Original Article:https://www.weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404484534132408449#_0
Original Author: 花非花2218
A friend of mine told me something that touched me deeply. “The glorious moments he shared with us cannot be repaid simply with just silence.”
Listening to music and watching dramas – these are highly personal activities. These are like being in love – no matter how good the other party is, what is important is that there is chemistry between the two of you. There are countless good music and great musicians, but among them, only that voice stirred something within your heart. That special star in the whole universe.
That friend of mine told me that the songs chosen in “Our Song” are mostly mainstream pop songs, and those are not really her cup of tea, but she ended up watching it and loving it because of Xiao Zhan. This is exactly the same as me. Our tastes are actually more suited on other genres. Hence, this is why I must confess that I did not watch this show for the musicality, but more to support him. However, his performances touched me again and again.
I was already pleasantly surprised in his first appearance on the show for “Follow Your Feelings”, but I already said so in the previous article, hence I won’t repeat myself.
Table of Contents
Night at the Naval Harbor《军港之夜》
This is my favorite. I felt this way when I first watched this episode, and I still feel the same way after watching the entire series.
I love how serene he was in this song. The way he sang it, not only required technicality, it also tested his ability as a singer to inject emotions into his singing, because the song needed to be sung simple and clean. I immediately remembered how a chef friend once told me that the best ingredients should be prepared as plainly as possible, such as poaching or steaming.
On his first note, the sound was young and pure, and it easily erased 40 years of age off the song (TN: The song was released in 1980). Later on when I reviewed the song again, I realized the first few verses sounded like it came with its own music box – the voice quiet yet rich. The harmony between him and Na Ying was almost perfect. From 3:20 until the soft humming at the end of the song, I was so immersed – I really felt like it was a lullaby and I was lost in it.
XZ Studio once used a good description in one of their posts – 洵美且好 handsome and gentle. (TN: This part is hard to translate, it came from an ancient Chinese poem《国风·郑风·叔于田》in praise of a young hunter.) I felt that this was especially apt in describing this performance.
After the song ended, I already felt that Team Na Zhan would win before the scores came out – clean and touching, and yet creative with the addition of Bossa nova into the music arrangement. To me, a song that touches you is always more attractive than a song that only showcases technical prowess.
Faded《FADED》
I had adrenaline high listening to “Faded”. Firstly, I enjoyed Xiao Zhan’s pronunciation. I am almost obsessively critical about this, almost like how critical I am when non-Chinese works are translated to Chinese. Of course, this is probably irrational, so in conclusion, this suited my palette. Secondly, as I watched the performance, I thought that this child has the potential to become a superstar.
Xiao Zhan has something special about him which is hard to find the right word in Chinese. Charm 魅力 is close enough, but it is insufficient. The word that I felt would be most apt would be charisma. Oxford dictionary as it defined as “the powerful personal quality that some people have, to attract and impress other people”. I felt that this quality is like an aura, or a type of aura, that you will know if the person has it the moment he stands on stage.
I once read an article about a supermodel manager describing how he scouted for models – he said that the difference between models and supermodels comes from the X factor. Some girls may not be especially pretty, or especially proportionate, but if you can feel that X factor from her, you know that she has the potential to become a supermodel. This sounded quite supernatural, but I understood the meaning of his words. A superstar definitely would have this quality – half of this is probably inborn, the other half achieved via hard work. I felt this instantly the first time I listened to “Faded”.
Perfect Life《完美生活》
On my first view, I could see that he was visibly nervous, since it was his first attempt on rock. In addition, the original version by Xu Wei was already embedded in my heart, so I kept feeling like there was something wrong. However, after listening to it a few times, this song actually became one of my favorites. Sure enough, my ear worms were more honest then my brain.
The unique charm about this song was the raw beast-like power that Xiao Zhan released in his singing. During rehearsals, Na Ying said “This song isn’t nice if you don’t sing out loud.”, and he decisively gave up on his forte, the high notes transitions between head voice and falsetto, and went for it with his head voice. I was surprised when I heard it.
Xu Wei sang his original version like it was a poetic short story, a road movie – the delivery was gentle and the emotions were smooth flowing. This is why the host, Lin Hai, said it was a subversion of the song when Xiao Zhan and Na Ying ended their performance. The emotions kept rising and falling – In the first verse, Xiao Zhan sang the high notes, and after Na Ying sang hers, he lowered his key down to his low range. This reminded me of something he had used to describe himself “up high there is radiance, down low there is submerged reefs”. In addition, I loved how Na Ying sang this song, and when they were in harmony, their contrast – one gentle the other rugged; one high the other low, was simply too enchanting.
Both of them said that they selected this song because they loved the lyrics. As expected, they “released themselves again, that brilliant emotions in their hearts”!
Annoying Autumn Breeze (Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!)《恼人的秋风》
Ahhhhhh! As the series progressed to this episode, Xiao Zhan is already comfortable in his performance onstage. I have watched this countless times, and every time I do, I am always filled with endless joy. For as quiet as “Night at the Naval Harbor” is, this song is just as lively. The melody, the stage and the delivery were 100% of the 1980s, and instantly brought me back to my schooling days.
What was surprising was that his performance was totally different from how he was like during rehearsals. His sexiness seemed to be only reserved for the stage – in the behind the scenes specials, you could see he was just a cute boy-next-door. This was the same case as “Magical”《神奇》, his rehearsals and the actual performance were like two different performances.
This performance is basically “sweep me up, easily, accept me as your fan”. Na Ying once said before “he was more lively and crazy during rehearsals, just that feeling, dancing, and his body language, blended perfectly with his music”; “you would be really great if you held your own concert”. I totally believed these points.
Feel free to tell me your moving moments.