The inquisition: singer G.E.M. aka Gloria Tang Zhi-kei
The bestselling singer aka Gloria Tang Zhi-kei on music and her supposedly cocky persona
48 HOURS: It’s no exaggeration to say you’ve hit megastardom with your recent participation in [the mainland TV singing contest] I Am a Singer. How was the audience reception at your Foshan concert in mid-February?
G.E.M.: It was a lot more passionate than before. The audience seemed to know many of my songs and they started singing back to me.
This world tour, which began in Hong Kong in April 2013 and hits the Venetian Macao on May 2 and 3, is titled X.X.X. Live. What does that mean?
This concert has taken the theme of my last album, Xposed. It’s about the unknowable possibilities that can surface in everybody’s life. In my past, there were a series of incidents that hurt me and left me struggling. You can see from the promotional posters that I’m adopting the image of a car accident survivor. I really hope to inspire my fans, who may be facing obstacles in their lives. I lived through mine, so can they.
I was slightly taken aback by the title at first. Are you aware that the term is, er, closely associated with porn?
Hmm. [Pauses] Well, my name G.E.M. has three letters. I don’t care what others think it may stand for. I only pay attention to the meaning I intended. My album title is Xposed and my focus is on the letter “X”.
Your YouTube channel, GEMblog, has more than 88,000,000 views and 230,000 subscribers. Do you pay attention to those numbers?
I haven’t recently — I’ve been too busy. I didn’t know that it had reached 88,000,000. [Laughs] I’m always in the mainland these days and you can’t really go on YouTube there.
You released an online video statement in late 2012 to point out the biased nature of the Hong Kong pop music awards. Do you find the YouTube statistics a better reflection of your popularity?
I released that clip not because I was given no awards at a particular ceremony, but because honesty is my bottom line. If you claim that the results were generated by public votes but they were not, you’re lying to the audience. This is something I can’t accept.