Heroes of Earth

Heroes of Earth (simplified Chinese: 盖世英雄; traditional Chinese: 蓋世英雄; pinyin: gàishì yīngxióng) is American-Taiwanese R&B Mandopop singer-songwriter Leehom Wang's eleventh Mandarin studio album. It was released on December 30, 2005, by Sony Music Taiwan.

Heroes of Earth
Heroes of Earth cover
Studio album 蓋世英雄 by
Leehom Wang
ReleasedDecember 30, 2005
GenreMandopop, R&B, hip hop
Length39:13
LanguageMandarin
LabelSony Music Taiwan
ProducerLeehom Wang
Leehom Wang chronology
Shangri-La
心中的日月
(2004)		 Heroes of Earth
(2005)		 Change Me
改變自己
(2007)

Since Wang's debut, this album is the most successful, shipping more than 1,000,000 copies within ten days of release.[1] The album peaked at number one on Taiwan's G-Music Top 20 Charts for 6 weeks.[2] and charted for 23 weeks.[3]

About the album

In this album, Wang continued to experiment with "chinked-out", the musical genre he had invented for his previous album, Shangri-La.[4] This time he incorporated ancient Chinese Peking Opera and kunqu instead of the Chinese ethnic minority music he had used in Shangri-La.[4]　

In this album, Wang also collaborated with numerous other artists such as Chinese-American rapper Jin, Mayday's Ashin, opera singer Li Yan, as well as Korean artists Rain and J-Lim. He named the album Heroes of Earth in reference to his admiration for those he has collaborated with in this album.[4]

Reception

The track "花田錯" (Mistake in the Flower Fields) was nominated for Top 10 Gold Songs at the Hong Kong TVB8 Awards, presented by television station TVB8, in 2006.[5]

The track, "Kiss Goodbye" won one of the Top 10 Songs of the Year and the album won Longest Number 1 Album at the 2007 HITO Radio Music Awards presented by Taiwanese radio station Hit FM.[6]

The album was awarded one of the Top 10 Selling Mandarin Albums of the Year at the 2006 IFPI Hong Kong Album Sales Awards, presented by the Hong Kong branch of IFPI.[7] It is the third best selling album in Taiwan with 140,000 copies sold in 2006.[8]

Track listing
  1. 在梅邊 Beside the Plum Blossoms (Zai Mei Bian)
  2. 花田錯 Mistake in the Flower Fields (Hua Tian Cuo)
  3. 蓋世英雄 Heroes of Earth (Gai Shi Ying Xiong) (featuring MC Jin)
  4. Kiss Goodbye
  5. 完美的互動 The Perfect Interaction (Wan Mei De Hu Dong) (featuring Rain and Lim Jeong-hee)
  6. 大城小愛 Big City, Small Love (Da Cheng Xiao Ai)
  7. 第一個清晨 The First Morning (Di Yi Ge Qing Chen)
  8. 哥兒們 Homies (Ge-Er Men)
  9. 讓開 Move Over (Rang Kai)
  10. 愛 因為在心中 Because Love is in the Heart (Ai, Yin Wei Zai Xin Zhong)

About the music

1. Beside the Plum Blossoms （在梅邊）
The background of this song is based on the story behind The Peony Pavilion, an old Chinese play written by Tang Xianzu in the Ming Dynasty[4] Wang gave tapes of this play to Ashin of Mayday, who later wrote the lyrics.[9] Wang also wrote the rap lyrics which can be heard at the end of the song.[10] He rapped 295 words in 50 seconds.[10] The song is performed with ancient kunqu music.

2. Mistake in the Flower Fields （花田錯）
The song integrates Peking Opera and modern R&B music. It features an er-hu solo and a singing style that imitates Peking Opera, and the title is a reference to a well-known story in Peking Opera.[4]

3. Heroes of Earth （蓋世英雄）
Not only did Wang invite the popular Chinese American rapper Jin to rap in the song, he also invited the famous Chinese opera singer Li Yan.[4] Heavy Peking Opera and kunqu tactics are used in the song, as well as an electric guitar solo by Wang. Jin raps in both English and Cantonese in the song.

5. The Perfect Interaction （完美的互動）
Wang invited popular Korean singers Rain and Lim Jeong Hee (J-Lim) to be featured in the song. The song begins with a Spanish guitar solo and contains lyrics in Mandarin, Korean, and English. This was also Rain's first Chinese song.[4] Although Rain's voice is featured in this song, he did not record it at the same time as Wang and Lim—Rain recorded first, Wang and Lim later.[9] Sony BMG and Wang invited Rain to be featured in the music video as well, but he was unable to participate, and therefore only Wang and Lim were featured in the video.

10. Because Love is in the Heart （愛因為在心中）
This was written, composed, and produced by a Leehom Wang's fanclub in China as a gift for his 29th birthday.[9] Wang was reportedly touched by his fans' composition and therefore added a little of his own voice in the song and included it in his album.

World tour

After releasing Heroes of the Earth, Wang performed an international tour, called the Heroes of Earth World Tour (蓋世英雄 巡迴演唱會). The tour included the following concerts:

Date Location Venue Special Guests
March 11–12, 2006 Taipei, Taiwan Taipei Arena Westlife, Mayday
April 18, 2006 Aichi, Japan Aichi Kousei-Nenkin Hall
April 19, 2006 Osaka, Japan Osaka Kousei-Nenkin Hall
April 21, 2006 Tokyo, Japan NHK Hall
August 12, 2006 Shanghai, PRC Shanghai Stadium Alan Ke
August 25–26, 2006 Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR Hong Kong Coliseum Jacky Cheung, Vanness Wu
October 21, 2006 Singapore Singapore Indoor Stadium Alan Ke
February 24–25, 2007 Uncasville, Connecticut, US Mohegan Sun Arena
March 4, 2007 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Bukit Jalil National Stadium JJ Lin
October 6, 2007 Nanjing, China Wutaishan Sports Center Elva Hsiao
December 22, 2007 Las Vegas, Nevada MGM Grand Garden Arena
December 23, 2007 San Francisco, California Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
January 11, 2008 Jakarta, Indonesia Sands Mangga Dua Square Idol Divo

Charts
Release Chart Peak position
December 30, 2005 G-music Top 20 1

Singles
Song Chart Peak position
Mistake in the Flower Fields Hito Chinese Charts 1
Kiss Goodbye Hito Chinese Charts 1
The Perfect Interaction Hito Chinese Charts 1
Big City, Small Love Hito Chinese Charts 1
Heroes of Earth Hito Chinese Charts 4
Beside the Plum Blossoms Hito Chinese Charts 3
The First Morning Hito Chinese Charts 2

References
  1. (in Chinese) Heroes of Earth Surpasses 1,000,000 Copies January 9, 2006. Retrieved June 1, 2007.
  2. (in Chinese) G-Music Charts Week 5 of 2006
  3. (in Chinese) G-Music Charts Archived August 10, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Sony Music Taiwan Heroes of Earth album info Archived July 17, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  5. (in Chinese) Sina.com 2006 Hong Kong TVB8 Awards Gold Songs nomination list December 17, 2006. Retrieved July 2, 2011
  6. (in Chinese) HITO Radio 2007 HITO Radio Music Awards winners list February 4, 2007. Retrieved April 20, 2011
  7. (in Chinese) IFPI Hong Kong 2006 IFPI Hong Kong Album Sales Awards winners list Archived July 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved April 19, 2011
  8. (in Chinese) sohu.com Jay Chou beats Jolin Tsai: Year-end sales chart released January 5, 2007. Retrieved March 21, 2011
  9. 王力宏新專輯將《霸王別姬》的感動唱出來
  10. "王力宏饶过麻吉弟弟". Archived from the original on March 10, 2012. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
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