Not just any ballad
Li Guyi’s rendition of Homeland Love marked blossoming of music scene
Li Guyi’s musical journey over the past 57 years has always been connected with the song, entitled Homeland Love, a mellow love ballad written by Ma Jinghua and Zhang Peiji.
You can sense her love for the song when Li, 74, pauses to sing it as if she were onstage.
“It’s not just because the song brought me fame,” says Li, who was then a 36-year-old singer with the Central Symphony Orchestra — now known as China National Symphony Orchestra. She first performed the song in 1980 and soon became a household name in China.
“It’s because with the song, I went through a singer’s worst days.” Li’s performance of Homeland Love became controversial because her vocal style challenged the status quo of singing in China at the time.
Instead of using a solid, wide vocal range while singing, a style which dominated the music scene in the country then, Li sounded sweet, easy and she used the airbreathing technique, a pop-singing style.
She was criticized, and even forbidden to sing the song.
But the turning point came in 1983 when Li was invited to perform six songs at China Central Television’s first Spring Festival Gala, known as chunwan in Chinese, one of the most-watched annual shows in Chinese broadcast history on the Eve of the Lunar New Year.
Though Homeland Love was not included on the list of songs she was set to perform, a lot of viewers called in, asking for Li to perform the song at the gala. The gala’s director Huang Yihe made the decision to broadcast Li’s performance of the song.
Since then, Homeland Love has become a hit, and is one of Li’s most popular songs.
Li said at her home in Beijing that it was a beautiful song and most importantly, audience opinion about art had started to change thanks to the reform and liberation of thought that went on through the 1980s.
She said that it was during this time, China started to develop its own pop music, which offered a platform for songwriters to create “original material”.
The veteran singer is now on a list of 100 outstanding individuals who greatly contributed to the country’s 40 years of reform and opening-up.
This October, along with her vocal students — over 20 professional Chinese singers, Li held a concert to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launch of China’s reform and opening-up.
The concert saw the musicians perform over 30 songs written by Chinese songwriters since 1978, including Homeland Love.
Li said that the last 40 years has brought about a change for musicians, besides offering economic opportunity for the country.
She said that beforehand, songs performed on TV were similar grand performances dealing with big topics.
“But after that, a diversity of music styles started to emerge and songwriters tended to depict personal emotions,” she says. Another one of Li’s hits, Unforgettable Tonight, a song which has been used as the closing song for the annual Spring Festival Gala for 32 years, also proves that people’s views about music changed after the reform and opening-up.
“Traditionally, the closing song for a national TV gala is magnificent and the singers perform with high-pitched voices to big orchestras. However, Unforgettable
Tonight is slow, smooth and my singing is soft and light,” says Li, adding that the song, written by Qiao Yu and Wang Min, was born when the 1984 CCTV Spring Festival Gala invited artists from Hong Kong and Taiwan. The songwriters then used the song to celebrate the new year like a big family’s reunion.
Li, who was born in Kunming, Yunnan province, began her music and theater career at the age of 15, when she started studying huaguxi opera, a folk music and dance art form in Hunan, at the Hunan Art Institute.
She then worked with the Hunan Huaguxi Opera Theater from 1961 to 1974 as an actress.
When she moved to Beijing to join in the then Central Symphony Orchestra in 1974, Li learned Western singing techniques and Peking Opera. Inevitably, the different ways of singing later merged into her own style.
In 1975, Li who was among the first group of Chinese musicians to perform abroad, sang in Australia and New Zealand, and in 1978, she performed with Central Symphony Orchestra in the United States.
During the past 40 years, the Chinese music scene has blossomed, and she says that the younger generation of musicians, who are often influenced by the West, should base their music on their Chinese roots.
Now, Li promotes original Chinese songs featuring musical elements from Chinese folk operas and ethnic groups.
She revealed that here are over 300 forms of Chinese opera and different techniques of singing used by Chinese ethnic groups. The art forms are unique treasures, she says, which deserve further study and promotion.
Li said the lyrics of Chinese songs written during the 1980s are poetic and the melodies are often inspired by Chinese tradition.
After that (China’s reform and openingup in 1978), a diversity of music styles started to emerge and songwriters tended to depict personal emotions.” Li Guyi, veteran singer