''Lau Mei Gwan'' (Chinese 劉美君 Prudence Liew) is the

self-titled An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

debut album of

cantopop Cantopop (a contraction of "Cantonese pop music") or HK-pop (short for "Hong Kong pop music") is a genre of pop music written in standard Chinese and sung in Cantonese. Cantopop is also used to refer to the cultural context of its production ...

singer

Prudence Liew Prudence Liew Mei-Gwan (born 10 December 1964) is a Hong Kong pop singer and actress. A Golden Horse Award winner and platinum selling singer, she has released 16 studio albums and appeared in numerous films. Career From the age of eight, she ...

, released on December 23, 1986.

Album information

While working as a

film producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...

, Liew was faced with the task of coming up with a theme song to the movie ''Midnight Beauties (午夜麗人)''. The film company eventually decided to cover a

Korean pop K-pop (), short for Korean popular music, is a form of popular music originating in South Korea as part of South Korean culture. It includes styles and genres from around the world, such as pop, hip hop, R&B, experimental, rock, jazz, gos ...

ballad called "Dear J" by Lee Sun-hee and have Liew write the Cantonese lyrics as well as perform the vocals on the track. The result was the lead single to the album, titled "Midnight Love 午夜情", about a forbidden love between a hostess club worker and her client. The song garnered heavy airplay from radio stations across

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, and Liew was signed as the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

artist to Current Records to record this album. The second single off the album, " 最後一夜 The Last Night", is a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the song, "

You're a Woman "You're a Woman" is a song by the pop group Bad Boys Blue. It was released as a single in 1985 and was a hit across Europe, reaching number 8 in West Germany, number 1 in Austria and number 2 in Switzerland. Track listing 7" single (Coconut 1 ...

" by the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Europop Europop (also spelled Euro pop) is a style of pop music that originated in Europe during the mid-to-late 1960s and developed to today's form throughout the late 1970s. Europop topped the charts throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with revivals and ...

group

Bad Boys Blue Bad Boys Blue are the German pop group formed in Cologne in 1984. The group performed many international hits including "You're a Woman", " Pretty Young Girl", " I Wanna Hear Your Heartbeat", and "Come Back and Stay". The group became massive ...

. The track featured a heavy dance beat that proved to be very popular with the Hong Kong

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

scene. The popularity of this song propelled Liew's status in the music scene and this song is still considered to be her

signature song A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a Handwriting, handwritten (and often Stylization, stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and ...

.Muzikland review of Prudence Liew (album).
Retrieved on October 17, 2009 Many well-known composers and lyricists from

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

contributed to this album, including

Wong Jim James Wong Jim (; 18 March 1941 – 24 November 2004, also known as "霑叔" or "Uncle Jim") was a Cantopop lyricist and songwriter based primarily in Hong Kong. Beginning from the 1960s, he was the lyricist for over 2,000 songs, collaborating ...

(黃霑), Lam Manyee (林敏怡), Andrew Lam (林敏驄), and

Richard Lam Richard Lam Chun-Keung (21 January 1948 – 16 November 2003) was a Cantopop lyricist with several hundred Cantopop songs to his name, and a columnist for ''Apple Daily'' and '' Next Magazine'' in Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), ...

(林振強). Liew herself composed and wrote the lyrics for the final track of the album, "Troubled Depressing Night 惆悵滄桑夜" as well as providing the lyrics to the aforementioned "Midnight Love 午夜情".

Reception

The album sold extremely well, having certified 10x

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

Hong Kong IFPI sales certification – 1988 Retrieved October 16, 2009 by the Hong Kong

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 ...

, selling over 500,000 copies. Sales of this album set the record in Hong Kong for the most albums sold by a debuting local artist, a record that has yet to be defeated. The album was also well received by critics, landing in many music critics' lists of top albums from the 1980s, and won two music awards as Album of the Year from

RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards () is one of the main C-pop music award in Hong Kong. The award is sponsored by RTHK. Beginning in 1978, it is the oldest major award in Hong Kong, even earlier than the Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards. The cerem ...

and

Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards The Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards Presentation () is one of the main C-pop music award in Hong Kong based on the ''Jade Solid Gold'' TVB television show. The award began with the 1984 ceremonial season after the 1983 music season.1983 award ...

in 1987.

Re-issues

Because of the quality of the album, it is still very popular among

audiophile An audiophile is a person who is enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction. An audiophile seeks to reproduce the sound of a piece of recorded music or a live musical performance, typically inside closed headphones, In-ear monitors, open ...

s in Hong Kong today.

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

(

BMG Music Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) was a division of a German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America on 1 October 2008. Although it was established in 1987, the music com ...

which bought out Current Records in 1992), started re-issuing the album in several high-end-audio formats, including

Super Audio CD Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format. The SACD format allows multiple aud ...

Extended Resolution Compact Disc Extended Resolution Compact Disc (XRCD) is a mastering and manufacture process patented by JVC (Victor Company of Japan, Ltd) for producing Red Book compact discs. It was first introduced in 1995. An XRCD is priced about twice as high as a re ...

and most recently, Blu-spec CD.

Re-issue formats

*Prudence Liew (SACD), released 2002 *Prudence Liew (Sony BMG – The Legendary Collection), released July 12, 2005 *Prudence Liew (XRCD), release September 28, 2005 *Prudence Liew (LPCD 45 Version), released July 24, 2007 *Prudence Liew (Pure Gold Series), released April 9, 2009 *Prudence Liew (Blu-Spec CD), release March 19, 2010

Track listing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prudence Liew (Album) 1986 debut albums Bertelsmann Music Group albums Prudence Liew albums Sony Music Hong Kong albums