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Interview with Victor Wong（品冠）／ “Mildness” is my label, but just being myself on the stage is also my belief.
BY Sophia / 2015-10-15
Interviewer：Sophia／Author：Wendy & Sophia／Translator：afore
◎Reaffirming his strength of “mildness” from “I Am a Singer（我是歌手）”
Victor Wong made his debut on the show “I Am a Singer 2” with the song “Palm of the Hand（掌心）”, the representative work of “Michael & Victor（無印良品）” in Jan, 2014. His performance not only made his Weibo（微博）a hit, but also made him the champion on the Celebrity Search Ranking.
“Not until I joined ‘I Am a Singer 2’ twice did I realize that I’ve made the decision!” Perhaps he was too nervous and under too much pressure while singing on the stage that he realized that he did stand on the fight zone which has broken the record of having an audience of 260 million only after singing “Palm of the Hand” and “I’m Not Sad（我不難過）”
It's Victor on "I Am a Singer" stage.
Actually Victor Wong was already invited for the first season of “I Am a Singer”. Though he had been singing on the stage for many times, he still chose to stand aside because he was not familiar with the type of the show. During the period, he has seen singers like Terry Lin（林志炫）, Julia Peng（彭佳慧）and Winnie Hsin（辛曉琪）being under the spotlight again. “Seeing Terry Lin winning the second place in the first season has inspired me a lot. Of course, whether he has won the first or second place is not important, the thing that matters is that he is very well-known already and his singing skills are being recognized by others, but through this competition show, he is able to shine again.”
When the show asked Victor Wong to join in the second season, he said yes with excitement. “But after the excitement past, I wondered ‘Why did they pick me?’” Indeed, many think Victor Wong’s mild love songs won’t be able to please the audience while competing with other high-pitch and explosive singers on the fight zone. “I realized that all I need to do is be myself on the stage when the director told me that he wanted to see my strength of mildness. Though I was knocked out after two rounds, I found out I’ve done the things I wanted after I got off the stage and I was even sure about the path I wanted to take.” Wining or not didn’t matter anymore. Victor Wong understood that what he was good at was calmly presenting the strength of mildness and that was enough.
◎From B’in Music（相信音樂）to Seed Music（種子音樂）. What else can I do?
“What do you think I can say or do in my following three records?” Before Victor Wong decided to leave B’in Music, he asked himself and also Chen Yung-chih（陳勇志）, the chairman of the company this question.
Victor Wong left B’in Music and joined Seed Music in Mar, 2014. Perhaps he has had a choke point or decided to change to another environment at that time. “If I didn’t give it a try, the songs I made may be almost the same since we had the same crew and producing team all the time. I wouldn’t know what path I might have if I didn’t make this decision.” Victor Wong signed a contract with Rock Records（滾石唱片）in Taiwan in 1995 and formed “Michael & Victor” with Michael（光良）. After disbanded with Michael in 2000, Victor Wong released seven solo albums and sang many popular theme songs of idol dramas. In 2010, he even took part in dramas, acting in Jimmy’s（幾米）musical “Turn Left, Turn Right（向左走向右走）” and participated in “Sisters（姊妹）”, the TV series produced by TTV（台視）. Indeed, Victor Wong won’t become the Victor Wong today if he hasn’t tried so many things.
◎Acting is the seasoning of my singing career
“Only through acting can I experience more things. Being a singer for so many years, singing is relatively easy for me. If it wasn’t for acting, I wouldn’t try different things.” For Victor Wong, releasing albums, holding concerts, being on TV shows and promoting his albums are all as easy as duck soup. Being a singer is like home cooking to him. There is not much difference between every dish; however, acting is more like going to restaurants and have some foreign cuisine once in a while, which adds more flavor to his life experience.
“Jonathan Lee（李宗盛）once told me ‘Singing is the extension of talking’ and I often repeat this saying. I feel like acting and singing have something in common, that is, they both extend and interpret the things we have in life.” As a singer, Victor Wong has already proved with his hit records his skills to interpret different characters in his singing; however, as an actor, his performance really amazes us.
He can be the lovestruck Prince Charming in “Ice Kacang Puppy Love（初戀紅豆冰）”, the stubborn and stingy guy in “Sisters” and also the victim being chased by a killer in the thriller “Death Trip（奪命旅行）”. Victor Wong says that not until he was forced by the director to reach his acting limit did he realize that he had this potentiality, but he also says that “I really hated the director at that time”.
◎Victor Wong’s new album “Adulthood（無法理解的大人）”
Victor Wong is releasing his new album “Adulthood” on Sep 19th. This is his second album after joining Seed Music. The last album he made with Seed Music, “I'm always here（隨時都在）” focuses on love songs, using his music to interpret different emotional levels in a relationship such as affection, struggling, waiting and letting go. As for “Adulthood”, Victor Wong looks back on his understanding of the life with his singing after having experienced many things.
Victor Wong’s identity as a singer is always linked with “mildness”. He says frankly that when doing the album, he has been thinking how to lift his songs to a higher level while still keeping his original style. “‘Mildness’ is an important label in my keyword, but ‘mildness’ will easily become boring in the media these days. To avoid this, I have to look for more elements besides mildness so that’s why I’ve tried different things in this album.”
After singing for twenty years, Victor Wong is fully aware of his own strengths and he also knows that he needs more elements to bring some new things to his fans. In “Adulthood”, Victor Wong uses his music to lead his fans to look back to the past, going from his childhood, adolescence, to adulthood and his first time being a father. The whole album is about Victor Wong’s dream, love relationship, memory and his regret.
◎I’ll sing every single song for you if you wish
After Victor Wong’s world tour concert, he’ll return to Taipei International Convention Center（台北國際會議中心）on Nov 28th as the milestone for his twenty-year singing career. He also wrote the theme song “I Am Still Here for You（現在，你在哪裡？）”, which is the namesake for the concert to mark the 20th anniversary of his singing career with the hope to recall the friends he has lost touch with and the dusty memory .
Victor Wong says that he will adjust some songs for the concert. After all, he has already song some of them for over ten or even twenty years. The reason why he names the concert “I Am Still Here for You” is to let the important ones in his life and singing career know that “I am still here” and “This is the dream I have from the beginning and I’m still pursuing it.” It’s just like what I’ve written in my lyrics “I’ll sing every single song for you if you wish”.
BY Sophia / 2015-10-15
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