Veteran singer Louie Castro has had to wait more than 30 years for his debut solo concert. Castro, 54, will finally get his chance at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre at the end of the month with a concert to celebrate 30 years in showbiz.
Born in Macau to a Shanghainese mother and a Portuguese-Chinese father who died when Castro was seven, the singer was raised in a camp with his two elder siblings under a government social welfare scheme. He excelled in English and his bilingual ability landed him a job at a trading firm.
Castro's life changed at 19, when he joined a singing contest. Although he did not win, his interesting, mixed-race looks caught the eye of television writer Kam Kwok-leung, who cast Castro in a teen TV series that went on to be hugely popular. The role launched Castro's singing and music careers.
'Over the past 30 years, I've become much wiser. I've made many wrong decisions because I was young and naive, but now I know how to manage things better,' Castro said. 'My passion for singing has never been stronger and I want to do this concert to prove to people that I'm still a very good singer.'
You say you've made mistakes in your career. Can you elaborate?
The big mistake I made happened when I was starting to branch out with my career in Taiwan in the late 1970s. My mother died suddenly. I was very close to her because she raised my brother and sister and I alone, so when the news arrived, I couldn't take it. I left everything and returned to Hong Kong even though I had a half-recorded album that needed to be completed. But I needed time to mourn my mother. Finally, after a year I decided to go back, but they didn't want me any more. I lost my opportunity, but that was also the time I joined EYT [Enjoy Yourself Tonight, a popular evening variety show that ran from the late 1960s to the mid-90s].