Twenty-year-old Sydney Wan Ka-yan waits in a Mong Kok mall to meet Canadian singers and identical twins Ryan and Dan Kowarsky. The classical-pop crossover duo are scheduled to sing a few tunes and sign autographs, but they're 30-minutes late. The first single off their debut album has been playing repeatedly over the food court speakers since Wan arrived four hours ago, and she estimates she's heard the song maybe 50 times.
'I have all the words memorised,' she says. 'I love it. I could listen to it another 50 times.'
And if the twins can break into a genre occupied by only a few acts, such as Il Divo and G4, she'll have plenty more opportunities to hear her music idols.
RyanDan, as the brothers are called, have been singing in malls and museums, participating in radio and television chat shows, and buzzing about various media outlets in Britain, where they've been based for the past year, as part of efforts by their management to help the twins become better known. In addition, their label has flown them to Rio de Janeiro to shoot a video, sent them to Australia for more gigs and brought them to Hong Kong last week in the hopes of luring young admirers such as Wan to come see them at the mall.
The hype has paid off. Their self-titled CD debuted at No 7 on the UK pop and rock charts last month, outselling some of the biggest names in the business.
'To be up there [in the charts] with names like 50 Cent and Kanye West,' Ryan says.