Hong Kong Canto-pop legend Lowell Lo’s comeback complete at 65
He grew up pals with Bruce Lee and listening to a young Michael Jackson, taught himself to sing in Cantonese despite dyslexia, and wrote 100-plus film soundtracks, then walked away from music for 15 years
Dyslexia did little to stop singer-songwriter Lowell Lo Koon-ting from having a longstanding career. The supposedly retired Canto-pop veteran has just released a new album and will be performing two concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum in June. If anything, the condition that Lo has lived with since childhood has served him well.
Lo, 65, moved from Hong Kong to the US with his family at the age of 16. He was already an adept guitarist when a teacher at his high school asked him to prepare an assignment.
Daunted by the prospect of reading a poem aloud to his class, he asked if he could sing it instead.
“I picked a poem [and set it to music]. The class asked me to sing it three times. That gave me the hope and courage to write music,” he says. “I’m dyslexic, but I can focus.”
Growing up in Seattle – Bruce Lee was a family friend – Lo was exposed to a wide range of American music, and initially tried to imitate the folk-based pop of Peter, Paul & Mary.
“I didn’t know anything about Hong Kong [pop music]. I was listening to Michael Jackson when he was 10 years old singing I’ll Be There. I listened to soul, blues, country, and Top 40 as they called it back then,” he says.