Khalil Fong, a Hong Kong songwriter who died his soul and R&B sensibility in the Chinese pop songs, died on February 21st. He was 41 years old.
His death was announced On Saturday from his record label, Fu Music. The announcement did not say where Mr. Fong died or specified the cause of death, but it is stated that he had fought “relentless illness” for five years.
Beloved because of her mental vocals and a recognizable compound of the soul and mandarin pop, Mr. Fong’s music found the audience in Hong Kong, continental China and most of the wider world speaking of Chinese.
“An attempt to introduce mental music, or Soul R&B, was not the easiest thing,” he said in 2016 interview. For the southern Chinese morningNoting that the genre was not widely accepted in the region. “One of the things I wanted to do was present this type of music in the context of Chinese.”
He boarded the popular music scene in 2005, when Warner Music Hong Kong released his funky, a syncopated debut album “Soulboy”. In the next decade, he has released eight albums and performed at stadiums and major concert halls around the world, carrying his thick black signing glasses.
But Mr. Fong’s career was interrupted by health problems, and in recent years he mostly withdrew from the public eye. The inspiration, however, never stopped flowing, and sporadically published singles.
He recorded his latest album “The Dreamer”, during what he described as different stages of illness, whose nature never revealed.
Creating music was “both a challenge and relief from rather tedious circumstances” of bad health, he wrote On Instagram when the album was released in October.
“I had a ton of notes and ideas, the structure of songs and texts written and whenever I could manage, I would gradually separate them,” he added.
Khalil Fong, whose name was Fong Tai-Tung, was born on July 14, 1983 in Hawaii.
His father was a drummer, and Mr. Fong grew up listening to his collection of Blues and the 1950s, the 1960s and 1970s. His mother was a language teacher who later became his full -time business manager and was touched in some songs as a songwriter.
When Mr. Fong was 5, the family moved to Shanghai, where they lived for several years. After a short stay in Guangzhou, they settled in Hong Kong. He started learning the guitar and writing music as a teenager, and soon handed over the Demo tape to the sticker recording.
He was 22 years old when “Soulboy” was published. More albums, including “Love Love Love”, “Orange Moon” and “Timeless”, followed in a fast succession, along with the World Tours.
His interpretation of American hits like “Nothing will change my love for you“AND”Red beans“The Chinese Ballad of Popular Singer Faye Wong, has accumulated millions of inspections online.
While most pop musicians in Hong Kong sang at Canton, in interviews he admitted that he did not feel comfortable singing in his third language. He mostly sang in Mandarina and English.
In 2016, he founded an independent label Fu Music, saying that he wanted to pay tribute to both Chinese and Western influences.
“JTW”, named after the Buddhist epic of the Ming-Dinasty “Journey to the West,” was published that year. The album included collaboration with two South Korean pop stars, Zion T. and Crush, as well as the Taiwan-American pop star Wang Leehoma.
In 2018, Mr. Fong began publishing ”Emperor of dreams“A series of fantastic graphic novels he wrote in Chinese and English, about a girl who has lucid dreams who help her understand her place in the world.
“I think these stories are a reminder for yourself and others about things we should keep in mind, to create a better company for future generations,” he said Interview at that time.
He did not reveal that he had struggled with health problems until 2024, when he introduced “The Dreamer”, his last album.
“We have faced challenges in life, but through all this, don’t forget how to be dreamers,” he wrote.
The complete information about Mr. Fong’s survivors were not available. In interviews, he said he was the only child and had no children himself.
He recently told the media in Chinese that he hoped he would start a tour again and had plans for new music. Just a few weeks ago, promoted a video for “Oasis,” The song “The Dreamer”.
The album was wide. His poems included linguistic rebuttal of an internet rumor that he took over agriculture ia a whimsical view of the “godfather” trilogy: “It was good, but it was sad / Mike was good and Mike was bad / but mostly crazy and lonely.”
Perhaps the scariest way was how he conveyed a quick passage of time. Many songs on the album, including the last, “There was not much left to say“He ended up suddenly, just before he was able to complete the thought.
Oh my love, I could wish you stay
But the truth tells me
That there is nothing here …
