李克勤

Hacken Lee (Traditional Chinese: 李克勤; born December 6, 1967), is a male Hong Kong Cantopop singer.





Biography

Early Years: 1985-1995
Lee won the 1985 Hong Kong 19 District Singing Contest with the song "Love In The Fog" (霧之戀), Alan Tam's megahit, and launched himself to moderate stardom in the entertainment industry, signing a contract with Polygram Records. Initially, as a new and relatively unknown singer, the sales of his first EP album "李克勤 (EP)" did not even reach the 5,000 mark. However, in 1988, he appeared in a TVB television series "Teenage No More" (不再少年時), which ignited his popularity and resulted in his career steadily taking off.

In 1992, he reached the first peak in his career. His song "Red Sun" (紅日) is still widely recognized to this day as the prime "feel-good" song in Hong Kong society (he wrote the lyrics himself). In fact, this song appeared right at the moment when the golden age of Cantopop was blooming and his music was well-received. His maiden concert held at the HK Coliseum in 1993 was very successful with all the tickets sold out.

However, his fortunes took a turn for the worse from 1995 onwards following various contract disputes with his record company and a concert with a very low turnout. For a short time, he had no recording contract and became a presenter for TVB for shows such as the music programme "Jade Solid Gold", Miss Hong Kong and numerous sports events, notably soccer. At the same time, he also appeared occasionally in dramas for TVB. Although his music career was at a low point then, he made a name for himself as a host and actor.


Current Career: 1999-Present
He signed for Universal Music (環球唱片, his current record company) in 1999. However, it was not until 2001 before he began to release successive hits once more, including "Flying Flower" (飛花), "Feet of Fortune" (前後腳), "I Won't Sing" (我不會唱歌) and "The Grasp of Love" (愛不釋手).

The turning point of his career came in late 2001, after a joint collaboration with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert, together with subsequent sales of its recordings, were a runaway success, and so were his early 2002 concert and subsequent sales of that concert's recordings, impressive achievements considering the overall Cantopop music scene was at an all time low. The TVB drama, Legal Entanglement, which he co-starred in and began airing around the time of the 2002 concert, also achieved high ratings and was one of TVB's most popular dramas that year. He later won a Most Favourite Character award for this role at the 2002 TVB Anniversary Awards. He was also appointed the host of the 2002 World Cup and sang its theme song, which dominated the local charts for quite some time. The TVB Jade Solid Gold Award for Most Popular Male Singer can be said to be the icing on the cake for his high-flying career that year and caused his career to reach even greater heights. He has since won the award three times, twice in succession (2002 and 2003) and another one in 2005.

In 2003, he cooperated with Tam in a series of successful concerts around the world, including multiple shows in HK and Las Vegas. The concerts are named "Neighbors" (「左麟右李」) which is a play of words with a well known Chinese four character idiom 「左鄰右里」 using homonyms 麟 and 李 in the artists' names. The concert became known for the "happy culture" which it inspired, especially in a period of economic downturn and an air of pessimism in HK society as a whole.

He also partnered with Joey Yung for the first time in 2004, of which the combination is better known by a four-character idiom "Urgency cannot afford delay" (克不容緩) which is a play of word with 克 and 容 in the artists' names.

Lee was the first Chinese artist to release a DualDisc. Titled Hacken Lee Concert Hall (李克勤演奏廳), the DVD side of the disc featured Making Of footage as well as live recordings of the songs, in Surround Sound, which were featured on the CD side.

Hacken is a role model for many people and he has many fans who have supported him during his career's ups and downs. Today, he is still famous in HK, mainland China, Taiwan, South-East Asia and even the United States.

Other hits (among hundreds) from an artist who best performs slow pop ballads include:

"The Half-Moon Serenade" (月半小夜曲)-1987 (re-released in 1989)
"The Exhibition Hall" (大會堂演奏廳)-1988
"Unchangeable In My Lifetime" (一生不變)-1989
"Deep Deep Deep" (深深深)-1989
"A Thousand and One Evenings" (一千零一夜)-1990
"I Just Want Your Consent" (只想您會意)-1992
"Regress" (回首)-1993
"I Love No Other" (一生不愛別人)-1993
"Hope" (希望)-1994
"Lonely Flyer" (一個人飛)-1996
"By My Side" (在我身邊)-1997
"The Football Chronicles" (球迷奇遇記)-1998
"Tall Girl" (高妹)-2002
"Three Thousand and One Evenings" (三千零一夜)-2003
"Position of Goodbye Kiss" (吻別的位置)-2004
"Flying Trapeze" (空中飛人)-2004
"Who Can I Ask" (愛可以問誰)-2005
"Seoul" (情非首爾)-2005
In 2006, he held another concert during the period of Chinese New Year in the HK Coliseum (the official name of the concert is called 'Carlsberg Hacken Lee Concert'), which began from January 28 and ended on February 6. In that concert, he sang many of his famous pop songs as well as some recent new songs, such as songs from his DualDisc CD "Hacken Lee Concert Hall" etc. All tickets of the concerts from January 28 to February 6 were sold out.

Bio in Chinese:

个人档案
本　名: 李克勤
英文名: Lee, Hacken
生　日: 12-6 身　高: 5'8" 体　重: 128磅
星　座: 射手座
家庭成员: 父母、一姊
教育程度: 中七
头发颜色：不定
眼睛颜色：啡色
教育程度：中七
嗜 好：运动、计算机、音乐
喜爱之食物：海鲜（尤其系大闸蟹）
喜爱之水果：荔枝
喜爱之地方：日本
喜爱之男／女歌手：谭咏麟／关淑怡
喜爱之男／女演员：周星驰／郑裕玲
喜爱之电影：所有周星驰的电影
喜爱之颜色：白色
喜爱之服式：便服
喜爱之车辆：新／旧甲虫
最尊敬的人：我老豆
最想做的事: 成为一个出色的歌手
希望去的地方：非洲
讨厌的事情: 诈骗
最难忘的事情：1985年全港19区业余歌唱大赛