Khalil Fong, a Hong Kong singer-songwriter who infused a soul and R&B sensibility into Chinese language pop songs, died on Feb. 21. He was 41.
His loss of life was announced on Saturday by his document label, Fu Music. The announcement didn’t say the place Mr. Fong had died or specify a reason behind loss of life, but it surely mentioned he had battled a “relentless sickness” for 5 years.
Beloved for its soulful vocals and distinctive mix of soul and Mandarin pop, Mr. Fong’s music discovered an viewers in Hong Kong, mainland China and far of the broader Chinese language-speaking world.
“Attempting to introduce soul music, or soul R&B, was not the best factor,” he mentioned in a 2016 interview with The South China Morning Post, noting that the style was not extensively embraced within the area. “One of many issues I wished to do was to introduce such a music inside the context of Chinese language language.”
He broke into the favored music scene in 2005, when Warner Music Hong Kong launched his funky, syncopated debut album, “Soulboy.” Within the following decade, he launched eight albums and carried out in stadiums and huge live performance halls all over the world, sporting his signature thick black glasses.
However Mr. Fong’s profession was reduce brief by well being issues, and in recent times he had largely retreated from the general public eye. Inspiration by no means stopped flowing, nevertheless, and he sporadically launched singles.
He recorded his ultimate album, “The Dreamer,” throughout what he described as numerous phases of sickness, the character of which he by no means disclosed.
Making the music was “each a problem and a aid from the moderately tedious circumstance” of sick well being, he wrote on Instagram when the album was released in October.
“I had tons of notes and concepts, music buildings and lyrics jotted down and at any time when I might handle, I’d progressively chip away at them,” he added.
Khalil Fong, whose Chinese language title 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 assortment of blues and soul information from the Fifties, ’60s and ’70s. His mom was a language trainer who later turned his full-time enterprise supervisor and was credited in some songs as a lyricist.
When Mr. Fong was 5, the household moved to Shanghai, the place they lived for a number of years. After a quick stint in Guangzhou, they settled in Hong Kong. He started studying guitar and writing music as a young person, and he was quickly submitting demo tapes to document labels.
He was 22 when “Soulboy” was launched. Extra albums, amongst them “Love Love Love,” “Orange Moon” and “Timeless,” adopted in fast succession, together with world excursions.
His interpretations of American hits like “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You” and “Red Bean,” a Chinese language ballad by the favored singer Faye Wong, accrued thousands and thousands of views on-line.
Whereas most pop musicians in Hong Kong sang in Cantonese, he acknowledged in interviews that he didn’t really feel comfy singing in what was his third language. He largely sang in Mandarin and English.
In 2016, he based the impartial label Fu Music, saying he wished it to pay tribute to each Chinese language and Western influences.
“JTW,” named after the Ming-dynasty Buddhist epic “Journey to the West,” was launched that yr. The album included collaborations with two South Korean pop stars, Zion T. and Crush, in addition to the Taiwanese-American pop star Wang Leehom.
In 2018, Mr. Fong started publishing “Emi the Dream Catcher,” a fantasy graphic novel sequence he wrote in Chinese language and English, a couple of lady who has lucid desires that assist her perceive her place on this planet.
“I believe these tales are a reminder to myself and others of the issues we ought to be aware of, to create a greater society for future generations,” he mentioned in an interview at the time.
He didn’t disclose that he had been fighting well being issues till 2024, when he launched “The Dreamer,” his final album.
“In life we’re every confronted with challenges however by all of it let’s not neglect the way to be dreamers,” he wrote.
Full details about Mr. Fong’s survivors was not accessible. He mentioned in interviews that he was an solely youngster and had no kids himself.
He just lately informed Chinese language-language media retailers that he hoped to begin touring once more and had plans for brand new music. Only a few weeks in the past, he promoted the video for “Oasis,” a music from “The Dreamer.”
The album was wide-ranging. Its songs included a tongue-in-cheek rebuttal to an web rumor that he had taken up farming and a whimsical review of the “Godfather” trilogy: “It was good but it surely was unhappy/ Mike was good and Mike was unhealthy / However largely mad and lonely.”
Most poignant, maybe, was how he conveyed the swift passage of time. Many songs on the album, together with the final one, “Not Much Left to Say,” ended abruptly midsentence, simply earlier than he might full the thought.
Oh, my love, I might need you to remain
However the fact’s telling me
That there’s nothing right here left to …
