IS HONG KONG starting to tire of the formulaic, packaged pop that has passed for music in recent years? Spurred by the success of such talents as Taiwan's Jay Chou Jie-lun and David Tao Zee, music companies big and small are taking an interest in singer-songwriters - performers gifted with more than just good looks.
Some novices can easily sell more than 10,000 copies of their releases, even without the benefit of promotion or freebies. The more prominent of the newcomers include Khalil Fong Dai-tung, Justin Lo, Macanese duo Soler, Eugene Yip Yu-ching and Louis Cheung Kai-chung.
Many have had music training, are more mature than the teenybopper acts that have flooded the scene recently, and have spent time overseas, when they benefited from exposure to a greater variety of music.
Ivana Wong Yuen-chi, 26, is perhaps the most successful of the new crop. Sales of her first album Ivana exceeded 20,000 in May - a result that even some established artists fail to achieve nowadays.
Wong, who has played the piano since she was six, originally opted for the stability of a job in business and earned an economics degree from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. But winning the top prize in a composition contest five years ago set her on a different path. Universal Music immediately signed her to pen songs for Canto-pop stars such as Jacky Cheung Hok-yau and Sammi Cheng Sau-man.
'I never [formally] learned composition. But piano helped me a lot,' says Wong, who often served as pianist for her professional vocalist parents.
