Best-selling Mainland Duo, Phoenix Legend, Releases Wuxia-inspired Single
Mainland China’s best-selling pop duo, Phoenix Legend (凤凰传奇), recently made a comeback with their wuxia-inspired single, “Flying Skies” <飞天>, the theme song to the 3D online game, Dragon Gate Inn <龙门客栈>.
Phoenix Legend, a hip hop duo managed by Peacock Records, comprises of female vocalist, Yangwei Linghua (杨魏玲花) from Inner Mongolia, and rapper Zeng Yi (曾毅) from Hunan. The duo has released five full-length studio albums since their debut; their first full-length album, Above the Moon <月亮之上>, was released in April 2005. Phoenix Legend has sold over 6 million albums since 2005, making them one of mainland China’s best-selling recording artists.
The group is well-known for producing upbeat modern music that uniquely blends with traditional folk music styles. Their 2009 single, “Hottest Ethnic Trend“ <最炫民族风>, became the best-selling song of all-time in mainland China, with over 100 million downloads to date. The single also became the most-performed and most-covered song in mainland China.
With powerful vocals and an ethnic music accompaniment, “Flying Skies” retains the duo’s original folk flavor. The power ballad is produced by Ding Yu, who has previously worked on the duo’s fifth album, 2012’s China Taste <中国味道>. According to Phoenix Legend, Ding Yu had been slowly “brewing” the song in the studios since three years ago.
When recording the song, Yangwei Linghua expressed that she imagined herself playing the old PC game The Smiling, Proud Wanderer <笑傲江湖> in order to emerge herself into the state of a wandering vagabond video game character. Zeng Yi also joked that he regrets not drinking before the recording of the song.
“Flying Skies” MV
[vsw id=”-UDmCqJWyOU” source=”youtube” width=”500″ height=”375″ autoplay=”no”]
Sources: Chinadaily.com; Xinhuanet.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Very nice. Ill check out their other stuff too.
Hell to the yeah! This song is very good, and both are very good singers with very distinct voices.
Great song. Great MV? Like it very much. Hope I can buy the CD here in the Philippines.
You can order it online…
Glad everyone enjoyed Phoenix Legend’s new song! I was struck by their powerful vocals. Excited to discover more mainland artists and feature more of their works on our site.
There are many good singers from Mainland. Another duo that I am a big fan of is Qing Niao Fei Yu/Blue Bird Flying Fish. They are another duo with really strong vocals and nice songs. I hope you will include articles and songs about them Jayne.
HeTieShou,
I’ll keep an eye out for their new music! Thanks!
Jayne,
Thanks hope to see articles about there here. One of their most known songs is the subsong from Chinese Paladin 3, 此生不换. Have you heard that song yet?? I was trying to find a link for it on youtube but can’t find one right now.