This is the 7th day of Chinese New Year, means, you definitely will know what this post is about.
Yes! This post will be about a Chinese New Year album, by one of my favorite groups, M-Girls / Si Ge Nv Sheng (四個女生).
As you already know, M-Girls is famous for releasing Chinese New Year albums every year. And this year, they definitely released a Chinese New Year album, again! As their fan, I definitely won't miss this album. I ordered the CD+DVD album from YesAsia, along with other bonuses.
Their newest Chinese New Year album is called "真歡喜 Zhen Huan Xi" / Zan Fun Hei, since the song 真歡喜 is in Cantonese. The album was released oin December 12, 2013, to welcome the year of the Horse.
I'll introduce the members first:
The members of the M-Girls are:
- 王雪晶 (Crystal Ong / Wang Xue Jing)
- 莊群施 (Queenzy Cheng / Zhuang Qun Shi)
- 金燕子 (Cassandra Chin / Jin Yan Zi)
- 妮妮 / 邱燕妮 (Angeline Khoo / Ni Ni / Qiu Yan Ni)
As we all know, our childhood memories are filled with their albums.
Do you still remember, when Crystal Ong (王雪晶) was little, she covered "小叮噹 Xiao Ding Dang", "我愛洗澡 Wo Ai Xi Zao", "天黑黑 Ti O O", "世上只有媽媽好 Shi Shang Zhi You Mama Hao", etc?
Do you still remember the 七仙女 (Seven Fairies) group? Six teenagers with a small kid in it? The only small kid in the group with her missing teeth is Angeline Ni Ni (妮妮).
Do you still remember when Queenzy Cheng (莊群施) was little, she covered 好兒童 (Hao Er Tong) and 賣餛飩 (Mai Hun Tun)? She often dressed as boys in her videos when she was little, for years. You can see her mostly with Crystal and Cassandra. She also made two different Chinese New Year albums without the other three members, one is with Chen Jia Ling (陳家琳), and another one is with Wei Wei (薇薇).
They're grown up now and now a member of the M-Girls group.
I guess our childhood were filled mostly with Crystal, since she was really, really famous back then. We knew each members very well now especially Crystal, but not really about Cassandra, since Cassandra started her career late than the other three members. So, you don't need to ask where the children went now. Here they are!
 |
| M-Girls 2014 CNY album cover (credit to taobao.com) |
01. 賀新年 + 迎春花 + 萬年紅 + 恭喜恭喜 + 大地回春 Medley: He Xin Nian + Ying Chun Hua + Wan Nian Hong + Gong Xi Gong Xi + Da Di Hui Chun
02. 真歡喜 Zan Fun Hei
03. 氣勢如虹 Qi Shi Ru Hong
04. 猜酒拳 Cai Qiu Juan
05. 財神到 Cai Shen Dao
06. 恭喜發財發大財 Gong Xi Fa Cai Fa Da Cai
07. 新年快樂 Xin Nian Kuai Le
08. 爆竹一聲大地春 Bao Zhu Yi Sheng Da Di Chun
09. 大地春回滿庭芳 Da Di Hui Chun Man Ting Fang
10. 祥瑞慶豐年 Xiang Rui Qing Feng Nian
Below is the 真歡喜 Zan Fun Hei music video:
We always enjoy their Chinese New Year album, every year, for years, until now. Of course! Everybody loves their albums, mostly people in Southeast Asia. Usually, Indonesia, of course, since I noticed it myself. Many Indonesians like to play M-Girls' albums every year. Including me! I never missed one album from the group now, though yes I missed their albums back then, but I finally catch up and bought everything else.
But who would have known that there is a rumor that this will be their final Chinese New Year album? The main reason behind this rumor is because the pirated albums of this are booming everywhere. And it's happening all the time, means, the pirated albums of M-Girls did exist every year. And pity, Indonesia is the country which produced zillions pirated copies of the album. Can you imagine? I as an Indonesian, am embarrassed with this. Indonesia is famous for the piracy and even Crystal knew and revealed about this in one of the Malaysian shows. Oh, please! This is totally embarrassing.
In my opinion, the piracy thing has a point. This is probably because the original copies are not accessible in the music stores overseas. The original copies are only sold in the country which produced the album, Malaysia. International buyers can buy the album from the site, though, but sometimes, the company ran out of copies or the site has a technical issue, so the buyers have to wait. Oddly enough, in Indonesia, even though there are many Indonesians who celebrate Chinese New Year and buying Chinese New Year albums, there are no original copies of any Chinese New Year albums in every music stores in Jakarta, where I live, even M-Girls. And if they do, they always sell the same albums every year. Which is why pirated copies may be the best solution for people but the bad thing for the artists. It's kinda frustrating, I know, but maybe this is why buying online is the only way to support M-Girls. And I did. Still though, piracy is still piracy and it will never end. Since as I mentioned above: piracy, oh piracy, and people keep on uploading to YouTube, I decided to NOT watch everything, even the trailer, until I really got a copy of this album. But still though, the pirated copies are playing everywhere I go. My eyes are watching and my ears are listening. And I'm not as excited as before when I got a copy, since everybody who sells the pirated copies "previewed" it for all the people.
I'm trying to be honest here. I'm not on the pirated side; I'm against them. I even bought two original copies of the album so I have a backup. Sometimes I bought two original copies for the other albums by them that I really like so much, and I did for this Chinese New Year album: I have TWO original copies and I STILL support the original copies. Kinda insane, but that's it, and I really did. Remember the time when the company, StarMedia, just released this album and promoted two sets of this album for preorder? The sets has CD, DVD, Swarovski bookmark, calendar, poster, and a red T-shirt with a horse drawing in it. That's right, I bought both. Believe it or not. I never did this before in my life, but yeah, I just did. I'm maintaining both the sets in my house right now! One to play in the New Year day, and one for my own collection. But this time, the reason I bought two copies is not because I really like it. I bought this because this is their newest Chinese New Year album and their bonuses are appealing. I never had those kind of merchandises in my entire life, ever. All I know is just buying the VCD or DVD each year and nothing else. Which is why, this is something new for me.
I seriously have no idea what should I say about this album. Not too good but not too bad, but I don't want to say that it's an average. This album is not as good as last year's album, 團聚 (Tuan Ju), but this album is not too bad, though I'm expecting more songs in this album. I was like, what? Only 10 songs. Oh my. At least they released an album this year than nothing at all. There are many changes in this album. Cassandra's tongue pierces, two songs written by Cassandra, the Cantonese original Chinese New Year song, widescreen-but-HD-video, the-one-take-video, the vocal skills, lyrics styles of the album, logo style, etc. But that's okay. Maybe, I like last year's album better since Cassandra returned again to the group, which is the special thing, and for two years, there is no album released by M-Girls but by San Da Huang Pai (三大皇牌).
Which reminds me again, I forgot to mention who is San Da Huang Pai (三大皇牌).
San Da Huang Pai (三大皇牌) is a group which has 3 people in it. Two of them are from the M-Girls group. 2 girls and a man. The group was made to cover since the contract of M-Girls ended on 2010. They made 2 Chinese New Year albums before the M-Girls formed again. The members are:
- 妮妮 / 邱燕妮 (Angeline Khoo / Ni Ni / Qiu Yan Ni)
- 王雪晶 (Crystal Ong / Wang Xue Jing)
- 鐘盛忠 (Nick Chung / Zhong Sheng Zhong)
San Da Huang Pai (三大皇牌) 2011 Chinese New Year album
San Da Huang Pai (三大皇牌) 2012 Chinese New Year album
Here comes the end of this post, a message from me to all readers out there:
Please, kindly support M-Girls by buying their original copies if you are a fan of the group.
So here's the post is about. Have a great day!
Credits:
- 真歡喜 Zan Fun Hei music video credits goes to the company's YouTube channel, StarMedia Distribution. Click here to go to StarMedia's YouTube channel.
- The album cover goes to YesAsia.com. Click here to take a look and buy a copy of the album.
No comments:
Post a Comment