without further ado, let’s check out some of his music!

亂世巨星 Superstar in Troubled Times (1997)

犯賤 Submissive (2001)

裝聾作啞 Playing Dumb (2001)

啼笑姻緣 A Laughable Marriage (2003)

相依為命 Dependent on Each Other (2004)

19Jan2025

Music Obsessions – January 2025

Posted in Music Obsessions by Kim

Its a new year and a usually a new theme but this year, we’re going to the same as the previous two years to highlight different singers but I’m going to do a little more free flow and choose between whichever artist I would like to do instead of setting them to a region. Although I’m not going to lie that there might still be a big focus between Hong Kong and Taiwanese singers or more like singers that had their fame in Taiwanese and some new discoveries.

As a transition from Taiwan-based singers that we did last year, let’s kick off this year with a singer that I personally loved a lot at the debut of her career but fell out of her songs but the last few years, her songs have gone back on my radar and as she appears on the show Infinity and Beyond Season 4, it reminded me how underrated and underappreciated she is so here we are. The singer that I’m talking about is Janice Vidal.

Janice Vidal was discovered by music producer Mark Lui when she had a career as back-up singer for Leon Lai and eventually signed onto Leon Lai’s label until 2015. Keeping a fairly low-key career path, she’s tried a lot of different genres of music and dabbled in a little acting as well. While she started her first album doing Leon Lai’s song covers, she’s also gone one to make some hit songs while also releasing an English-language album in 2009. In 2021, she did a collaboration with Lukas Graham for the song Happy For You and adding Cantonese lyrics to the duet. Janice brings a unique voice to Hong Kong music industry and while she isn’t talked about enough, she is a hidden gem in Cantopop.

大哥 Big Brother (2005)

穿花蝴蝶 Butterfly (2016)

一格格 Frames (2017)

帶走你的垃圾 Take Your Trash With You (2020)

她整晚在寫信 She Wrote All Night (2020)

*If you know Cantopop, you know that this is a second version of Justin Lo’s 2005 song Die Hard*

It’s OK To Be Sad (2021)

31Dec2024

Music Obsessions – December 2024

Posted in Music Obsessions by Kim

As we wrap up the year, its time to take a look at the 2024 recap pulled from Spotify Wrapped and Youtube recap. Considering for half of the year, I did have Spotify Premium so its a little less random than last year’s list, which was mostly by random. There were some fun choices that I didn’t realize I listened to so much.

Let’s start with Spotify Wrapped starting from the 5th song to the 1st. You can tell that I used Spotify to work on the rest of the Music Obsessions this year.

一首簡單的歌 A Simple Song – Leehom Wang

子華說 Dayo Says – Leo Ku feat. Dayo Wong

Peaches – Jack Black

過山車 Roller Coaster – MC Jin

花田錯 Flower Field Mistake – Leehom Wang

Next up is based on the Youtube Recap 2024. Except I don’t really feel like sharing the top 5 songs mostly because I used a lot of Youtube in the beginning of the year and then sporadically used it throughout the year but feel like I want to share some of the music discoveries that I still love a lot.

在加納共和國離婚 Divorce in Ghana – Firdhaus & DIOR

Summer Baby – Jonas Brothers

Brain Dance – Lil Ghost & MIYAVI

今天有朵云爱我 Today There’s A Cloud That Loves You – Chris Lee

I think the last song here is a great way to end the post as it was release last year for the 2024 new year with positive vibes to remember that seeing a cloud and hearing a meow is already beautiful and that even if you are imperfect or normal and the world around is confusing, it doesn’t matter. My translations are not great but its a pretty song with beautiful meaningful lyrics.

31Dec2024

Music Obsessions – November 2024

Posted in Music Obsessions by Kim

Initially formed with only three members Ashin, Monster and their first drummer Chien You-ta in university in 1995, the two members Masa and Stone joined afterwards and the group officially used their name Mayday in 1997 for a festival performance. They eventually sealed a record deal in 1998 with Rock Records. In 1999, they also finalized their current group as the third and final drummer change brought in Ming. The same year, they also realized their first full-length album. While they had a hiatus due to military enlistment for a few members between 2001 to 2003, they came back on the music scene working on soundtracks and albums until 2006 when they left Rock Records to set up their own record label B’in Music.

Mayday is greatly influenced by The Beatles as they believed rock could change the world and spread love and peace. They’ve also shared their influences by U2, Oasis and Mr. Children. They use both Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien in their songs while also sharing cultural elements like one of their songs named Sun Wu-Kong (aka The Monkey King).

溫柔 Tenderness (2000)

戀愛ING Love-ing (2005)

星空 (2011)

Beginning of the End (2016)

任性 (2024)

29Dec2024

Music Obsessions – October 2024

Posted in Music Obsessions by Kim

Next up for Music Obsessions for the Taiwanese singers is Richie Jen, a singer and actor. He popped up on my radar when he acted in Fly Me to Polaris in 1999. However, much more than an actor, he is a great singer. One that does define a Taiwanese singer as he actually sings in Taiwanese dialect every now and then.

After completing his education in Taiwan and learning to play the guitar at a music instrument store, Richie Jen signed and released his first album in 1990. After two more albums, he was enlisted in the military to return in 1996 and joined Rock Records and later in the year released his breakthrough album Too Softhearted which solidified his fame in both Taiwan and China.

心太軟 Too Softhearted (1996)