Canto-pop may be about to get a whiff of the Holy Spirit. Not only is there a crop of up-and-coming singers keen to share their Christian faith, US-style inspirational pop is making a comeback. Returning Home, a ballad with a religious message by teenie group Eternity Girls, even made it into the charts last year.
'I think there's a need [for Christian pop songs]. Many are very catchy and they're easy listening or healing music,' says singer-songwriter Ivana Wong Yuen-chi, who is among the new generation of Christian performers with mainstream careers. 'People can feel emptier despite prosperous times, so they dig into their roots and search for the meaning of their existence.'
A genre that first emerged in the US during the 1960s, contemporary Christian music established local roots when the Hong Kong Association of Christian Music Ministry (ACM) was set up in 1983 to produce a catalogue more suited to Chinese congregations. Its Come and Sing series of compilation albums were a hit with young people in churches, although their popularity later waned as church-goers returned to simple, participatory worship songs in the early 90s.
However, as young Canto-pop stars such as Wong and Jade Kwan Sum-yin become more open about their faith and contribute to Christian compilation albums, inspirational religious pop is enjoying a revival.
Some new releases, such as albums from the Beautiful Legend series, sell up to 10,000 copies, a figure few Canto-pop discs can rival. The 14 albums in ACM's Come and Sing series remain popular and each has achieved total sales of more than 10,000 copies - remarkable figures when they're sold mainly through small Christian bookshops.
Despite its sustained appeal, Christian pop has yet to find a niche among mainstream music fans. ACM tried to bridge the gap between the two audiences by launching a Christian pop band, Equator, in the mid-80s but failed to engage either. Some churches refused to accept Christian pop - '[The leaders] told me there was no such music in heaven and the public viewed the band as old-fashioned,' says ACM chairman Chan Wing-ming, adding that the association lost HK$1 million on the project.
