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Sky Wu takes stock of his career and life
in the aftermath of the runaway hit, 'A Special Love for a Special You'
'A Special Love for the Special You' was the song of 1990. A hit so monstrous in its impact it entrenched itself
at the No.1 spot on the charts for months on end. A tune so darn sticky even folks who can't tell Sammi Cheng from
Sammy Davis Jr can hum for you its chorus. A classic pop song so timeless (if a shade facile) in its appeal you
wonder how your dad ever successfully courted your mum when he didn't have this song to dedicate on the radio.
Such a song is both a boon and bane to the musician attached to it. While it generates plenty of dough, it also
usually dwarfs the singer's career. Forever. Remember Chumbawamba and 'Tubthumping?' Or Don McLean and 'American
Pie' (okay, 'Vincent' is pretty cool too)? Concrete Blonde and 'Joey?'
It takes a special kind of musician to beat the outsized shadow of his own monolithic success. Someone with a natural
born talent for crafting surefire pop humdingers, someone who probably bleeds music notes, someone who doesn't
care to prove anything because music--not chart-toppers--is its own reward.
Someone like Sky Wu. "I'll always be involved in making music one way or another," he says. "It
doesn't matter to me if I'm not the main artist. As long as I'm contributing to the creation of music, I know I'll
learn something new, something useful to me as a musician. If you don't have such a holistic attitude towards music
in this business, you'd feel very dejected every time you hear about the hot new singers who're replacing the older
artists on the
Eight years after 'Special Love', and 12 since he made his stammering, jittery entry into showbiz, Sky, 34 this
year, takes stock of his career and life with the compilation, Sharing With Sky Wu. And--surprise, surprise--it's
not the kind of CD where only one song (you know which one) is on permanent repeat mode. Many other tracks stand
up to the mammoth 'Special Love:' the elegiac 'Lonely Highway,' the nostalgic 'Sharing,' the heart-unabashedly-on-sleeve
'How to Say Love,' and the heartbreaking 'Autumn, Don't Come' to name some.
"Every song brings back memories of the time when it was written--what my feelings were like back then, the
point in my life at which the song was composed, and so on," he explains. "Some songs are written as
a result of a certain happiness in my life; others are the result of something not-so-happy. So listening to this
compilation makes me feel like I'm in a sauna: one moment, it's hot, and another it's cold."
Of course, his coterie of dedicated fans know that already. As a matter of fact, they know the lyrics to every
one of the songs he performed recently at the Hard Rock Cafe in Singapore. A few were seasoned journalists who
couldn't help but reveal themselves as smitten fans.
That's the kind of musician Sky is: not one with the most fanatical and most vocal of supporters, but one who inspires
discerning listeners to track his development through every surprising bend and prodigious hairpin turn. Lifelong
devotees, in other words; not adolescent fans who would be ashamed of their record collections when they eventually
mature (or develop gray matter, whichever comes first).
Indeed, the press conference held two days before the Hard Rock appointment quickly became an intimate reunion
with long-lost friends instead. Dispensing with the usual barrage of interview questions, the reporters assembled
at Sheraton Towers were--uncharacteristically--less interested in writing Sky up as just another story than in
getting to know the man on a more personal level.
On his part, Sky's the first artist who doesn't field press questions so much as shoot the breeze animatedly, converse
sincerely with interested folks. If you're recording the so-called conference, beware: a one-hour tape's nowhere
near enough for him to talk about his life and such.
He'll tell you about many things, including how he's been asked to be a music lecturer at a Taiwan university ("Thanks,
but no thanks, I'm not cut out to be one!"), but mostly, he can't get away from talking about music, so in
awe of its power is he.
"If I know what my weaknesses are as a musician, I'd want to work on it before someone else points it out
to me," Sky says. "I'd never be able to forgive myself if I were in charge of producing my own music
and it turns out very badly. Right from the beginning, my greatest fear has been that I had no musical talent or
aptitude.
"Nonetheless, the best change I noticed in myself in these last few years is that I'm able to let go of my
music more easily than before. I'm not so obsessive now. I know there'll be times when my music is at an ebb and
other times when it'll peak. At the very least, I'm thankful that my career hasn't reached a plateau with no visible
sign of progress." He should also be very thankful that he's managed to steer clear of the mountain that is
'Special Love'--one which would no doubt have crushed lesser souls. And Sky has only himself--and his passion for
music--to thank.
Copyright 1998-2001 "Skyzone" All Rights Reserved.
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