Holding Hands (album)

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Holding Hands
Studio album by
A-Mei
ReleasedOctober 12, 1998
Recorded1998
Studio
  • Forward Studio
  • Platinum Studio (3)
  • Maestro Studio
  • Puliyin Studio
  • Form Studio (Singapore)
  • Ladiaum Music House
  • Jojo Eyeball Studio
  • Room 711 (Los Angeles)
Genre
Length48:10
LabelForward Music
ProducerChen Chih-yuan
A-Mei chronology
You Make Me Free Make Me Fly!
(1997) 		Holding Hands
(1998) 		Feel
(1999)

Holding Hands (Chinese: 牽手; pinyin: Qiānshǒu) is the fourth studio album by Taiwanese singer A-Mei. It was released on October 12, 1998, by Forward Music. The album was produced by Forward Music's then-music director Chen Chih-yuan and was A-Mei's first original studio album since the death of her mentor Chang Yu-sheng eleven months prior.[1] On the record, A-Mei sang Chang's posthumous works "Are You Ready" and "After Knowing," and for the first time, she collaborated with David Tao on the songs "Don't Lie To Me" and "High High High," which allowed A-Mei to try out different kinds of music creations. The music on Holding Hands fuses pop music with other genres including R&B, dance pop, adult contemporary and rock music.

Commercially, Holding Hands was a success. The album was certified by Taiwan's IFPI as the top selling album of the year, selling over 790,000 copies in the span of one month.[2] The album has since sold over 1.1 million copies in Taiwan,[3] as well as over 5 million copies in Asia.[4][5] To promote the album, A-Mei held a New Year's Eve concert titled "Sisters Acting, Singing and Partying Through 1999" at Nangang, Taipei.[6]

Background and development[edit]

On December 29, 1997, A-Mei released the innovative album You Make Me Free Make Me Fly!, which served as an in advance listen for her very first concert tour that was to be held the following year in 1998. The album was a commercial success, selling 800,000 units in Taiwan,[7] while also selling an additional 4 million copies throughout Asia.[7]

On January 10, 1998, A-Mei held her first large-scale ticketed concert titled "A-Mei In Concert Live In Concert 1998." It became the fastest-selling concert in Taiwan in the past 10 years and had a very fanatic audience,[8] with both shows at the Taipei Municipal Stadium and Kaohsiung Central Park being full houses. On March 21, 1998, and March 22, 1998, she held two ticketed concerts at Hong Kong Coliseum.[9][10] The two Hong Kong concerts were sold out within 8 hours after tickets going on sale, breaking the fastest ticket selling record in Hong Kong at the time.[11][12] The 2 shows at the Singapore Indoor Stadium also set a number of records, including the record for the fastest sold-out concert: the first show was sold out within 10 hours while the second was sold out within 8 hours.[13][12] In all, the tour drew in about 100,000 spectators. Work on her follow-up album began after the tour wrapped up.

Writing and recording[edit]

David Tao, one of A-Mei's collaborators on the album

"Are You Ready" and "After Knowing" were the two posthumous songs on the album written by Chang Yu-sheng.[14] The latter was originally sung by Chang on his 1994 album Karaoke Live - Taipei - Me.[15] "Dreaming of Titanic" is a synthesizer heavy ballad written by Wu Yukang and Chen Chih-yuan.[14] "Lonely Bowling" is a reggae-style number written and composed entirely by Cheng Hua Jiuan.[14] "Surrender to Love" is a melodic pop ballad written by Wu Yukang and composed by Guo Tzu.[14] Two songs on the album, "Don't Lie To Me" and "High High High," were written by David Tao.[14] Both of the songs carried strong Americanized R&B influences.

The power ballad "Blue Sky" was written by Yu Guangyan and composed by Ian Chen and Chen Zhengqing.[14] The album's title track is an upbeat pop rock song written by Chen Zhihan, also wrote the album's ninth track "Open Your Eyes."[14]

Release and promotion[edit]

The album's standard edition contains the 10 new songs. The second edition of the album comes in a cardboard slipcase with two independent VCDs in separate jewel cases. The first disc is a collection of music videos of the album Holding Hands, with lyrics to sing along to on karaoke. The second disc is a full live performance on Chinese television. No broadcast date is indicated, but it should be recent from the album's release date, since most of the songs off Holding Hands are played. Around the holiday season of 1998, Forward Music released a Christmas Special Edition of Holding Hands, which came in a slipcase and was packaged with a CD and a VCD.[16] In 1999, Forward Music released a cassette edition of Holding Hands.

Singles and music videos[edit]

The music videos for the songs "Holding Hands" and "Dreaming of Titanic" were both directed by renowned Taiwanese video director Kuang Sheng.[17][18] The music videos for "Don't Lie To Me," "High High High," "Open Your Eyes," "Blue Sky" and "Lonely Bowling" were directed by Jinhe Lin.[19][20][21][22][23] The music video for "High High High" features Taiwanese magician Lu Chen.[20] The tracks "After Knowing," "Are You Ready" and "Surrender to Love" use edited concert footage for their accompanying music videos,[24][25][26] with the video for "Surrender to Love" featuring a cameo from Isaac Chen.

In January 1999, the tracks "Holding Hands" and "Blue Sky" were listed at number 2 and number 13 respectively on the 1998 Hit FM Top 100 Singles of the Year chart.[27]

Accolades[edit]

The album Holding Hands earned A-Mei a nomination for Best Female Mandarin Singer at the 10th Golden Melody Awards.[28] The album's title track made it onto the leaderboard of the 5th China Music Awards' TOP 20 most popular songs (the winning songs are ranked in no particular order), which was held by Channel V.[29] The title track also won the silver Outstanding Mandarin song award at the 1998 RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards. In 1999, she won the award for "The most powerful female singer in the music industry" at the 1998 Top Music Chart Awards Ceremony hosted by TVB Jade and TVB.[30]

Track listing[edit]

No.TitleLyricsMusicArrangementLength
1."Are You Ready"Chang Yu-shengChang Yu-shengMartin Tang4:02
2."不要騙我" (Don't Lie To Me)David TaoDavid TaoDavid Tao4:50
3."夢見鐵達尼" (Dreaming of Titanic)Wu YukangChen Chih-yuanTu Ying4:36
4."寂寞保齡球" (Lonely Bowling)Cheng Hua JiuanCheng Hua JiuanMartin Tang5:30
5."對愛投降" (Surrender to Love)Wu YukangGuo TzuGoh Kheng Long5:10
6."High High High"David TaoDavid TaoDavid Tao4:08
7."藍天" (Blue Sky)Yu GuangyanIan Chen, Chen ZhengqingLi Bojie4:15
8."牽手" (Holding Hands)Chen ZhihanChen ZhihanMartin Tang4:44
9."Open Your Eyes"Chen ZhihanChen ZhihanGoh Kheng Long5:59
10."後知後覺" (After Knowing)Chang Yu-shengChang Yu-shengChen Chih-yuan5:22
Total length:48:10

Charts[edit]

Chart (1998) Peak
position
Hong Kong Albums (IFPI)[31] 5
Malaysian Albums (RIM)[31] 9
Taiwanese Albums (IFPI Taiwan)[32] 1

Sales and certifications[edit]

‹See Tfd›‹See Tfd›
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Taiwan (RIT)[33] 3× Platinum+Gold 1,100,000[4]
Summaries
Asia — 5,000,000[4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Kwok Kar Peng (June 23, 2021). "Late Taiwanese singer Chang Yu-sheng's 1996 unplugged performance in Singapore goes viral, Entertainment News". AsiaOne. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  2. ^ "IFPI認證紀錄" (in Chinese). Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  3. ^ "張惠妹《牽手》、《三天三夜》幕後推手 音樂人阿怪逝世". tw.news.yahoo.com (in Chinese). April 7, 2019. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c "韓人氣歌手Lisa個人專輯造型乘坐時光機 巧撞23年前張惠妹《牽手》". Apple Daily. September 13, 2021. Archived from the original on September 13, 2021. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  5. ^ "張惠妹『牽手』專輯介紹" (in Chinese). Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  6. ^ "阿妹姊妹 唱鬧穿越1999". mypaper.pchome.com (in Chinese). February 27, 2023. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  7. ^ a b "五燈獎回顧系列報導(十四)-華人國語歌壇的傳奇—張惠妹" [Five Lantern Awards Review Series (14) - Legend of the Chinese Mandarin Music Circle—A-Mei]. Tanabe (in Traditional Chinese). September 2, 2006. Archived from the original on March 21, 2021. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  8. ^ "她把歌曲唱進你我的心坎裡！華語天后張惠妹的「妹力」人生" (in Chinese (Taiwan)). May 9, 2018.
  9. ^ "A-mei dazzles in right royal style". South China Morning Post. March 26, 1998. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  10. ^ "3-2-1 A-mei in Concert". South China Morning Post. March 25, 1998. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  11. ^ "1998年張惠妹在香港紅館舉辦2場售票演唱會征服香港歌迷,新聞媒體更是用"過江龍"大篇幅報導妹力旋風" (in Chinese). Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  12. ^ a b "张惠妹出道不久即成天后歌星". yule.sohu.com. June 19, 2001. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  13. ^ "张惠妹出道不久即成天后歌星" (in Chinese (Taiwan)). June 19, 2001.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g 牽手 (CD album; Liner notes). 張惠妹. Forward Music. 1998. 98-20052.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  15. ^ 卡拉OK Live·台北·我 (CD album; Liner notes). 張雨生. UFO Record. 1994. 98005-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  16. ^ 牽手 - 聖誕特別版 (CD album; Liner notes). 張惠妹. Forward Music. 1998. 98-20052-1.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  17. ^ 張惠妹 A-Mei - 牽手 官方MV (Official Music Video), retrieved April 3, 2024
  18. ^ 張惠妹 A-Mei - 夢見 TITANIC 官方MV (Official Music Video), retrieved April 3, 2024
  19. ^ 張惠妹 A-Mei - 不要騙我 官方MV, retrieved April 3, 2024
  20. ^ a b 張惠妹 A-Mei - High High High 官方MV (Official Music Video), retrieved April 3, 2024
  21. ^ 張惠妹 A-Mei - Open Your Eyes 官方MV (Official Music Video), retrieved April 3, 2024
  22. ^ 張惠妹 A-Mei - 藍天 官方MV (Official Music Video), retrieved April 3, 2024
  23. ^ 張惠妹 A-Mei - 寂寞保齡球 官方MV (Official Music Video), retrieved April 3, 2024
  24. ^ 張惠妹 A-Mei - 後知後覺 官方MV (Official Music Video), retrieved April 3, 2024
  25. ^ 張惠妹 A-Mei - Are You Ready 官方MV (Official Music Video), retrieved April 3, 2024
  26. ^ 張惠妹 A-Mei - 對愛投降 官方MV (Official Music Video), retrieved April 3, 2024
  27. ^ "Hitoradio‧Hit Fm --華人音樂入口指標". www.hitoradio.com. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
  28. ^ "第十屆金曲獎入圍名單 - 文化部影視及流行音樂產業局". www.bamid.gov.tw (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved April 20, 2024.
  29. ^ "第五届华语榜中榜获奖名单(1998年)". ent.sina.com.cn (in Chinese). November 22, 2002. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  30. ^ "1998年度叱吒樂壇流行榜頒獎典禮得獎名單" (in Chinese). Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  31. ^ a b "Billboard Hits of the World Charts – October 11, 1998". Billboard. November 21, 1998. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  32. ^ "IFPI Taiwan Local Top 20" (in Chinese). IFPI Taiwan. Archived from the original on December 2, 1998.
  33. ^ 認證紀錄 [Certifications Awarded] (in Chinese). Recording Industry Foundation in Taiwan.
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