artist opinions #3 : Wang leehom: the heart wants what the heart wants

Ah, Wang Leehom. The name on every girl’s lips from between the ages of 12 to 45; Leehom is no doubt a heartthrob , with his attractive face, and his flawless image. But this article isn’t about to go into detail on every reason why he’s a Taiwanese real-life version of Adonis (although he is); instead my title refers to his music and what it embodies.

Leehom is a guy with a lot of heart. No one can deny that. Just yesterday, at 1am in the morning, he posted a status to his millions of fans updating them on the current Typhoon Haiyan in the Phillipines which is moving towards Vietnam, and encouraging them to evacuate if needed. He’s embarked on many a trip with different charity organisations , to help poverty stricken developing and undeveloped countries. I like to think that his music is driven mainly by what comes from the heart too.

His perfection of technical ability allows his ideas and his music to flow seamlessly, but the melodies , the lyrics and the ideas that are built on top of this are perfect in their imperfections. Although Leehom is characterised as an all-round nice guy, his music lends others a deeper look into his soul and what he’s feeling. Every note he sings, every song he plays is filled with an enthusiasm , passion and absolute self-devotion to his music, through which he expresses his many imperfections: loneliness, anger ,fear ,lovelorn.

I don’t really think Leehom’s the kind of artist who everyone admires for their laid back , spontaneous attitude to music that produces results of the best kind anyway; he puts so much effort into everything that he does that each song becomes chock-full with emotions that you can’t help but get goosebumps. At the same time, he’s not one to shy away from expressing the flaws of society , addressing the problem of racism in <火力全开>(open fire) , and taking a stand towards the Taiwanese media for their despicable infiltration of privacy.<我完全没有任何理由理你>(I don’t have any reason to talk to you>. But songs like <星期六深夜> and <需要人陪> are filled with a heartwrenching atmosphere of crushing emptiness that could come from nowhere but the heart itself. The lyrics are simple, but that only serves to reflect on Leehom’s simple desire to find happiness.

This is only one of the many images that Leehom embodies , but I dare to say that it isn’t really a typical view that people generally have on his music. He is certainly an innovator, a perfectionist, a musical genius; an extremely attractive human being, but his ability to replicate the true emotions that everyone feels but cannot express is one of the reasons why his music means so much to me. In his music, I feel that it is a direct connection from the bottom of his heart, into each and every listener’s heart  , a one in a million ability that is rare in today’s industry.


Image from: www.sosogay.co.uk

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