''Heroes of Earth'' () is American-

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, ...

R&B

Mandopop Mandopop or Mandapop refers to Standard Chinese, Mandarin popular music. The genre has its origin in the jazz-influenced popular music of 1930s Shanghai known as Shidaiqu; with later influences coming from Japanese enka, Hong Kong's Cantopop, Ta ...

singer-songwriter

Leehom Wang Wang Leehom (; born May 17, 1976), sometimes credited as Leehom Wang, is an American singer-songwriter, actor, producer, and film director. Formally trained at Eastman School of Music, Williams College and Berklee College of Music, his music i ...

's eleventh Mandarin studio album. It was released on December 30, 2005, by

Sony Music Taiwan Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

. Since Wang's debut, this album is the most successful, shipping more than 1,000,000 copies within ten days of release. The album peaked at number one on Taiwan's G-Music Top 20 Charts for 6 weeks. and charted for 23 weeks.

About the album

In this album, Wang continued to experiment with "chinked-out", the musical genre he had invented for his previous album, ''

Shangri-La Shangri-La is a fictional place in Asia's Kunlun Mountains (昆仑山), Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel ''Lost Horizon'' by English author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, ge ...

''. This time he incorporated ancient Chinese

Peking Opera Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognize ...

and

kunqu Kunqu (), also known as Kunju (), K'un-ch'ü, Kun opera or Kunqu Opera, is one of the oldest extant forms of Chinese opera. Kunqu is one of the oldest traditional operas of the Han nationality, and is also a treasure of Chinese traditional cult ...

instead of the Chinese ethnic minority music he had used in ''Shangri-La''.　 In this album, Wang also collaborated with numerous other artists such as Chinese-American rapper Jin,

Mayday Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiza ...

vocalist

Ashin Chen Hsin-hung (); Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Chhîn Sìn-fên, nicknamed Ashin (;Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: A-sìn), born 6 December 1975, is a Taiwanese singer-songwriter, author, and the vocalist of the Taiwanese band Mayday. Ashin majored in art in college, whe ...

, opera singer Li Yan, as well with Korean artists

Rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...

and Lim Jeong Hee. He named the album ''Heroes of Earth'' in reference to his admiration for those he has collaborated with in this album.

Reception

The track "花田錯" (Mistake in the Flower Fields) was nominated for ''Top 10 Gold Songs'' at the Hong Kong TVB8 Awards, presented by television station

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and TVB ...

8, in 2006. The track, "Kiss Goodbye" won one of the ''Top 10 Songs of the Year'' and the album won ''Longest Number 1 Album'' at the 2007 HITO Radio Music Awards presented by Taiwanese radio station Hit FM. The album was awarded one of the ''Top 10 Selling Mandarin Albums of the Year'' at the 2006 IFPI Hong Kong Album Sales Awards, presented by the Hong Kong branch of

IFPI The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 19 ...

. It is the third best selling album in Taiwan with 140,000 copies sold in 2006. sohu.co
Jay Chou beats Jolin Tsai: Year-end sales chart released
January 5, 2007. Retrieved March 21, 2011

Track listing

#在梅邊 ''Beside the Plum Blossoms'' (Zai Mei Bian) #花田錯 ''Flower Field Mistake'' (Hua Tian Cuo) #蓋世英雄 ''Heroes of Earth'' (Gai Shi Ying Xiong) (featuring

MC Jin Jin Au-Yeung (; born June 4, 1982), known professionally as MC Jin, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor and comedian of Chinese descent. Jin is notable for being the first Asian American solo rapper to be signed to a major record label ...

) #''Kiss Goodbye'' #完美的互動 ''The Perfect Interaction'' (Wan Mei De Hu Dong) (featuring

and

Lim Jeong-hee Lim Jeong-hee (Hangul: 임정희; born May 17, 1981, in Seoul, South Korea), also known as J-Lim, is a South Korean singer that debuted in 2005 under JYP Entertainment. One of her notable performances in 2005 was the 5th Pattaya Music Festival ...

) #大城小愛 ''Big City, Small Love'' (Da Cheng Xiao Ai) #第一個清晨 ''The First Morning'' (Di Yi Ge Qing Chen) #哥兒們 ''Homies'' (Ge-Er Men) #讓開 ''Move Over'' (Rang Kai) #愛因為在心中 ''Because Love is in the Heart'' (Ai, Yin Wei Zai Xin Zhong)

About the music

1. Beside the Plum Blossoms （在梅邊）
The background of this song is based on the story behind

The Peony Pavilion ''The Peony Pavilion'' ( zh, t=牡丹亭, s=牡丹亭, p=Mǔdān tíng, w=Mu-tan t'ing), also named ''The Return of Soul at the Peony Pavilion'', is a romantic tragicomedy play written by dramatist Tang Xianzu in 1598. The plot was drawn from the sh ...

, an old Chinese play written by

Tang Xianzu Tang Xianzu (; September 24, 1550 – July 29, 1616), courtesy name Yireng (), was a Chinese playwright of the Ming Dynasty. Biography Tang was a native of Linchuan, Jiangxi and his career as an official consisted principally of low-level ...

in the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

Sony Music Taiwa
''Heroes of Earth'' album info
Wang gave tapes of this play to

, who later wrote the lyrics. Wang also wrote the rap lyrics which can be heard at the end of the song. He rapped 295 words in 50 seconds. The song is performed with ancient

music. 2. Flower Field Mistake （花田錯）
The song integrates

and modern R&B music. It features an

er-hu The ''erhu'' (; ) is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a ''Southern Fiddle'', and is sometimes known in the Western world as the ''Chinese violin'' or a ''Chinese two-s ...

solo and a singing style that imitates Peking Opera, and the title is a reference to a well-known story in Peking Opera. 3. Heroes of Earth （蓋世英雄）
Not only did Wang invite the popular Chinese American rapper Jin to rap in the song, he also invited the famous Chinese opera singer Li Yan. Heavy Peking Opera and kunqu tactics are used in the song, as well as an electric guitar solo by Wang. Jin raps in both English and Cantonese in the song. This song also used in American comedy film ''

Free Guy ''Free Guy'' is a 2021 American science fiction action comedy film directed and produced by Shawn Levy from a screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn, and a story by Lieberman. The film stars Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Utkars ...

'' in 15 years later. 5. The Perfect Interaction （完美的互動）
Wang invited popular Korean singers

and Lim Jeong Hee (J-Lim) to be featured in the song. The song begins with a Spanish guitar solo and contains lyrics in

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

, and English. This was also Rain's first Chinese song. Although Rain's voice is featured in this song, he did not record it at the same time as Wang and Lim—Rain recorded first, Wang and Lim later. Sony BMG and Wang invited Rain to be featured in the music video as well, but he was unable to participate, and therefore only Wang and Lim were featured in the video. 10. Because Love is in the Heart （愛因為在心中）
This was written, composed, and produced by a Leehom Wang's fanclub in China as a gift for his 29th birthday.王力宏新專輯將《霸王別姬》的感動唱出來
/ref> Wang was reportedly touched by his fans' composition and therefore added a little of his own voice in the song and included it in his album.

World tour

After releasing ''Heroes of the Earth'', Wang performed an international tour, called the Heroes of Earth World Tour (蓋世英雄巡迴演唱會). The tour included the following concerts:

Charts

Singles

References

{{Authority control 2005 albums Wang Leehom albums Sony Music Taiwan albums