fans talk about Hacken's comeback

>>>HACKEN’S COMEBACK IN 2001:

(posts f/the thread here: http://forums.cinple.net/hackenlee/archive000/index.cgi?read=5591

More info about his comeback here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacken_Lee

***NOTE***: these R fan’s posts about this, and the info at these links may not be entirely accurate. But some ppl at Hackenation have added info to the wikipedia site, so the current info there is probably pretty accurate)

Hacken's Amazing Turnaround

Posted By: Care Bear
Date: Thursday, 17 June 2004, at 5:29 p.m.

Hi Hacken fans,
I hope I don't sound too clueless, but I don't follow the entertainment news too closely. I've always thought Hacken had an amazing voice and glad he has been awarded Favorite Male Singer in the last 2 years. Although his career in the early 90's started out with a bang (Alan Tam had voiced many times that Hacken had boatloads of talent), but then in the mid to late 90's Hacken's popularity fell (I guess with the new style of pop music and new rise in stars such as Eason, Nick Tse etc). Hacken once admitted that his lowpoint in his career was when he was hosting TVB Jade solid gold music program, and he was handing out all these awards to artists, yet his songs seem to have been forgotten at the time.

But the last 3 years or so, he's come back with a big bang, winning all kinds of awards and holding joint music concerts with Alan Tam. What happened? Is there a story behind Hacken's success story? Was Alan helping Hacken in promoting his popularity again?

Thanks for any info...
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a long explanation

Posted By: kate
Date: Thursday, 17 June 2004, at 6:32 p.m.

In Response To: Hacken's Amazing Turnaround (Care Bear)

i think hacken started his big comeback when his concert was really successful, the feb. 2001 concert with the HK orchestra. i think the CD sales 4 the concert broke a record!

then i think hacken started doing more shows 4 tvb, like hosting the Miss HK pageant, which helped boost his popularity....then he kinda changed his image a little, he worked out more, dressed differently (haha, i prefer the natural, casual hacken, though!), participated in more functions...

in jan. 2002 he released a new songs+compilation CD, and i think the sales were good (?)....then he had a concert that was very successful, where he also danced & did some other stuff ppl didn't expect.

at about that time, Legal Entanglement is aired in HK, & earned high ratings!!

2002 was also world cup yr, so hacken wrote & sang a song, Victory related 2 soccer, which was very popular and tvb used it as the world cup song. then the Tall Girl song also got very popular...by now hacken's in so many functions & is very very popular! his CD let's celebrate released in june (?) also sold very well, i think...hacken also hosted the Miss HK pageant again, but only part of it, w/ Miriam and jerry lam.

at about october or nov., his song 'ngoi but sik sau' got very popular & he also had a mini-concert. then in nov & dec, he won many awards 4 his songs, and also 1 for one of the favorite characters in tvb series.

then in 2003 he won the most popular male singer award!!!

THEN afterwards, he started working w/ alan on the 'left lun, right lee' concerts! so don't be mistaken that it was alan that helped him become popular again, though it's true that alan is a good friend of hacken & has helped him out a lot in the past, always encouraging him!! =)

[if i make any mistakes, other fans, pls correct me, cuz i'm not sure about some stuff...i only started keeping up w/ hacken's news in nov. 2001 (right after i watched LE )! =)]
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Re: a long explanation

Posted By: sLo
Date: Friday, 18 June 2004, at 6:01 a.m.

In Response To: a long explanation (kate)

Also, apparently (according to my mum) Hacken use to be very big headed and well 'up himself' (i'm not sure what the word is but...) like at the very beginning when he first came out he thought he was better than others cause he won some awards.
But not sure what happened after that, guess he got his attitude and act together and started hosting TVB shows and doing some TVB series. I remember him saying that he had a concert in 95 (was it? can't remmber) which went pretty well then decided to have another one 2 years (or was it one?) later and like he had lots of empty seats.

i'm not sure if i'm right bout this info, so if anyone knows the clear version feel free to correct me (i'm not quite sure what happened anyway)
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Correction to sLo's version

Posted By: rou
Date: Friday, 18 June 2004, at 10:04 a.m.

In Response To: Re: a long explanation (sLo)

He had a concert in 1993 which was very well-received. So when he decided to have another one in 1995, he was confident that it would do well. However, only half of the tickets were sold. It was highly demoralising for him and he said those 10 concerts, 10 days, were the most disappointing days in his career. With Alan's encouragement and his own optimism, Hacken branched into other fields like acting in TVB dramas, hosting beauty pageants, music programmes eg JSG, soccer programmes etc. He hope that all these will allow him to reach out to a wider audience. At the same time, he also reflected on his own attitude. His hard work paid off when he finally picked up the courage to have 2 concerts in conjunction with Philharmonic Orchestra in 2001. (He had a phobia of concerts after 1995). The concerts were an unexpected success and it grew from 4 concerts and was a huge morale booster for him. The concerts CDs, VCDs also had high sales and with that, Hacken went back to singing.

In 2002, he had his solo concert and this concert was a rousing success. The CDs, VCDs, DVDs had high sales and gained him the awards of IFPI Bestselling Male Singer and IFPI Bestselling Album (HK). His show, LE also had high ratings at a time, when TVB ratings were in a slump, further stamping his popularity. June was world cup mth and Hacken was the ambassador for TVB, singing the themesong and hosting the programmes. During this time, his exposure rate and brought to an all-time high and this was followed by Oi But Sek Sau and Gou Mui, two highly popular songs. The rest, as they say, is history.
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a little addition

Posted By: stephanie
Date: Friday, 18 June 2004, at 8:57 p.m.

In Response To: Correction to sLo's version (rou)

May I add that the 2 concerts with the Philharmonic Orchestra were also not planned. The Orchestra originally wanted to hold it with Alan who was not free at that time. Alan recommended Hacken and it turned out to be a roaring success. Besides Alan, Hacken also have the blessings of a number of other HK artistes such as Ah Lek, Andy Lau and Eric Tsang. Andy Lau was reported to have helped paid for the flowers in Hacken's concert (I don't know why this is so, I thought the recording company should have paid for all these decorations and props.)Ah Lek was said to have bought all remaining tickets to his concert (I don't know which one or whether he needed to do that in the end). Hacken's recording company was also unwilling to produce a CD for Hacken's concert thinking that it will not sell. Hacken proved them wrong when his CDs sold like hotcakes.
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Some additions and comments

Posted By: rou
Date: Saturday, 19 June 2004, at 3:34 a.m.

In Response To: a little addition (stephanie)

> May I add that the 2 concerts with the Philharmonic
> Orchestra were also not planned. The Orchestra
> originally wanted to hold it with Alan who was not
> free at that time. Alan recommended Hacken and it
> turned out to be a roaring success. Besides Alan,
> Hacken also have the blessings of a number of other HK
> artistes such as Ah Lek, Andy Lau and Eric Tsang.

Yeah...i watched this video produced by TVB called Hong Xing Hui about Hacken's career. These stars were asked to give their opinions of Hacken and all spoke well of his character. To them, he deserves every bit of his success today.

> Andy Lau was reported to have helped paid for the >flowers in Hacken's concert (I don't know why this is so, I thought the recording company should have paid for all these decorations and props.)

Its not flowers. Its fireworks. The record company had not allocated much of a budget for Hacken's 2002 concert, but Andy felt that no concert shd do without fireworks and so he offered to sponsor the fireworks display for that 4 concerts. Haha...and when Hacken's concert turned out to be a roaring success, increasing from 4 to 6 shows, Andy joked to Hacken "if u continue adding shows, I'll go bankrupt! (from paying for the fireworks display) Hehe...

Ah Lek was said to have bought all remaining tickets to his concert (I don't know which one or whether he needed to do that in the end).

This is for the 2001 Philharmonic concert. Hacken's tickets were sold out, no doubt, but there will still some single seats in the concert which could be filled. Afterall, we go to concerts with companions. So Ah Lek bought up these remaining tickets.

Hacken's recording company was also unwilling to
> produce a CD for Hacken's concert thinking that it
> will not sell. Hacken proved them wrong when his CDs
> sold like hotcakes.

Yeah...the company was unwilling to produce the live recording discs of Hacken's 2001 concert, but Hacken was adamant on it and had a highly-publicised spat with Universal, during which he threated to leave the company. Many celebrity pals like Alan also helped him talk to the company and eventually Universal produced the discs, which sold like hotcakes as u said, and proved Universal wrong.
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who is Ah Lek? about hacken being arrogant...

Posted By: kate
Date: Saturday, 19 June 2004, at 9:50 p.m.

In Response To: Some additions and comments (rou)

i think he used 2 be a very famous singer & he's the man that wore the speedo during the miss hk pageant 2003, right?

good 4 hacken 4 having such good friends! also good that he changed 4 the better, though he may have been arrogant in the start of his career, haha! but any1 know exactly when he started 2 change 4 the better?

but according 2 hacken in an magazine interview in june 2003, he says he doesn't think he was arrogant back then, just that ppl thought he was (though after his friends also told him that he should change his attitude, he tried 2 change so that ppl wouldn't think he was arrogant or stuck-up)...is hacken just in denial about this? haha ...but i think the media also must have exagerrated his arrogant attitude somewhat, since they always exagerrate every negative thing about artists!
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Responses

Posted By: rou
Date: Saturday, 19 June 2004, at 10:09 p.m.

In Response To: who is Ah Lek? about hacken being arrogant... (kate)

> i think he used 2 be a very famous singer & he's
> the man that wore the speedo during the miss hk
> pageant 2003, right?

Nat Chan...a very confident man. During an interview, Hacken pondered whether Eric and Nat liked him because Alan influenced all his friends to like Hacken. (Eric, Nat and Alan are an influential trio in HK, with the nickname Fu Luk Sou). So the reporter asked Nat for his response and Nat noted that he's a person not easy to get along with and so its very hard for him to like a person, much less get influenced by others. He said he liked Hacken because from the bottom of his heart and not because of any other factors. Eric also said that Hacken is one who listens to advice and works on it. He noted that in spite of Alan helping Hacken, it ultimately boils down on Hacken himself to achieve success and Hacken did it.

> good 4 hacken 4 having such good friends! also good
> that he changed 4 the better, though he may have been
> arrogant in the start of his career, haha! but any1
> know exactly when he started 2 change 4 the better?

I think its after 1995 concerts that be began to get feedback from others and reflected on his behaviour. As Phil said, Hacken's success as a person today is because he has been on the other end of it. After having won and lost, he treasures his current opportunities even more than ever. This is also Alan's wish for Hacken.

> but according 2 hacken in an magazine interview in
> june 2003, he says he doesn't think he was arrogant
> back then, just that ppl thought he was (though after
> his friends also told him that he should change his
> attitude, he tried 2 change so that ppl wouldn't think
> he was arrogant or stuck-up)...is hacken just in
> denial about this? haha ...but i think the media also
> must have exagerrated his arrogant attitude somewhat,
> since they always exagerrate every negative thing
> about artists!

Its not about denial. Hacken has always been a frank and straightforward person and speaks his mind. He admits that success did get into his head, but he was just being himself and saw nothing wrong with it at that time. It was only when pple told him about what they thought abt him that he began to reflect on his behaviour and change his attitude for the better. Today, Hacken is still that frank person but he is notably more restrained, cos he does not want history to repeat itself. IMO, Hacken's frankness is good in the sense that it makes him more real, unlike other celebrities who put on a false front. The pt on the press is right...HK paparazzi have a bad reputation and lack professional ethics.
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I have something to add....

Posted By: Phil
Date: Friday, 18 June 2004, at 9:49 p.m.

In Response To: Hacken's Amazing Turnaround (Care Bear)

hmm... a few good points there... but no. Hacken's drop in popularity had NOTHING to do with new artists like eason... and etc cause eason didn't come out till 96 and hacken started downfall before that... i think (correct me if i'm wrong) but yeah... it was something like... Hacken was very showoff... poor unmodest attitude that was bad. (remember he said loudly to people that he was gonna get the most popular male singer in 2 yrs... ) he also dated a girl from the media, which kept the media quiet from critcising his poor attitudes and stuff. After they broke up, the media slammed reports criticisizing Hacken about a thousand things, making his image really bad...

As a result, we can see the hacken today is not only one of the most talented singers, he IS the most humble artist because he's been through the opposite end of that.
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Re: I have something to add....

Posted By: stephanie
Date: Monday, 21 June 2004, at 10:33 p.m.

In Response To: I have something to add.... (Phil)

His popularity dipped partly because of the 4 Heavenly Kings. I think it was a promotion gimmick at that time - to promote 4 heavenly kings to replace the two superstars - Alan and Leslie who announced that they would not take part in any prize giving ceremonies anymore. But I felt it brought the Hong Kong music industry down because except for Jacky Cheung, the rest of the heavenly kings couldn't sing professionally. Even Andy Lau, Hacken's good friend also said that he was partly responsible for Hacken's downfall at that time.