Kevin Yi

Kevin Yi is a renowned lyricist in the Chinese music industry. He had been nominated for Best Lyricist in the Golden Melody Awards, and played an important role in building the successful career of many artists, including Stefanie Sun, JJ Lin, Coco Lee, Chief Zhao and Yida Huang. Kevin is now an exclusive writer at Warner Chappell Music.


Career

Early career

Kevin started to write his first lyrics as a student, and would always carry a notebook with him to keep his writing ideas. In his early career in the music industry, he joined the Marketing department of Rock Records in Taiwan. Kevin’s first project was Chief Zhao’s “A Tiny Bird” (我是一隻小小鳥), and its success led many to recognize him for his great copywriting skills.[1][2]

Kevin then moved on to serving as an A&R, and later joined BMG Music as the Marketing and Promotion Director. At the same time, he had published numerous lyrics that became top selling hits. By working hard and focusing purely on generating the best content, Kevin has successfully built his reputation as a lyricist in the Chinese music industry.[3][4]

Songwriting

Kevin wrote the lyrics for the Chinese version of “A Love Before Time”, the theme song for the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This song was performed by Coco Lee and featured Yo-yo Ma for cello. It was also been nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards.[5]

At his time serving as the Marketing Director at Warner Music, Kevin made major contributions in the successful debut of artists like Stefanie Sun and Yida Huang. He has already accumulated many classic works at this point, including Leehom Wang’s “Forever’s First Day永遠的第一天”, Amei’s “Remember記得”, etc.[6][1]

Over the years, Kevin has written countless hits that received great popularity, including Stefanie Sun’s “Kite風箏”, “Love Dictionary愛情字典”, “Someone Like Me 同類”, “Encounter遇見”, F.I.R’s “Crescent Bay月牙灣”, and Khalil Fong’s “Fu Ke Hui Yi復刻回憶”, etc. The song Kevin wrote for JJ Lin in 2013, “Practice Love修煉愛情”, won Hito Pop Music Best 10 Singles, and Singapore Hit Awards Best 10 Singles.

Current career

Kevin continues to play various important roles in the Chinese music industry. As he’s remarkably fast in writing lyrics, he’s been given the nickname of “superman” by his fellow coworkers in the music industry. To date, Kevin has published over 1,000 songs written for various artists, including Eason Chen, JJ Lin, Stefanie Sun, Amei, S.H.E, Wanfang, Andy Lau, Jolin, Leehom Wang, Wilber Pan, and Jordan Chan. His recent works include Eason Chen’s “Soar披風”, JJ Lin’s “53 Dawns黑夜問白天”, Amei and Sandy Lam’s “Double Shadow雙影” (song from drama “Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace”), and Mayday Ashin’s “The Hidden Memories 隱形的紀念” (song for the exhibition “Where have all the flowers gone?”)[7][8]

Other than staying active in his lyricist career, he is also very involved in identifying new talents for the industry by developing new artists and serving as the panel judge for songwriting competitions.

Artistry

Style

Due to his Marketing background, Kevin knows how to customize lyrics for singers. He can identify what the public likes about the singer, and write lyrics that suit the artist’s style and speech. These songs helped to position and reinforce the singers’ public image. In fact, a lot of Kevin’s work have benefitted their singers to rise to prominence, including James Li’s “Man on Wire” (走鋼索的人)、Jordan Chan’s  “God, Save me” (神啊 救救我), Stefanie Sun’s “Encounter” (遇見), and JJ Lin’s “Practice Love” (修煉愛情).[4]

In his lyrics, Kevin also likes to illustrate scenarios in people’s daily lives. Through segments of scenes that everyone finds familiar, Kevin can make the listeners connect strongly to the song, and can guide the listeners to form a full picture in their mind that’s unique to themselves.[6][4]

Works
Song title Performed by Year
走鋼索的人 李泉 1999
永遠的第一天 王力宏 2000
記得 張惠妹 2001
遇見 孫燕姿 2001
月光愛人（電影「臥虎藏龍」主題曲） 李玟 2001
狠角色 張惠妹 2002
愛上未來的你 潘瑋柏 2003
同類 孫燕姿 2004
匿名的寶貝 黃義達 2004
單身情歌 林志炫 2004
燃燒 孫楠 2004
月牙灣 F.I.R.飛兒樂團 2007
復刻回憶 薛凱琪、方大同 2008
愛都是對的 胡夏 2010
無聲情歌 辛曉琪、齊秦 2012
修煉愛情 林俊傑 2013
披風 陳奕迅 2017
黑夜問白天 林俊傑 2017
雙影（戲劇「如懿傳」主題曲） 張惠妹、林憶蓮 2018
隱形的紀念 五月天阿信 2019

[3][8]

Awards and recognition

With his lyrics 地下鐵 (Singer: 鍾漢良, Composer: 邰正宵), Kevin was nominated for the Best Lyricist Award in the 10th Golden Melody Award, 1999.[9]

References
  1. Müst音樂著作典藏計畫 (2015-03-06). "MÜST音樂著作典藏計劃: 走鋼索的人—不安於室的古典靈魂". MÜST音樂著作典藏計劃. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  2. "易家扬谈最难忘制作经历 难忘与成龙摸鲨鱼(图)_影音娱乐_新浪网". ent.sina.com.cn. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  3. WCMTWN (WCMTWN). "作者介紹: 易家揚老師 @ 華納版權台灣官方部落格 :: 痞客邦 ::". 華納版權台灣官方部落格 (in Chinese). Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  4. 宋子轩 高培蕾. "易家扬：创作人要真正成功，就不要总去试图写"会卖钱的歌"". 音乐财经CMBN.
  5. "李玟再唱《卧虎藏龙》主题曲 愿携手再进奥斯卡-搜狐音乐". music.yule.sohu.com. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  6. Müst音樂著作典藏計畫 (2014-10-24). "MÜST音樂著作典藏計劃: 遇見—各自獨立卻又互相交錯的「遇見」". MÜST音樂著作典藏計劃. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  7. MAXMUSIC (2019-04-27). "《查無此人－小花計畫展》4/27台北當代藝術館開幕，一張流行音樂概念專輯、一場紀錄回憶的當代藝術特展". MaxMusic | 極限音樂誌 (in Chinese). Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  8. "林憶蓮、張惠妹破天荒合作 《双影》唱出「如懿傳」愛恨揪心". KKBOX (in Chinese). Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  9. "文化部影視及流行音樂產業局-歷屆得獎入圍名單". www.bamid.gov.tw. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
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