THERE WAS A time when you might see Denise Ho Wan-sze up on stage in a T-shirt and jeans, strumming her guitar like every other rocker. But at a mini concert held at Kowloon Tong's Hong Kong International Trade and Exhibition Centre last month, a transformation had taken place. Here was Ho dressed in glamorous and glittering white, with white guitar and matching microphone.
Watching her play away under the blaze of a spotlight, you couldn't help but think how much Ho resembled her mentor, the late Canto-pop queen Anita Mui Yim-fong.
Sitting in a room at her new management company in Central, surrounded by posters and copies of her recently released album, Ho says it was her idea to drastically change her image - and she confirms that it was Mui's death from cervical cancer in December 2003 that triggered the transformation.
'Anyone who knows me knows I'm a person with my own very strong opinions,' says the 27-year-old, dressed today in rocker gear: a green top, tight, chequered trousers and boots. 'I can't be convinced to do anything I don't want to. And without any grounds for doing it, I would never have made such a big change.'
Ho says Mui's death left a hole in her heart. 'It was a pretty hard time for me. I'd never experienced losing someone so important in my life. It was a pretty heavy time for me.'
The image of Ho on the cover of her new album, Glam, is also poles apart from her previous rock star packaging. The obvious comparison is with Mui's 2002 recording, With. But Ho says she isn't trying to copy her mentor. She attributes the similarity to local art director Joel Chu being responsible for both CD covers. 'I don't really mind [people making the comparison],' Ho says. 'The album was created to pay tribute to 1980s Canto-pop stars anyway.'