Kenny Bee

Last updated

Kenny Bee
KennyBee2007.jpg
Born
Chung Chun-to

(1953-02-23) 23 February 1953 (age 70)
Occupations
  • Musician
  • singer
  • songwriter
  • actor
Years active1973–present
Spouses
(m. 1988;div. 1999)
Fan-jiang Su-zhen
(m. 2014)
Children4
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 鍾鎮濤
Simplified Chinese 钟镇涛
Musical career
Genres Cantopop, Mandopop, Hong Kong English pop
Instrument(s)
  • Vocals
  • keyboards
  • guitar
  • saxophone

Chung Chun-to (born 23 February 1953), also known by his stage name Kenny Bee, is a Hong Kong singer, musician and actor. He is best known as the singer of the group the Wynners, and as a solo artist who has been active in the Hong Kong entertainment industry for nearly three decades.

Contents

Career

Bee made his break into the Hong Kong entertainment industry in 1973 as a member of the popular 1970s band, the Wynners (溫拿樂隊), sharing vocal duties with Alan Tam. Before joining the Wynners, he was a vocalist and saxophonist on the Hong Kong nightclub circuit, and briefly fronted a band called the Sergeant Majors.

Acting

As members of the Wynners went separate ways in 1978, Bee embarked on a solo career as an actor in Taiwan, playing lead roles in a number of romantic movies, amongst which were The Story of a Small Town , (directed by Li Hsing, 1979), Good Morning, Taipei (directed by Li Hsing, 1979), both of which won the Golden Horse Award, and The Green, Green Grass of Home (directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1983).

In the eighties Bee moved his base back to Hong Kong, and has since amassed a large number of movie credits, mainly in the genre of romantic comedies. Career highlights include "Let's Make Laugh" (directed by Alfred Cheung, 1983), "Shanghai Blues" (directed by Tsui Hark, 1984), "Fist of Fury 1991" (with Stephen Chow, 1991), "the Chinese Feast" (directed by Tsui Hark, 1995) and "Initial D" (directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, 2005). In addition, he was credited as the director for "100 Ways to Murder Your Wife" (starring himself, Chow Yun-fat and Anita Mui, 1986).

Musicianship

Alongside acting, Bee develops his career as a solo singer-songwriter and has released over fifty studio and compilation albums, in Cantonese, Mandarin and English, to date. The 1980s marked the peak of Bee's popularity with the Hong Kong audience so far, during which four of his studio albums went gold and two went platinum. [1] Notable hits from this period include "Let Everything Be Gone With the Wind" (讓一切隨風), "If We Were Meant To Be" (要是有緣) and "A Romance" (一段情).

Known for a distinct, husky voice, the singer penned most of his own hits and plays multiple instruments. In the early days he was often seen on stage with keyboards or a saxophone. In recent performances he usually accompanies himself with a guitar.

Bee released his latest Cantonese solo album, Escape (濤出新天), in December 2006, backed by his new band Black Tea.

Recently, Bee partnered with violin luthier Scott Cao to design their own line of classical guitars, "Bonstar." In 2008, Bee performed a series of solo concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum, as well as in Singapore and Macau. Aside from working solo, the Wynners continued their world tour.

Personal life

Bee has a blood brother and six half brothers and sisters, with his father a former real estate agent. [2] He married socialite-turned-actress Teresa Cheung in 1988, with whom he had a son, Nicholas Bee, and a daughter, Chloe Bee. The marriage ended in a high-profile divorce in 1999, feeding tabloids with stories on extramarital affairs, lavish spending habits and financial troubles for many months to come. Bee filed for personal bankruptcy in 2002, which expired on 17 October 2006.

He is currently living with his second wife Fan Jiang, with whom he has two daughters, Chung Yee (Blythe Belle) and Chung Kwok.

In December 2007, Bee released an autobiography, MacDonnell Road , named after a street in Hong Kong he grew up on.

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1975Let's Rock
1976Gonna Get You
1977Rainbow in My Heart
Chelsia, My Love
1978Making It
1979 The Story of a Small Town
Good Morning, Taipei
All's Well that Does Well
1980Sai Fung Dik Ku Heung
The Spooky Bunch
Cute Girlaka Lovable You
Don't Forget the Promise
Spring in Autumn
Burning Love
Love Comes from the Sea
1981Errant Love
My Cape of Many Dreams
Another Springaka Once Again with Love
Bang Bang Yat Chun Sam
The Funniest Movie
Undated Wedding
Fung Kwong Sai Kai
The Land of the Brave
Special Treatment
Cheerful Wind
Lucky By Chance
1982 Crimson Street
Six is Company
The Green, Green Grass of Home
Ye Sing Dik Ching Chun
1983Let's Make Laugh
1984Prince Charming
And Now What's Your Name
The Funny General
Shanghai Blues
1985The Flying Mr. B
1986Strange Bedfellow
100 Ways to Murder Your Wife
Millionaire's Express Fook Loi
1987To Err is Humane
Armour of God Band member
Reincarnation
My Cousin, the Ghost
My Heart is that Eternal Rose
Project A Part II
The Happy Bigamist
1988Mr. Possessed
One Husband Too Many
18 Times
Spy Games
1989 Happy Together
A Fishy Story
Burning Sensation
City Squeeze
Bachelor's Swan Song Chan Chi-Nam
Hearts No Flowers
Miracles cameo
My Heart Is That Eternal Rose
1990BB30
1991Sisters of the World Unite
Mainland Dundee
Top Bet
Today's Hero
Fist of Fury 1991 Smart
1992 Fist of Fury 1991 II
Mary from Beijing aka Awakening
Once a Black Sheep
Saviour of the Soul Siu-Chuen
The Ape which Turned into a Man
1993 The Eagle Shooting Heroes Wong Chung-Yeung
The Tigers: the Legend of Canton
Rose, Rose I Love You
The Moon Warriors Emperor Yen Ling
1994 Smoke Amongst the Floor  [ zh ] [3] Yuhang Jiang/Zeng
1995Ten Brothers
The Chinese Feast Kit
1996What a Wonderful Life
Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star
1998Ninth Happiness
2000 Healing Hearts
2002 Happy Family Mr Han
Troublesome Night 16 Sung Kong
2004Super Model
Elixir of Love
Leave Me Alone
2005 Initial D Yuichi Tachibana
A Chinese Tall Story
2006 Shanghai Red
The Return of the Condor Heroes Gongsun Zhi
2007It's a Wonderful Life
2010 Just Another Pandora's Box
Shanghai Blue
2011Mr. Zhai
A Land without Boundaries
East Meets West 2011
2012100% Kiss
Together
2013The Rooftop
Traversal 101
Star of Bethlehem
2018 Air Strike
House of the Rising Sons
2019 Fagara Ha Leung

[4] [5]

Discography

Cantonese albums

Mandarin albums

English albums

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anita Mui</span> Hong Kong singer and actress (1963–2003)

Anita Mui Yim-fong was a Hong Kong singer and actress who made major contributions to the Cantopop music scene and received numerous awards and honours. She remained an idol throughout her career, and is regarded as a Cantopop diva. She was dubbed as the "daughter of Hong Kong" and is considered one of the most iconic Cantopop singers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priscilla Chan (singer)</span> Hong Kong pop singer

Priscilla Chan Wai-han is a Hong Kong-based veteran pop singer who focuses on the genre of Cantopop. She is renowned for her contralto singing voice, and her maturely clear, technically skilled and emotion-rich vocals.

Eric Moo Chii Yuan, better known as Eric Moo or Wu Qixian, is a Malaysian Chinese award-winning singer-songwriter and record producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Lam</span> Hong Kong singer-songwriter, music producer and actor

George Lam Tsz-Cheung, also known professionally by his surname Lam, is a Hong Kong-based veteran Cantopop singer, singer-songwriter, music producer and actor, with a career that has so far lasted more than four decades. Lam produces most of his own albums, writes many of his own songs, occasionally writes for other artists, and covers other people's songs. Lam has a wide vocal range and is capable of interpreting and performing many different genres of music. He is heavily involved with planning and designing his concerts and his LP/CD covers. He was the one who came up with the first Cantopop rap, "Ah Lam's Diary", and he also pioneered the stringing together of multiple hit Cantopop songs to create a 10-minute long medley which is called "10 Minutes 12 Inches". In 2019, Lam interwove his songs together to put on a musical-like concert, Lamusical.

Dave Wang is a Hong Kong-Taiwanese singer, songwriter and actor. His popular hits in the late 1980s,early 1990s and 2000s include "一場遊戲一場夢" and "幾分傷心幾分痴", "是否我真的一無所有", "誰明浪子心", "忘了你 忘了我", "為了愛夢一生", "今生無悔", "英雄淚", "傷心1999"(Sadness 1999) and "不浪漫罪名" etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ah Niu</span> Malaysian Chinese singer

Tan Kheng Seong, better known by his stage name Ah Niu or Ah Gu, is a Malaysian Chinese singer in Malaysia and Singapore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timi Zhuo</span> Musical artist

Timi Cho or Cho I-ting is a singer and actress from Taiwan. She has recorded over 800 songs in Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien, and 2 songs in Cantonese.

This is the discography of the Taiwan-based American R&B singer Wang Leehom. Wang has released sixteen Mandarin albums, two Japanese albums, three compilation albums, and fifteen Mandarin, Japanese, and Cantonese singles. He has contributed to over 10 movie soundtracks and collaborated on several other studio albums, including but not limited to the Asian editions of Tony Bennett's Duets: An American Classic and Kenny G's At Last... The Duets Album. In addition to his own music, Leehom has composed, produced, and had lyrical credits for numerous other musical artists.

This is the discography of Cantopop artist Sally Yeh.

<i>Our Love</i> (Twins album) 2007 compilation album by Twins

Our Love is the 26th CD by the Cantopop duo Twins and is their third greatest hits album. The album was released in February 2007 to celebrate 6 years since the group formed. It consists of 3 discs; a total of 52 songs, most of which were chart-topping hits.

Ceremonies of the 19th Golden Melody Awards were held in Taipei, Taiwan in 2008. Nominees were announced on May 22, 2008, and the award winners in 12 traditional music categories and 23 popular music categories were selected by a panel of 33 judges after four rounds of jury meetings. Initially, there were 10,632 submissions from 185 companies in the music industry, making it the largest submission pool in the Awards' history.

Ceremonies of the 20th Golden Melody Awards were held at the Taipei Arena in Taipei, Taiwan on June 27, 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarcy Su</span> Taiwanese singer and actress

Tarcy Su is a Taiwanese singer and actress who was most popular in the 1990s during her recording career with Rock Records. She has released three albums since 2002. In 2021, she was nominated for Best Female Mandarin Singer in the 32nd Golden Melody Awards for her rendition in Every Side of Me.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wanfang</span> Musical artist

Lin Wanfang, professionally known as Wanfang, is a Taiwanese singer, actress and radio DJ. She is renowned for her sonorous, gentle soft voice and probably best known for being the original theme singer of the film C'est la vie, mon chéri (新不了情).

<i>Love Addict</i> (album) 2011 studio album by Prudence Liew

Love Addict is the 14th studio album and second mandopop album by Hong Kong singer Prudence Liew. This album marks the first Mandarin language studio album release from Liew since 愛自己 Love Yourself was released in Taiwan in 2000. This album is a cover album that consists entirely of songs that were originally sung by male singers. This is the first in a series of three cover albums released by Liew in three different languages: the Cantonese album 偷 Stolen Moments came after in July 2012, and an English album titled Reincarnated Love released in July 2017.

<i>Love Love Love</i> (Linda Chung album) 2012 studio album by Linda Chung

Love Love Love is the fourth album by Linda Chung, and was released on 13 November 2012. It contains 11 tracks, of which 3 are Mandarin while the rest are Cantonese. "The Moon Represents My Heart" is a remake of a famous song from the artist Teresa Teng. In an interview, Chung expressed that the album's main theme was the idea of happiness. Whilst at a promotional event for lovelovelove, Linda also stated that she has now saved enough songs to hold a concert.

<i>Heibao</i> (album) 1992 album by Chinese rock band Black Panther

Heibao is the self-titled debut album by seminal Chinese rock band Black Panther, released August 1991 in Hong Kong on Kinn's Management Ltd. and December 1, 1992 in China and Taiwan on Magic Stone Records.

George Leong is a Singaporean musician, producer and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teresa Teng discography</span>

This is the discography of Taiwanese pop singer Teresa Teng.

<i>See You in Time</i> 2017 Taiwanese television series

See You in Time is a 2017 Taiwanese television series created and produced by SETTV. It stars Hans Chung, Mini Tsai, Esther Huang and David Chiu as the main cast. Filming began on 23 September 2017 and ended in 20 March 2018. It was first broadcast on 10 December 2017 on TTV and airs every Sunday night from 10pm to 11.30pm.

References

  1. "Gold Disc Award" Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (Hong Kong Group) Ltd. (IFPI Hong Kong). Retrieved 19 July 2007
  2. 10-point Hall of Fame – Kenny Bee (part 1) (Mandarin) on YouTube
  3. Chiung Yao#煙鎖重樓
  4. "Kenny Bee". IMDb. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  5. "Kenny Bee". chinesemov.com. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  6. 佛誕吉祥 on YouTube