Hacken Lee

Biography

Hacken Lee (Chinese: 李克勤; Cantonese Yale: Lei5 Hak1kan4; pinyin: Lǐ Kèqín) is a Hong Kong singer, television host and actor, active since the 1980s. In 2013, Lee's song "House of Cards" swept multiple awards in many Hong Kong award ceremonies, including "World's Best Song" and "Broadcasting Index" in Metro's Awards. As of 2013, he has reached 14 times in receiving the "Outstanding Pop Singer Award" at RTHK's "Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards" and has established an irreplaceable status in the music industry of Hong Kong and Asia.

Early years: 1980s

Lee was brought up in a middle-class family. He lived in Arts Mansion in Happy Valley during his teenage years. He studied in Pun U Association Primary School (1974–1980) and Wah Yan College, Hong Kong (1980–1987).
After his HKCEE in 1985, he entered the TVB new talent show along with Alex To, William So, Vivian Chow and Grasshopper, though he was unable to make it into the top 15 finalists. He then participated in the Second Hong Kong 19 District Singing Contest in 1985, a competition which he won with his rendition of Alan Tam's song "Love in the Fog" (霧之戀). He was subsequently offered a contract with PolyGram Records.
Lee however continued his studies at Wah Yan College while singing part-time. He turned full-time in the summer of 1987 after failing to gain a university place due to poor HKALE results.
His debut EP Hacken Lee EP sold less than 10,000 copies. Symbol of Destiny was released in 1987. His musical popularity lacking, he gained recognition by starring in TVB dramas in the late 1980s, especially the youth drama series "Teenage No More" (不再少年時), for which he also sang the theme song. In 1989, his song "Unchanged in Lifetime", the theme song of ATV's Cantonese version of the drama series "Blue Moon," won both the RTHK "Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards" and "TVB Jade Solid Gold Awards."

1990s

In 1990, Lee, Jacky Cheung and Andy Lau were dubbed as "Three Musketeers in the music industry" by the media and were hailed as "tomorrow's highly anticipated superstars". Later on that year, however, due to the contract disputes between Hacken and his company, Hacken's career faltered.
In 1992, Lee's career began to rise when he released the song "Red Sun" (紅日), for which he penned the Chinese lyrics that made it popular. In 1993, Hacken switched to Star Record Company and released the song "Look Back," which once again boosted his singing career and allowed him to win TVB Jade Solid Gold's Golden Award as well as reach the top five nominees for the Most Popular Singer Award. His first solo concert at Hong Kong Coliseum, later that year, sold out in just a few hours.
In 1994, Lee was crowned the title of "Zero Defect Vocals," alongside Jacky Cheung who was named "Perfect Vocals" the year before, and as well as the successor of the famous Alan Tam.
In 1995, after the unprecedented success of his first solo concert, Hacken held his second concert again at the Hong Kong Coliseum, "Dragon '95 Hacken's Contact of Hear Concert", for a span of 10 days. However, sales had declined around 40%, to which only grew worse after the concert, leading to contractual disputes between the record company.
In 1996, Lee was signed on to another company where he released the album "When I Found You" (當找到你), with which sales and popularity improved slightly. However, due to several personnel changes and contractual disputes since the release of his album "By Hacken Side" (在克勤身邊×在克勤身邊1996 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1咒語4:272菜湯3:573在我身邊3:364昨夜長風4:205進退兩男3:186滿足3:277隨時消失的女人4:088關燈之前4:049傘兵3:4510日夜消磨5:3111在我身邊 (16 bit version)3:37), his album×Album1993 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1一生不愛別人4:132One Night in Paris4:263禮拜六冇節目3:504愛您不需要理由4:145十萬個問上帝2:346緣3:567良心4:188生命色彩4:149請放手4:4510只懂得對妳好4:5211明天4:00 eventually was postponed indefinitely.
In summer 1998, Lee was chaired as TVB for World Cup association football's sportscaster, and he composed and sang the song for the program, "Adventure of Football Fans", with the success of it leading to the release of a compilation album.
After the contract was expired with the record company, Lee's inability to find a recording company led him in several attempts in maintaining popularity by foraying beyond his singing career into acting in dramas and hosting TV programs.
In late 1999, Lee eventually signed onto Universal Music (former PolyGram) and issued his album "A Year Or So". In December, he had a musical performance with the Hong Kong Repertory, named "Adventure".

2000s

With his signing to Universal Music, Lee released several hits with "Feet of Fortune" (前後腳) and "Flying Flowers" 飛花" in 2001, and "The Grasp of Love" (愛不釋手) and "Tall Girl" (高妹) in 2002.
In late 2001, Lee performed in collaboration with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, "Hong Kong Philharmonic & Hacken Live", organized total in 4 concerts and 2 additional concerts. The concert series was very well-received, as was a recording released CD and VCD of the series, both CD and VCD got "Ten Best Selling Album Award" at IFPI. In July, he launched the album "Flying Flower (飛花)", with the song in same title, he won TVB Jade Solid Gold Awards's Golden Melody Award, "Metro Music Awards" Metro Best Song Award, and RTHK "Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Award" Outstanding Pop Singer Award.
In early 2002, Lee held his solo concert "Hacken Lee Live in Concert 2002" and got the praised again, and its recordings were equally well received at IFPI. In addition, he sang for TVB World Cup program's theme song "Victory"; the song "Tall Girl" was composed by Gigi Leung, with lyrics written by himself, and later on ""The Grasp of Love (愛不釋手)". At the Jade Solid Gold Awards 2002, he won the "Most Popular Male Singer Award" for the first time, and he had been re-confirmed as the successor of Alan Tam. Around the time of the 2002 concert, he co-starred in the TVB drama "Legal Entanglement (法網伊人)" which was aired. The series achieved high ratings and was one of TVB's most popular dramas that year. He won the "Most Favourite Character" award at the "2002 TVB Anniversary Awards" for his role in the series. Additionally, he was appointed the host of the 2002 World Cup and sang the theme song of TVB, which dominated the local charts for some time. He also won his first Most Popular Male Singer in TVB Jade Solid Gold Award.
In 2003, 2004 and 2009, Lee partnered with Alan Tam in a series of concert tours around the world, including multiple shows in Hong Kong and Las Vegas. Known in English as "Alan & Hacken", the show's Chinese title, "左麟右李", is a play on the Chinese four-character idiom "左鄰右里" which means "neighbor", by using the artists' names homonyms 麟 and 李. By the end of 2003, Hacken won the Most Popular Male Singer in TVB Jade Solid Gold Award" for the second time.
In November 2004, Lee partnered with Joey Yung in a collaboration of a concert, which is better known by another four-character idiom "刻不容緩 (Urgency cannot afford delay)", a play on their names with the homonyms 克 and 容, releasing a single with the same name. He was called one of the "New 4 Heavenly King" by Alan Tam. In the end of 2004, Hacken swept the awards in music award ceremonies again, including Top Ten Chinese Gold Song by RTHK's "Best Pop Male Artist Award", his live album "Alan & Hacken 2004 Concert" got "10 Guangdong Album×Album1993 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1一生不愛別人4:132One Night in Paris4:263禮拜六冇節目3:504愛您不需要理由4:145十萬個問上帝2:346緣3:567良心4:188生命色彩4:149請放手4:4510只懂得對妳好4:5211明天4:00 Sales Award" by IFPI, and he won the "Best Sales Local Singer" again.
In 2005, Lee released his fourth Mandarin album Ask About Love, and he started a series of promotion activities in mainland China. By the end of 2005, He was the first Chinese artist to release a DualDisc, entitled "Hacken Lee Concert Hall". For this album, Universal Music invested over a million dollars, invited 4 Chinese musicians to perform the songs of album, moreover, they gave up the general recording mode, moved to the music hall for recording, the CD side using a coherent approach to record the live recordings of the songs in surround sound, and the DVD side featured the making of footage. The album was out of stock twice in a week after it launched and sales broke through a platinum figure very soon. In December, he won the "Most Popular Male Singer" of TVB Jade Solid Gold Award again, his third such win. He then won "My Favorite Singer" award and 5 song awards at "Metro Music Awards". On 1 January 2006, he won the bronze prize of the "My Favorite Singer".
From 28 January 2006 to 5 February, Lee held a series of sell-out concerts at Hong Kong Coliseum, named "Hacken Lee Live In Concert 2006", which was sponsored by Carlsberg) during the Chinese New Year period, and it was the first high-definition video in Cantonese concert. Meanwhile, he hosted the World Cup program for TVB, his third time being a football sportscaster, and wrote the lyrics and sung for the theme song, "I'm Number 10". In mid 2006, Hacken traveled to Seoul for recording the live songs of next album, "Hacken Lee Seoul Concert Hall II". All songs were recorded at the Harmony Theatre, Koyang Culture City Hall, Korea from 28 to 31 August 2006 for live taking. Many local Korean musicians participated in the recording project, including Kwak Jung "Harpist K" on harp, So Kyoung-jin on Korean big drum, Jang Hyo-Seok on saxophone, Kim Won-jin as boy soprano, Kim Hyun-Mi and Jung Hyun-suk performed "Joy of Strings" on violin, Kim Hae-ryeon on viola, and Chung Yu-young on cello, David Hodges from New York played an antique 1920 bandoneon while recording. The album was released on a CD with an accompanying DVD using high-definition 1080i format, dated in November 2006, and following the success of the original Concert Hall, became the favorite of hi-fi enthusiasts, selling over 80,000 copies.
In 2007, Lee launched the selection album "Hacken Lee No. 1 Hits×Hacken Lee No. 1 Hits23 November 2007 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 51 tracks · 4 discsDisc 51再見演奏廳3:352相愛無門3:413Mr Children3:294紙婚3:235花落誰家3:236婚前的女人3:547大時代3:588六呎風雲3:579左右手4:3910只想您會意4:2211一生不變4:20Disc 61公主太子3:542天水、圍城4:213我著十號 (single version)3:074勝情中人3:515情非首爾3:256佳節4:037空中飛人3:308吻別的位置3:349仰慕者3:5210我不會唱歌3:2311左鄰右里3:3612愛一個人3:1313合久必婚3:1214愛不釋手3:2815高妹3:3016Victory3:4517前後腳3:4918飛花3:58Disc 71再一次想你3:512紅日3:133櫻花3:464破曉時份4:195一生掛念妳3:416一千零一夜4:157藍月亮5:158深深深3:559夏日之神話4:41Disc 81仍是老地方 (2006 new version)4:202十年前後4:023世界末日的早上3:284嘭門3:185信心保證3:246有了你世界更美3:397傷寒3:478月半小夜曲 (HKPO live)4:239妳是我的太陽4:3110萬千寵愛在一身4:1111寂寞煙雨天4:2412大會堂演奏廳4:5513誰願分手4:14", it was released on 22 November 2007, which contains 4 CDs of his classic hits and new songs. He participated in the concert held by the Hong Kong Government, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR organization. At climax of the concert he sang the song "Legend Of The Dragon" and "Red Sun" with 20 professional drummers and over 10,000 primary students from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. This performance was included in the Guinness World Records. In between, his environmental-themed song was named "Whispering Whose"（花落誰家), which won the "Song of The Year" on Jade Solid Gold award. He also announced that his wife had given birth to his first son, Ryan Lee at Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital.

Lee hosted a 2008 Chinese New Year concert series, which sold out 11 shows in Hong Kong from 8 to 18 February 2008; because it overlapped Valentine's Day, he featured the new song "Every Day is a Valentine's Day" and followed with a world tour. After, he was begun to prepare his new canton album by inviting some singer-songwriters to participate in the creation, such as Mavis Fan, Eason Chan, Khalil Fong, Hins Cheung, Louis Cheung, Justin Lo, Vincent Chow and Jan Lamb. In order to maximize the quality, the album took 9 months to produce. He sent only two new songs to radio that year, "She merciful and I'm Sad" and "What Year Is Now". Those songs received radio's favor. He was also lyricist for himself of the theme song of "Alan Tam & Hacken Lee Concert 2009", and the song "Needless To Be Scared", and lyricist of the song composed by Eason Chan, named "Season Changed". In late 2009, Lee released the album "Threesome×Threesome30 December 2009 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1嫲 嫲4:432富豪雪糕4:463樹懶4:294樹海之下4:135早餐Ａ4:136最後的早餐4:207寂寞嘍囉4:128二十四城記3:229冇3:3010有為青年3:47" with the hit songs "Lonely Henchman" (寂寞嘍囉) and "Twenty-Four Cities" (二十四城記).
Lee was a host for the Beijing Olympics broadcast in 2008, as well as the ambassador of Standard Chartered Marathon and ambassador of the East Asian Games 2009.

2010 to present

After the birth of his son, Lee also announced he would continue his concert tours and recording for his new Cantonese album in May 2010. In middle of June, his new song "Sinner" was sent to radio. On 31 July, the song was adapted from the Mandarin-language song "Bad Guy" of Abin Fong. It won awards from three radio stations, including RTHK, CRHK, and Metro. On 4 August, he held a Moov Live mini concert, performed the 7 songs of his upcoming new album. On 15 September, his new album Sinner was officially launched. Because of HKRIA Copyright Controversy, Hacken was prohibited to appear on TVB, Lawrence Cheng of Now TV, successfully arranged an interview with him, which was included in episode 79, broadcast on 2 October 2010.
In 2011, Lee was awarded again at RTHK "Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards", making him the first singer to receive song awards through four decades (1980s to 2010s). Then, he held the concert with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, in total of 6 days, named "Hacken & Hong Kong Sinfonietta Concert Hall 2011" in summer vacation. This was Hacken collaboration with Yip Wing-sie again, since "Hong Kong Philharmonic & Hacken Live" at 2001. After the concert, he released a new Mandarin single with his Cantonese album called "Deja Vu". The second plug song in cantonese was "Sky Lanterns", was boarded championship of the three radio stations on 29 October, got the "Three championship" again. At 10 December, Hacken appeared and sang for "Tung Wah Charity Show" on TVB, he was the first artist of HKRIA who can participate in TVB show after ice-breaking of HKRIA Copyright Controversy since 2010.
By January 2012, Lee won the 7th out of 10 of the song award at the "Ultimate Song Chart Awards", for the song "Milky Way". He was invited to attend the Jade Solid Gold Awards Ceremony, as a performer and guests of honor. Then, he went to Beijing for the promotion of his new Mandarin album, "'Deja Vu", and create something for his new canton album×Album1993 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1一生不愛別人4:132One Night in Paris4:263禮拜六冇節目3:504愛您不需要理由4:145十萬個問上帝2:346緣3:567良心4:188生命色彩4:149請放手4:4510只懂得對妳好4:5211明天4:00 with two producer, Schumann and Alex Fung, which was his first cooperation with Schumann. At early of March, he was invited to sing the Hong Kong version of the theme song, "Armageddon Prairie", for the UEFA Champions League broadcast by Now TV, and he was chair as the host and the commentator of Now TV. In late August, he released the concept of adult rhymes of the new album, Amongst The Forest. Since he got a great acclaim from collaborating with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, he held his first solo concert tour in mainland China in September. In November, he hosted "Minute to Win It", a game show authorized by NBC and production by TVB, and again hosted the TVB game show "Minutes to Fame" in 2005. The first episode of the show received a 30 points rating.
In January 2013, Lee attended for "Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards" held by RTHK and won the award for the song "What's The Things Alive For".
In May 2013, Lee's new song "Forward", was invited the Hong Kong Children's Choir for vocal accompaniment, which was rare inspirational song in recent years at local music scene, and also the rare allegro song of him in recent years, and was sent to the radio. "Hacken Lee Concert Hall" series was separated by 7 years, Hacken launched a brand new HiFi album again at July, named "Remakes By Hacken". The album was fully produced by Schumann and Alex Fung again. After the album was released, it got the favor by the community of professional musicians, and praised by the fans. It occupied iTunes Top Songs list in the first week of release, even reached the success of double platinum album of sales.
In October 2013, he released the new canton EP, named "House of Cards", the song in same title became the Annual Golden Song, on major radio awards ceremony were impressive results. In December, Hacken held concerts with Alan Tam, to commemorate the 10th anniversary as being "Neighbour" (左麟右李), and they went on a world tour after.
By May 2014, Lee issued a song "No Friend", which created by Eric Kwok and Wyman Wong, the song was sent to the radio. The song was got widely radio and fans acclaim followed by "House of Cards". In June, he was the World Cup commentator for TVB, and launched his selection album "Selection To No Friends."
In 2015, Lee directly advanced to the semi-final of King of Mask Singer (蒙面歌王) having become the first Masked Singer to win the preliminaries and reveal his face and identity.
In 2016, Lee participated in the singing competition I Am a Singer (season 4) as the host and starting competitor and began the competition with his rendition of Alan Tam's song "Love in the Fog" (霧之戀), the song that brought him into the music industry via the singing competition he participated in 30 years ago. His consistently great weekly performances won over the hearts of many of the audience, with some of his most notable performances being his rendition of Ekin Cheng's "Days of Friendship" (友情歲月), C AllStar's "Sky Ladder" (天梯), and his 4th knockout round (ultimate knockout round) performance with renown pianist Lang Lang "I Can't Sing" (我不會唱歌), and he made it to compete in the finale (week 13) of the competition. Joey Yung sung with him in the Season 4 Biennial concert, shortly before Lee moved away from Universal Music, ending his partnership with Alan Tam, but reuniting him with Joey Yung, after they had a concert in 2015.
In 2017, Lee released his 30th anniversary album titled "30克" which featured the hit songs "C3PO" and "Lost Soul" (失魂記). He later hosted his 30th anniversary concert series in September of 2017 in Hong Kong. The concert featured 9 shows across 9 days.

Personal life

On November 28, 2006, Lee married his long-time girlfriend, Emily Lo Suk Yi, the winner of the 1992 Miss Hong Kong Pageant. On October 22, 2007, Lo gave birth to their first child, Ryan Lee Lap-yan. Their younger son Rex Lee Lik-sze was born on March 26, 2010.

Acting career

Apart from his singing career, Lee is also an actor and one of the most popular singer-turned-actor in Hong Kong. He has appeared in numerous Hong Kong dramas, movies, and commercial advertisements. He has also appeared in many large-scale charity drives as a guest performer. One of his notable roles as an actor was his role in Legal Entanglement, which won him "Most Favorite Character" award at the 2002 TVB Anniversary Awards.