Wu Bai

Background Information

“King of Chinese Rock”—– Singapore Strait Times
“King of Rock”—– San Jose Mercury News, USA

Wu Bai is one of the biggest Rock Stars in the Mandarin Music territory, which includes Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. He also has fans in Japan, USA, Canada and Australia. Throughout the years, he held numerous sold out concerts in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and the “House of Blues” in Los Angeles. His albums won many awards and also top the sales charts. He writes and produces his own album and also writes songs for many popular artists, including Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Faye Wang, Karen Mok, Vivian Hsu, Alan Tam, Nicolas Tse and Jolin Tsai.

When Wu Bai’s songs first appeared on the compilation album “Totally Untuned” (1990) and “Feast” (1991), the Taiwanese music scene took immediate notice of this unique singer-songwriter. He could write music and lyrics in both Mandarin and the Taiwanese dialect, as well as produce and arrange his own music, which was unheard of for a Taiwanese artist at that time. As if that wasn’t talent enough, Wu Bai’s ability for playing blues and rock guitar has amazed critics and audiences throughout the territory.

After writing and singing the theme songs for the successful soundtrack “Dust of Angels”, and releasing his first solo album “To Love Somebody Is the Happiest Thing” in 1992, Wu Bai was praised by music critics in Taiwan for creating enduring, new Taiwanese songs. The China Times Express honored “To Love Somebody Is the Happiest Thing” as the most innovative album of the year.

As he became known as Taiwan’s “King of Live Music”, Wu Bai needed a dedicated backing band to follow up his breakthrough album. With Shiao Ju on bass, Big Cat on keyboards and Dino Zavolta on drums, he created China Blue, a group of highly professional and experienced musicians to back him up on his mission to revolutionize Taiwanese rock.

Wu Bai fine-tuned his act with China Blue for two years by touring different cities around Taiwan and working on movie soundtracks before releasing his second album, “Wanderer’s Love Song” in 1994. To date this album has sold more than 600,000 copies in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, and produced the hit song “Wanderer’s Love Song”, which has been covered by many artists in their albums including Andy Lau.

In 1995, a live recording album, ”Wu Bai’s Live- Wasting Youth”, became a smash hit in Taiwan with sales over 600,000 copies to date. It produced hit song like “Express Love Letter” and reinforced Wu Bai & China Blue’s image as the country’s top live act.

In January 1996, Wu Bai & China Blue brought their powerful live show to Hong Kong for the first time to great success. Later that year they released the smash hit album “The End of Love”, which sold over 600,000 copies and was honored by the China Times and the United Evening News as one of the year’s Top 10 albums. The album also ranked in the Top 20 Music Videos of Channel [V] and was nominated by MTV channel for the best music video of the year. The hit single “The End of Love” was recognized as the best rock song of the year by English radio station ICRT. Another hit song, “Norwegian Forest”, captured the public’s imagination and still ranks as one of the top karaoke favorite in the Mandarin Music territory. On the strength of this incredible popularity, Wu Bai & China Blue also earned the honor of Best Group Idol of the year.

In September 1996, Wu Bai & China Blue held three sold-out concerts titled “Summer Night Wind” in Taipei, followed by a record-breaking outdoor concert series in four different Taiwanese cities. The four shows sold over 40,000 tickets, shattering all previous records by local and international acts.

The band’s momentum continued into 1997 with the release of a live album from the “Summer Night Wind” concerts. The album “Romantic Rock” has sold over 700,000 copies to date and produced the hit singles” Crying Man” and “Passive”. In May, the band hit the road for two very successful concerts in Malaysian and one show in Singapore. An EP released for the concert, “Wu Bai & China Blue Asia Touring ’97”, became the first EP to appear in the Malaysian Top 10 chart. In October, the band joined international superstars Gypsy Kings, Richard Marx and Faye Wang in Hong Kong for three sold out concerts for the Heineken Music Horizons Festival.

In 1998, Wu Bai release his new Taiwanese album “Lonely tree, Lonely Bird”, almost 10 songs become hit singles, sold over 700,000 copies in just a few months. The album won the great honor as the best album of the year from Taiwan’s most important Golden Music Award, among many other awards. In March, Wu Bai & China Blue held two sold-out concerts in Malaysia, the stand up rock concert never happened for Mandarin artist in Malaysia. From April to June, Wu Bai & China Blue held a concert series, “Air Alert”, including Taiwan and Singapore, marks a turning point not only for the Band, but is also a bold departure from the past and current direction of local concert production and artist promotion. Over 120,000 people join the concert series.

After successfully indorse Taiwan Beer in it’s new TV commercial, In June 1998, Wu Bai also appears in a Chinese movie” Beautiful New World”, plays the part of a street singer, he also writes and sings the title song for the movie.

In 1999, another movie that Wu Bai plays a part "The Personals" has very good box office sales. In November, Wu Bai released his latest Mandarin album "White Dove" and then started touring three cities in Taiwan. He held six sold out concerts in a gigantic tent called "Super Dome", which is also a ground breaking event for Taiwanese concert scene. The album and the concerts were the first big event after Taiwan’s devastating 921 earthquake, which comfort many people’s broken hearts. As a result, Wu Bai is voted as the most popular singer of the year, and also rank number three as the man of the year that outnumbered Taiwan’s President Lee.

In the year 2000, Wu Bai writes and sings the theme song for Taiwanese Puppet Movie "Legend of the Scared Stone". This time his backing music is from the full orchestra and he writes the lyrics as ancient Chinese. From March to April, Wu Bai and China Blue held three concerts in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. In Singapore, the Strait Times’ headline after the concert is "King of Chinese Rock", in Malaysia, the media headline is "Cult Master arrived, all congregation bowed." and in Hong Kong, audiences all stand up in the Stadium that has rules against standing up during concert. After these phenomenal concerts, Wu Bai sang at Taiwan’s new President’s Inauguration, Singapore’s National Day concert and Japan Fukuoka’s Music Festival. In Fukuoka, Japanese audiences all stand up and enjoy the Mandarin concert even though they don’t understand the lyrics.

Wu Bai also stars in world famous director Tsui Hark’s movie "Time & Tide" as the lead actor and wrote two songs for the movie soundtrack. The movie is released around the world and the movie soundtrack packed with “Wu Bai & China Blue 1992-2000 Movie Song Book” double CD is released in September. In Christmas Eve, 2000, Wu Bai & China Blue brought their famous act to the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, USA.

Wu Bai spent the first half-year of 2001 to travel to different cities in China to receive many music awards. He also went to the Deauville Film Festival in France to represent his lead role in the movie “Time & Tide”. In March 1, his book “Moonlight Symphony”, a photo book, was published. In March 31, Wu Bai & China Blue sang at Shanghai’s 80,000 people Stadium. This marks their first concert in China, which received 80,000 people’s applause. But most of all, Wu Bai & China Blue spent most of their times to build their dream studio in the year 2001. While the studio was under construction and the mixing console was made in England, Wu Bai wrote and produced a full album for Karen Mok, which received critics’ admiration and amazement since it’s an electronic music album. This Cantonese album “Golden Flower” produced several hit songs in Hong Kong. Wu Bai also wrote songs for artist like Faye Wang, Na Yin, Jacky Cheung and Judy Ongg in Japan.

By the end of 2001, a new album is produced from Wu Bai’s own Moon Light Studio: “Dream River”. After releasing the album, Wu Bai and China Blue were immediately on the road. They held three Pub tour concerts in Taiwan in January 2002. In May 1st, they had joined other major artists in Beijing’s People’s Stadium to celebrate China’s soccer team attending the World Cup 2002. From May 11th, Wu Bai and China Blue started their fourth Asian concert Tour “9 Heaven”, which include three concerts in Taiwan and two concerts in Singapore and Malaysia. A total of 80,000 audiences had attended the tour. This tour also celebrates Wu Bai and China Blue’s 10th year anniversary. Wu Bai also performed in Tokyo for the movie “Legend of the Sacred Stone” premier; several charity shows in Malaysia, Taipei and Taichung; and concerts in China’s Shan Yang and Hong Kong’s Winter Festival. Wu Bai also received many awards from China and Hong Kong which include China’s Southern City Newspaper to grant him Artist of the Year award. From “9 Heaven” concert, comes the live recording album “Winter Fire” which was released in December 2002. A photo book of the concert packed with Wu Bai’s lyrics collection from 1990 to 2002 “Wandering Soul” was also published.

In the year 2003, Wu Bai’s long lasting popularity lead him to endorse three products, the Taiwan Beer for the third year, a Gold accessory chain, and a Korean On-line Game. He also tried TV Drama’s acting in “Say Yes Enterprise” as one of the leading roles. In December, he joined a new Record Label, Avex/Cutting Edge and released a new album “Tear Bridge”. On Christmas Eve, 2003, Wu Bai & China Blue held their first solo concert in China, TienJin, followed by a solo concert in Beijing on Jan. 16, 2004.

On Feb. 29, 2004, Wu Bai & China Blue held a charity concert in Taipei called “Life Power”. The concert is a great success that produced one more concert in Kuala Lumpur and eight more concerts in six different cities in Taiwan called “Love Power”, also a live recording CD+DVD package released in Sep. called “Wu Bai’s Power” which produced the hit song ”Suddenly Myself”. Wu Bai also endorsed the first “Taipei TV Festival” and directed his first TV commercial for the Festival. On Jan., 2005, Wu Bai released his long waited Taiwanese album “Two Face Man” which produced the hit song “Taiwan Made”. With the shark mask on his face on the album cover and the new electronic music element blend in with rock music, it’s the talk of the town for music industry. On June 2005, a remix album of “Two Face Man” called “Go Pa” by Top 100 DJs in the world including Way Out West and Adam Freeland was released. “Two Face Man” also won Wu Bai the best male singer of the Golden Music Award.

Wu Bai & China Blue held four successful concerts in Atlantic City, San Francisco and the “House of Blues” in LA on March and April, 2005. The San Jose “Mercury News” did a cover story of Wu Bai and called him the ”King of Rock”. After the big success in the United States, Wu Bai returned to Taipei and held a sold out concert called “Li Hai” which featured a unique centre stage. He also lead a all star concert in August called “Taike Rock!” which aiming to boost the self esteem of Taiwanese youth and became a huge talk of the town. The “Taike Rock!” then became a festival that successful held in 2006 and 2007. Marc L. Moskowitz, a professor from the University of South Carolina writes in his book “Cries of Joy, Songs of Sorrow” that: “The growing popularity of Hokkien (Taiwanese dialect) music in Mandopop circles was almost singlehandedly brought about by singer/songwriter Wu Bai. His heavy Hokkien accent when singing in Mandarin Chinese, and his production of Taiyupop with a modern Mandopop rock style (in both melody and lyrics), have made Hokkien music more popular with youth in Taipei than it has ever been.”

Wu Bai & China Blue’s “Li Hai” concert was held in Shanghai on August, 2006, with a cheering full house and media’s great coverage. They also toured in Macau and Singapore. Wu Bai had a humorous appearance at the TV commercial of “Sampo Flat TV”. He also endorsed “Airwaves” chewing gum. On Oct. 2006, Wu Bai released his Mandarin album ”Innocent Years” which produced the hit song “Flower”. The “Flower Dance” that Wu Bai created became an instant hit in all over Taiwan. From children at the kinder garden to the housewives dance club to young people at the Karaoke’s all sing and dance to the song. Wu Bai & China Blue then held their eighth World tour “The Flower Tour” in Taipei, Tainan, Taichung, Hualien, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Vancouver, Los Angeles and Wenjou in 2007 and 2008. All the audience in all fourteen shows stood up and danced with Wu Bai to the “Flower Dance”. The concert tour also marked the 15th anniversary for Wu Bai & China Blue.

After the huge success of “The Flower Tour”, Wu Bai released a concept album “Spacebomb” in 2008. The album time-traveled to 2406 A.D. and look back to the present time to explore some universal issues. Wu Bai also showed his talent in photography and published his photography book “Wu Bai Scenery” in 2007 and his second photography book “Wu Bai Story” in 2009. Meanwhile, he endorsed the online game “The Journey of Wind and Fire” and the commercial slogan became a hit. He also endorsed the “Yusan Kaoliang Liquor” and ‘Whisbih drinks”. In 2009, Wu Bai started his ninth world tour “The Spacebomb Tour”. The Spacebomb tour was held in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Xian, Malaysia, Atlantic City and Beijing. The tour also produced a live recording album “Rock and Poetry” and a live tour DVD.

Wu Bai, as a symbolic figure of Taiwan, leads the band to perform the final show at the closing ceremony of the 2009 Kaohsiung World Game. At the end of his performance, the whole crowd of more than 40,000 people all danced the “Flower Dance” with Wu Bai! He also endorsed “2010 Taipei International Flora Expo” as the Environment Friendly Ambassador. Wu Bai & China Blue also brought their act to South Korea to Inchon Rock Festival in 2010.

From 2011 to present days, Wu Bai & China Blue keeps headline in numerous Music Festival across the Mandarin music territory including Taiwan, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, to name a few. They held a solo concert in Sydney Australia in September 2011. Release three new albums and three live recording albums and even one EDM remix album. Their 20th anniversary world tour “Big Thanks” started from June 2012 and then toured to 13 cities including Los Angeles, Kula Lumpur, Penang and Macau. From June 2014, the band started “Endless Shining Rock Hits” world tour to a total of 40 shows. Followed by three Taiwan only concert tours “South Wind” in 2017 to mark the band’s 25th anniversary. From August 2018, the band’s 14th concert tour series “Rock Star” kicks off from the prestigious Blue Note in Beijing.

Wu Bai keeps publishing his photography books and also held photo exhibition in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia’s gallery. He keeps writing and producing songs for fellow artist including Karen Mok. He traveled to Lesotho, Africa in January 2013 as the World Vision’s charity Ambassador. Wu Bai even performed ice skating at 2013 Taipei ”Artistry on Ice” with Olympic Gold medalists to perform his own “Flower Dance”! And walk the runway for Vivienne Westwood 2013 AW Fashion Show. He also endorsed audio brand Sennheiser, smart phone HUAWEI, and a mobile game ”Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. Wu Bai stars in 2016’s Malaysia Film “Mrs K” and 2017’s Chinese Film “The Thousand Faces of Dunjia” which produced by world famous director Tsui Hark.

Discography

To Love Somebody Is the Happiest Thing	– August 1992
Wanderer’s Love Song	– December 1994
Wu Bai’s Live－Wasting Youth	– July 1995
The End of Love	– June 1996
Romantic Rock	– January 1997
Lonely Tree, Lonely Bird	– January 1998
White Dove	– November 1999
1992 – 2000 Wu Bai & China Blue Movie Song Book
"Time & Tide" Movie Soundtrack	– September 2000
Dream River	– December 2001
Winter Fire－"9 Heaven" Concert Live	– December 2002
Tear Bridge	– December 2003
Love You Five Hundred Year－The Best of Wu Bai & China Blue	– May 2004
Wu Bai’s Power－Wu Bai & China Blue 2004 Live	– September 2004
Two Face Man	– January 2005
Go Pa－Remixes of Two Face Man	– June 2005
2005 "Li Hai" Concert Live	– December 2005
Innocent Years	– October 2006
Best of 1015	– June 2007
2007 "Flower" Concert Live	– December 2007
Spacebomb	– November 2008
Rock and Poetry	– December 2009
Spacebomb World Tour Live	– July 2010
One Way Ticket	– September 2011
Life Live	– December 2012
Endless Shining Sadness	– December 2013
Light and Heat	– June 2015
Nail Flower	– December 2016
Nail Flower EDM Remix	– September 2017
2016 "Two Face Showdown" Concert Live	– January 2018
Rang Shui Dao Liu	– July 2019
2018 “South Wind” Concert Live	– August 2020
White Start	– June 2023

AWARDS

The End of Love

– Top 10 Albums – China Times & United Evening News 1996

– Best Rock N’ Roll Song – ICRT 1996

– Channel [V] Top 20 Song of the year

Billboard Asian Best Composer Artist 1997

Romantic Rock

– Top Ten Album – Chinese Musician Association 1997

Top Ten Campus Star

– The Great Entertainment Daily 1998

Lonely Tree, Lonely Bird

– Best Album of the year – Golden Music Award 1999

– Top 10 Albums – China Times & Chinese Musician Association 1998

Most Popular Singer of the Year

-– China Times 1999

White Dove

– Channel [V] Top 20 Song of the Year 1999

Hong Kong YMC Music Channel Top Award

– Asian Best Composer Artist 1999

Singapore Golden Music Award 2000 Top Honor Award

My name

– Channel [V] Top 20 Songs of the year 2000

China Original Music Award 2000

– Most Popular Male Artist, Taiwan

– Best Composer Artist, Taiwan

China Pop Music Chart 2001

– Media Honor Award

MTV Most Wanted Artist 2001

MTV – CCTV 2001 Music Honors Beijing

– Artist of the year, Taiwan

China Original Music Award 2001

– Best Composer Artist

– Best Producer of the Year

Chinese Pop Music Award 2002

– Artist of the Year, Best Producer of the Year, Best Composer of the Year

China Pop Music Chart 2002

– Best Rock Album of the Year

Hong Kong Metro Radio Chinese Music Award

– Song of the Year “You Love Me”

Global Chinese Pop Music Chart 2002

– Song of the Year “You Love Me”

– Best Composer Artist

TVB 8 Golden Chart Award 2002

– Song of the Year “You Love Me”

– Best Rock Band, Best Song Arrangement, Best Music Video

Chinese Music Herald Award 2004

– Best Composer Artist

Two Face Man

– Top Ten Songs of the Year 2005 “Taiwan Made”

– Golden Music Award 2006, Best Male Singer

MTV – CCTV 2012 Music Honors Beijing

– Band of the year, Taiwan Hong Kong & Macau

Nail Flower

– Golden Music Award 2017, Best Taiwanese Album

– Top Ten Songs of the Year 2016 “Tunnel” and Top Ten Albums of the Year 2016

– Rock Artist of the Year 2017 and Best recording album “Nail Flower” (Chinese Music Media Award)

Film

A Beautiful New World – 1999 China
The Personals – 1999 Taiwan
Time & Tide – 2000 Hong Kong
New Police Story – 2004 Hong Kong
Arthur and the Minimoys – 2007 Taiwan (Voice Over)
Mrs K – 2016 Malaysia
The Thousand Faces of Dunjia – 2017 China

Television

Say Yes Enterprise – 2004 Taiwan
My Freedom Years – 2014 Taiwan

Book

Moonlight Symphony – 2001
Wandering Soul – 2002
Scenery – 2007
Story – 2009
Taipei – 2014
Taipei IG – 2016
Ski Resort – 2020