Gallery of DIAOness: Part Two

Not going to write much tonight...was busy having fun with a new app viz muzy.com:

Jay Disco Nite at The Rink

Yup, that announcement says it all...two hours of skating to totally Jay's music!

The Rink is Singapore's first Olympic-sized ice-skating rink within JCube in Jurong East.
I heard about this Jay-themed thingy from my Facebook Friends and of course, had to check it out when the time came....which was last night.

View of JCube from my car....I think it looks quite impressive and interesting! Not often we see such an imaginatively designed mall. :)
Here's some info about this newly-opened mall:

http://www.j-cube.com.sg/malls/static/subpage_about.aspx?id=about

View of the rink from above

I love the colours of those overhead lights!


There were elevated seats which were open to the public so hubby and I settled ourselves there with ice cream from Marble Slab Creamery and simply enjoyed watching the goings-on below whilst listening to Jay's beautiful music. :)
The crowd was mostly young but the best skater there was an older guy...watch video below.
We witnessed some falls, some fancy pirouettes and some who just wanted to speed around the rink. But many were also teeter-tottering along gingerly; guys holding their girlfriends' hands; many holding on for dear life to the sides of the rink.
Did I skate??
Hell..no!
I can't skate for nuts....and happy to keep it that way, thank you very much!

Who says romance is dead??
Look at that guy on bended knee proposing to his girlfriend!
Major *awwww* and huge cheers/applause from the onlookers, including yours truly of course!!!


Amongst all the skaters, one particular man stood out with his long hair flowing behind him and leading a line of younger folks. The song was Hair Like Snow aka 发如雪 (fa ru xue)...quite appropriate, come to think of it! His hair was long and white...lol!
The clip is below....watch his graceful moves...and he was smiling all the way, obviously in his element. :)

All in, it was such a cool event...literally!

Jay Loves: WHEELS!

That's Jay in the Toyota AE86 from his first movie, Initial D in 2005, for which he won the Best New Performer at the Golden Horse (Taiwan) and Hongkong Film Awards....not bad for a newbie actor, ya? But then again, popular opinion is that he was essentially playing himself, as his character, Takumi is also a quiet chappie who just drives very well. ;)

Here's the clip of his winning the award in Hongkong...he attempted to speak a little Cantonese before lapsing into Mandarin....cute!

But let's not take anything away from Mr Chou's efforts to do more than just singing and songwriting.:)

He also composed two good songs for this movie:

The first one was Drifting aka Piao Yi, a cool rap number:
Translation: http://www.jaychoustudio.com/jay-chou-translations/drifting/89

And the love theme, All The Way North aka Yi Lu Xiang Bei:
Translation: http://www.jaychoustudio.com/jay-chou-translations/all-the-way-north/90

Jay has always loved his wheels. From the time when all he could afford was a motorbike during his early years at Alfa Music to the present where he is now the proud owner of about twelve or thirteen vehicles, mostly cars but also a motorbike or two.

For more info on his early collections, here are some articles from the Jay Chou Studio archives:

This is from 2003, about his blue Jaguar:

http://www.jaychoustudio.com/archives/has-antique-jaguar-jay-wants-to-buy-old-house/235

This is from 2004, which shows pics of the antique cars which he loves:

http://www.jaychoustudio.com/archives/director-chou-buys-9-cars-in-a-year/410

This is a Multistars Forum thread which talked about his silver Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR722 Edition in 2008 (you can also see this car in the CNN Talk Asia interview and the Super Sports Goddess MV, which I'll post below):

http://www.multistars.com/forums/index.php?topic=12130.0

Although he does not own this car, it was one he coveted and manged to get for his MV, Self-Directed-and-Acted aka Zhi Dao Zhi Yan:

From Jay Chou Studio archives:

http://www.jaychoustudio.com/archives/jay-chou-satisfies-his-craving-for-cars-citroen-worth-hundred-million-used-as-prop/1215

Jay also got to indulge his love for another car in The Green Hornet viz the fabulous Black Beauty, which the studio gave him after the movie was finished.

 http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/entertainment/view/1107972/1/.html

http://www.cpopaccess.com/2011/01/jay-chou-brings-green-hornet-to-taipei.html

Jay is also a comics fan and managed to get his hands on a Batmobile, which features in his Superman Can't Fly and Super Sports Goddess MVs and is now housed in his Deja Vu restaurant.

A link to an article about the Batmobile:

http://www.hotcarszone.com/car-gossip/jay-chous-cool-batmobile.html


Super Sports Goddess MV, where he's a car mechanic who loves cars more than the ladies...note how it's the gals who have their hands all over him, whilst he is actually more interested in the cars...lol!
I love this song...it's so breezy and catchy and Jay's rapping is amazing as usual. :)
Article about the cars from Jay Chou Studio archives:
http://www.jaychoustudio.com/archives/11-2011

Translation: http://www.jaychoustudio.com/jay-chou-translations/super-sports-goddess/156

One of his latest acquisitions for his 33rd birthday this year was the Lamborghini Aventador in the Super Sports Goddess MV....his mother caved in, I guess...lol!

http://entertainment.xin.msn.com/en/celebrity/buzz/asia/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5785452


He also has a snazzy red motorbike, a Travertson VRex:

Jay also endorsed AEON, a Taiwanese brand of motorbikes recently:

http://www.jaychoustudio.com/archives/jay-chous-new-2012-commercial-revealed-supporting-mit-motorbike-brand-remember-the-name-aeon/1494

http://www.multistars.com/forums/index.php?topic=15155.0

And note that he's often seen cycling in his MVs, his movie Secret and there's another bicycle that he also endorses viz AIMA:

And don't forget his skateboarding expertise in the Sprite commercial with Kobe Bryant! :))


To top it all off, Jay will be performing at the F1 Singapore Grand Prix on 21 September on the main stage at the Padang!!
Which better star to get than him for this event??
Apparently, they tried to get him last year but his schedule was too full with his new album and other concerts.

http://www.singaporegp.sg/media/news.php?id=93

Needless to say, I've already booked my tickets and even snagged the wristbands to be in the Fanzone, which is closer to the stage....*happy dance*
It's only another 100 days away....as one of my FB Friends just reminded me!!

Can't wait to see him again!!!!

Update 2 Sept 2012:

Check out my posts on the tickets, stage and countdown:

http://jaychoudiaoness.blogspot.sg/2012/08/jay-at-f1-tickets.html

http://jaychoudiaoness.blogspot.sg/2012/08/jay-at-singtel-f1-singapore-grand-prix_31.html

http://jaychoudiaoness.blogspot.sg/2012/09/jay-at-f1-singtel-singapore-grand-prix.html

And a review of his fantastic F1 concert:

http://jaychoudiaoness.blogspot.sg/2012/09/jay-at-f1-singtel-singapore-grand-prix_22.html



And here's the latest pic of Mr Chou with yet another set of wheels...not sure if he already owns it or
is just posing with it...lol!

Anyone knows what the car is??
I'm totally clueless when it comes to car marques!

Ye Hui Mei 叶惠美

I love that shot of Jay and his beloved mum, Ye Hui Mei aka 叶惠美, complete with piano in the background. This post is way overdue but I got caught up writing about his music and other stuff. Besides, Mama Chou was mentioned in my first few posts about Jay's family and early years before he went to work in Alfa Music.

If there's one thing about Jay Chou which is well-known and undeniable, it's his immense love for and close relationship with his mother. She's probably his biggest fan ever (she attends all his concerts); she's the one woman Jay absolutely does not mind being photographed with; and she holds the purse strings for when he wants to buy a new (or old-new!) car or whatever antiques he has his eye on.
Jay values her opinions and will listen to her advice whenever he can.
She is also the woman Jay mentions whenever he's asked tricky questions by nosy journalists eager to get him to let slip about any 'girlfriends'.
One classic example was during the recent Harry Winston performance, where he was asked about whom he would like to give a HW diamond to. After a split-second pause, Jay cleverly replied that it would be his mother, as Mother's Day was just around the corner. ;)
Another time was during the Green Hornet press conference in Singapore when he was asked who his biggest source of support was and he again said (in English, no less!): "My Mum!" :))

And here's one of my favourite vids concerning Jay and his mum, where he decorates a cake for her on a talkshow during promotions for his album, Still Fantasy. He was so adorably cute as he created meaningful symbols with the icing, strawberries and chocolate sauce, to honour his Mum's name and her advice about the pappz:

This is a rough translation:

From 1:07 onwards: they're to decorate a cake for their mothers, to express their feelings, and the Mums' birthdays are on 15 Sept.
As Jay's decorating, he mutters to the host not to peek at his and that it's not that easy a task.
At 3:15, Jay likens the coloured chocs to the pappz and they talk abit about shooting a movie; Jay says he learns alot from more senior actors.

At 4:25, he reveals the word 'diao' in the chocolate syrup; the green icing represents a leaf, which in Chinese is 'ye' as in 'ye hui mei', his mum's name. So in a nutshell, ye hui mei gave birth to a diao son. :)

Then he explains the chocs=pappz thing again, and that the strawberries=love, which overcomes the pappz, as his mother would tell him.

At 5:05, the host asks him to bring the cake back for his mum to eat and Jay declines, as he's afraid she might get diarrhoea!
He offers it to the audience instead...lol!

Host asks him to say some meaningful words to his mum.
At 5:24, Jay tells his mum all the tabloid gossip is false and that's why he's decided not to order anymore newspapers  or read anymore papers. He then thanks her for giving birth to him and he assures her he'll continue to do what's pleasing to her.

Host compliments him on his moving speech and Jay says he wouldn't ordinarily talk to her like that...it's more like a simple "thanks, Mum".

They then proceed to discuss the pappz and that his mum's getting used to it.

Then it cuts to the vid presentation about Jay and his family/friends. 

Here's an audio clip of Jay singing Happy Birthday to his mum on a radio show...in Chinese and English...sweet! And complete with the characteristic "WOO!". :D

From childhood till the present, she has been the one abiding presence in his life.
As a teacher of fine arts, she loved dressing Jay up, which probably accounts for his, at times, adventurous (some say atrocious!) sartorial sense:

http://www.jaychoustudio.com/archives/mother-chou-makes-clothes-for-young-jay-chou/1478


A gentle yet friendly person (she frequently visits Jay's workplace and feeds the staff her famous and delicious fried beehoon) who brought Jay up incredibly well, Ms Ye is also a wonderful ballroom dancer and she is such an influence that Jay even named his fourth album after her!

How many singers would do that?

Not to mention the tribute he pays her in his song (on his Still Fantasy album), Listen To Mother's Words aka  Ting Ma Ma De Hua, which I posted in the Chou Style: Songs with a message post.

http://jaychoudiaoness.blogspot.sg/2012/05/chou-style-songs-with-message.html

Whenever Jay goes on holidays overseas, she is always with him:

Call him a Mummy's boy, but I feel that his filial piety is one trait of Jay's which has endeared him to his multitude of fans from the very beginning.
But it also means that any girl who wants to win his heart will have to get along with Mama Chou well.
Although Jay has mentioned that she doesn't interfere with his 'love life', I'm sure he would undoubtedly take her views into consideration about any female who may be a prospective Mrs Jay Chou. ;)

Mama Chou is also every bit as cool as her famous son in dressing up but she remains relatively low-key and when ambushed by pappz at airports, she keeps a tight upper lip.

Dear Mama Chou:

A HUGE thank you for giving birth to Jay and nurturing him so well to become His Royal DIAOness....as otherwise, this blog would not now exist.
You are every bit an inspiration as he is. :)

Chou Style: The Voice

That's one of my favourite shots of Jay, taken during The Era concert in Taipei Arena. One day, I shall attend his concert in his hometown....hopefully the next one!


One very oft-heard comment from my friends when they find out how enamoured I am with Mr Chou is:
"But why?? He doesn't have a very good voice! There are so many other better singers."

Yes, yes....I've heard it all, read it all....the criticisms about his voice being not powerful enough, not having such a good range, yadayadayadayada....
So this begs the question:
If he's that bad a singer, how then did he become the King of Mandopop??

I believe my earlier post on Chou Style: The Essence of Jay provides some answers:

http://jaychoudiaoness.blogspot.sg/2012/06/chou-style-essence-of-jay.html


I wanted to include a point about his voice in that post but chose not to as I feel this is one aspect of Jay which you either love to death (like all his devoted fans) or detest (like all his critics).

Just remember that he did not start out as a singer; it was his songwriting which got him noticed.
Once again, all thanks to Yang Junrong who recognised the unique quality of his voice on Loveable Woman for what it is:
A soulful, brooding tenor which Jay is not afraid to sing in the higher ranges to an almost falsetto voice as he scats.

*Definition of scat singing from Wikipedia:
vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.

And Jay himself has likened his voice to being just another instrument in his songs.

Personally, the one word which comes to my mind when I listen to him is "heartfelt".

As the TIME journalist described it:
"when he sings that he is hurting or yearning or that he needs you so bad, you believe him. His delivery is Boyz II Men-smooth, and he hits those notes with a conviction born of having proved himself as a songwriter. Remember, he spent nearly two years in that studio watching and hearing what worked and what didn't, and the results of that dues paying are a confidence and a swagger that comes across on disc. On CDs like Jay, Fantasy Life and Eight Dimensions, you're listening to a man who believes in the musical choices he is making, who knows he is right. He is not singing what some manager in an office somewhere has told him will be a hit; he is singing his heart out, right now, for you." 

Some of my favourite parts of this type of singing are in the ending of I'm Not Worthy, the verse of Secret Signal, and in Loveable Woman....beautiful!


In line with the "voice as an instrument" description, it then comes as no surprise that Jay is also not afraid of singing in different ways to suit the song.
He can sing in turns nasally, throaty, childlike, Peking opera-style (in Huo Yuan Jia), Middle Eastern chant (in Enchanting Melody, where he actually goes through four different voices)...and to the horror of many of his fans for which this is a bad word, he even tried the dreaded autotune...lol!

I'm not sure if he's ever had vocal lessons (unlike some other singers who have studied voice) but to me, it seems like he just went into the studio and winged it!

At the end of the day, I think his success is primarily due to the wonderful music he composed but his distinctive voice definitely played a huge part.
No other Mandopop singer sounds like him. Period.

Jay Loves: BASKETBALL!

Pic from Kungfu Dunk




Showing off his ball twirling

Can't help spamming this thread....

Charity event for kids in China


Deerway commercial

Doesn't he look so cool??
Notwithstanding his lack of height, Jay loves basketball with a passion born of years of playing since his schooldays. Come rain or shine, there was no stopping him and his pals having a game after school or even during lessons....lol!
He was also prone to showing off fancy moves (to impress the girls, of course!) and apparently, there were members of the opposite sex who found this musically-inclined-yet-sporty guy quite a draw. ;)
When he was with Alfa Music, he would also frequently shoot hoops and dribble around with friends like Show Luo and Wil Liu.
And he has incorporated his love of this game into many aspects of his career, like his MVs, endorsements, movie roles (Kato, Kungfu Dunk), talkshows and promotions (where he usually has to compete against others) and also for charity events.
He has gotten to work with basketball greats like Yao Ming and Kobe Bryant and for the TIME interview in 2003, it was basketball which provided a common platform for the journalist to get to know him better.

I must add a little note here about Kingfu Dunk, the 'basketball movie' which starred Jay and Eric Tsang. My review which I posted on Jay Chou Studio is as follows:

"I quite enjoyed this movie, but not for the basketball. What got me was the underlying story of Jay's character and his understated acting style in conveying emotions, especially the part about his 'parents' at the basketball match and when he met his real Dad. I was moved to tears.
As well, Eric Tsang was brilliant and the kungfu scenes well-executed."

It's a pity many critics and reviewers did not seem to understand that and focused more on the basketball and special effects.
Of course, Jay had the weirdest hairstyle here amongst all his movies but it was appropriate for the story and made me forget that it was Jay, the singer there...which is important.
I'm posting a subbed video of the movie here for those of you who have yet to watch it.
Enjoy!
 

Here are examples of all that I've mentioned about Jay's love for this game:


MV for The Same Kind Of Tune aka Tong Yi Zhong Diao Diao, where he collaborates with Yao Ming....one of his DIAOest MVs ever! Jay plays instruments and b'ball with Yao Ming...love this one!

And the Pepsi commercial with this song:

Deerway commercial:

 Cici commercial:

Showing off at a promo for Kungfu Dunk....he's not infallible after all...lol!

More showing off in Thailand:

 MV for Kungfu Dunk; composed by Jay:

News clip about Jay, Show Luo and Yao Ming at an event:

Shooting hoops:

Sprite commercial with Kobe Bryant:

MV for the full song, of course composed by Jay viz Battle of Heaven and Earth aka Tian Di Yi Dou:

And a basketball event in Shanghai as a follow-up to the above commercial:

Gotta hand it to Jay and his basketball!


Now to see if he'll collaborate with Mr Lin-sanity himself in the summer as Jeremy has mentioned that he is a fan of Jay. ;)


Here's cute pic of Jay and Yao Ming to end off... :))

My Jay Chou Piano Covers

Here are some of Jay's songs which I love playing on the piano and recorded for fun. :)
They are from the books featured on the previous post....I don't have enough musical prowess to play totally by ear or improvise as well as Mr Chou. ;)