Artist Of The Month: Leo Ku's Early Days

Being one of the A-list artist in Hong Kong, had comes a long way for Leo Ku. I remember him from the TVB drama series as a small roles like 笑看风云(1995)。His boyish, bright sunshine image made a good impression as a young artist at that time.

He started out from TVB, Hong Kong's biggest TV station and most influential in music scene, as a host on a kids programme. Within a year, he cross path to actings and guest starred at numberous MV. His singing career started out with a boom, even Alan Tam, a highly reputated artist, named him as a talented young lad that will achieve big success in future. Alan Tam rarely praise other in such a loud manner, and this create a huge attention to this young Leo Ku.

His debut, Explanation Of Love(愛的解釋)(1994), which aimed at the teenage and young kids range, had spurs off a couples hits like Blue Sky & White CLouds(蓝天与白云), an up-tempo pop song. The album also revolves around cheesy pop song and songs from dramas around that time he acted in. In another 6 months, his record company quickly utilised his new found fame by releasing a second album, Smile, Think, Talk(笑說想)(1995). Lead single, Smile, Think, Talk(笑說想) is written by Leo Ku himself, also manage to topped his previous album success. However, none other songs from the album manage to become hits.

In effort to mature into a establish artist, he teams up with a new & upcoming producer, Zhang Kai Tian(张佳添), who later an important music producer for his entire career, to produce his 3rd solo album, Actually I..I..I..(其實我...我...我...)(1995). This album is a total change to his previous chessy pop song, into a more indie, rockier sound. It was a unique for the canto-pop for those days. However, the lack of promotions leads to the album achieve less success, but surprisely the album sales didn't drop that much as expected. The lack of support comes from the fuse being sparks up when Leo refuse to renew his management contract with TVB and in "revenge", Leo Ku was put "frozen" for 6 months until his management contracts ends. "Frozen" is a common punishment for big records or management companies to their un-coperative artists.


By the time his contract to is due, he sign to his record company, Music Impact's management division. A release of a greates hit, Second Most Loved (第二最愛), to remind his fans that he is back, and this complilation becomes his first break-out. The lead single, Second Most Loved (第二最愛), had witten his new musical directions as he becomes the first male artist to experiment with false tone(假音) and creates a signature of his own(R&B twisted fusion with Rock). This complilation bring the awareness back to his songs from his previous album. He is earned numeberous award this year with that song, and writes the path for his next biggest hits......

.....next ENJOY YOURSELF TONIGHT(歡樂今宵)