I’ve been listening to this Beijing 2008 Olympic songs album lately — it’s well worth keeping.
Album track list: CD 1
- Beijing Welcomes You - Various Artists 02. Forever Friends (Chinese) - Sun Nan / A-Mei 03. Light the Passion, Share the Dream - Wang Leehom / Stefanie Sun / Wang Feng / Jane Zhang 04. A Thousand Miles of Mountains and Rivers - Jay Chou 05. Sky - Tan Jing 06. Surpass - Xu Yang / Shi Peng 07. Dreams in Sight - Bibi Zhou 08. Wishing Star (English) - Huang Dawei 09. On the Same Blue Planet - Nicholas Tse / Joey Yung 10. Hero - Chris Yu 11. The Light of Dreams - Wang Feng 12. Forever Friends (English) - Sun Nan / CoCo Lee
CD 2
- We are ready - Various Artists 02. Everyone is No.1 - Andy Lau 03. I Am a Star - Wakin Chau 04. One World One Dream - Wang Leehom 05. One World One Dream - Liu Huan / Na Ying 06. Our Dream - Wang Feng 07. Glory - Guo Rong 08. Fly Together - Tan Jing / Yan Weiwen 09. Cheers for Life - Han Hong / Yu Quan 10. Stand Up - Jackie Chan / Wang Leehom / Stefanie Sun / Han Hong 11. Beijing, Beijing, I Love Beijing - Guan Zhe 12. Mankind Is One Family - Wei Wei / Dai Yuqiang
CD 3 (Bonus)
- Light the Passion, Share the Dream (Chinese Version) (Bonus) - Wang Leehom / Stefanie Sun / Wang Feng / Jane Zhang 02. Light the Passion, Share the Dream (Chinese Version) (Bonus) - Wang Leehom / Stefanie Sun 03. Light the Passion, Share the Dream (English Version) (Bonus) - Miss World 2008 04. Light the Passion, Share the Dream (Instrumental) (Bonus)
Listen/download link: http://www.verycd.com/topics/270725/ PS: If you like the album, be sure to buy the genuine CD!
The Beijing 2008 Olympic Songs Album first hit the market as a two-disc set, containing 24 outstanding songs, all of which can be called the most popular and widely loved works from the five years of Olympic song solicitation campaigns. The one-year countdown theme song We are ready, performed by a hundred stars, and the 100-day countdown theme song Beijing Welcomes You head up the two discs respectively. Andy Lau’s Everyone is No.1, Liu Huan and Na Ying’s duet One World One Dream, Sun Nan, A-Mei and CoCo Lee’s Forever Friends, Wakin Chau’s Olympic volunteer theme song I Am a Star, Jay Chou’s A Thousand Miles of Mountains and Rivers, Wang Leehom’s One World One Dream, Wei Wei and Dai Yuqiang’s Mankind Is One Family, Han Hong and Yu Quan’s Cheers for Life, and Joey Yung and Nicholas Tse’s On the Same Blue Planet, among other famous works, are all included. And the creators of these tracks bring together outstanding songwriters such as Giorgio Moroder, Kong Xiangdong, Lin Xi, Xiaoke, Leung Kin-cheung, Peter Kam, Chan Siu-kei, Vincent Fang, and others.
According to Zhao Dongming, director of the Cultural Activities Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), every Olympic Games has released its own official music or song album, using the unique charm of music to spread the concept of that edition of the Games and to provide the global public with a unique channel for enjoying and understanding the Olympics. What sets the Beijing Olympic official song album apart from those of previous editions is that it is not a closed-off, in-house creation, but rather the crystallization of an open call for submissions. As the fruit of five years of Olympic song solicitation and creation, this album embodies the painstaking effort and wisdom of numerous music creators at home and abroad. Zhao Dongming also believes that the release of this album will allow Olympic songs to enter people’s daily lives more conveniently, and the dissemination and promotion of Olympic songs will thereby become more convenient and truly ubiquitous.
This simply designed album has a rather extraordinary technological dimension. In addition to offering normal CD audio playback, this album also provides full-track downloads and ringtone downloads through China Mobile’s wireless music club, with strong support from China Mobile. Moreover, though it looks no different from an ordinary record on the outside, this album also comes preloaded with aigo Miaobi listening and sing-along functions. Users need only tap a certain mark on the inner pages with the aigo Miaobi to conveniently preview any song in full or learn to sing it karaoke-style — truly full of delightful novelty.
On the occasion of the grand ceremony marking 100 days to the Olympics, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Songs Album was grandly released. This highly commemorative 2CD album contains 24 award-winning works that stood out in the Olympic song solicitation campaign, bringing together many well-known musicians from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as a hundred singing stars. The album carries the expectations of all Chinese people for the Olympics, expresses in music the pride and glory of all Chinese people, and highlights the power of the Olympics and the magnificence of China. Inspired by “One World, One Dream” and the Olympic spirit, let us join hands and together put into practice the Olympic ideals of “dream, friendship and peace,” and let one immortal Olympic anthem after another resound throughout the world.
This album records the love and passion of China’s outstanding musicians for the grand Olympic occasion, including the one-year countdown theme song We are ready; the 100-day countdown theme song Beijing Welcomes You, performed by 100 stars; the Beijing 2008 Olympic torch relay theme song Light the Passion, Share the Dream; and the volunteer song I Am a Star. It also includes One World One Dream, written, composed and performed by Wang Leehom; Forever Friends (Chinese version), performed together by Sun Nan and A-Mei; A Thousand Miles of Mountains and Rivers, composed by the powerhouse duo of Jay Chou and Vincent Fang; Joey Yung and Nicholas Tse’s heartfelt rendition of On the Same Blue Planet; Liu Huan and Na Ying’s duet One World One Dream; Han Hong and Yu Quan’s Cheers for Life; Everyone is No.1, written, composed and performed by Andy Lau; and Wei Wei and Dai Yuqiang’s Mankind Is One Family — 28 outstanding Olympic songs in all. The creative team also brings together an all-star lineup of top-tier Mandarin pop and world-class songwriters and composers, including Xiaoke (blog), Moroder, Kong Xiangdong (blog), Leung Kin-cheung, Peter Kam, Chris Babida, Giorgio Moroder, Huang Xiaomao, Lin Xi, Chan Siu-kei, Vincent Fang and Han Bao, weaving the Olympic spirit of friendship and peace into this album.
On the occasion of 100 days to the Olympics, the 100-day countdown theme song Beijing Welcomes You, performed by 100 singing stars, once again brought the celebration of welcoming the Olympics to a climax. This was yet another theme song performed jointly by many stars released by BOCOG, following the one-year countdown theme song We are ready, which had set off a wave of Olympic song singing. This star-studded song was composed by the famous mainland musician Xiaoke, with lyrics by Hong Kong lyricist Lin Xi, and performed jointly by 100 singers including Jackie Chan, Wakin Chau, Wang Leehom, Liu Huan, Stefanie Sun, Eason Chan and Richie Jen. From the idea being proposed in early March to the completion of production, the song took a month and a half in total, of which just 5 days were spent completing the demo of the lyrics and music, two weeks were spent recording all 100 singers, and 6 days were spent completing all post-production; the documentary footage alone ran to more than 7,000 minutes — a testament to the enormous and fervent Olympic “centripetal force” of the entertainment world. As the sonic symbol of the 100-day countdown to the Beijing Olympics, a hundred of the biggest and most talented singers in the Mandarin music world greet and invite the world with a thoroughly Beijing-flavored tune — “Beijing Welcomes You” — embracing Beijing’s Olympic guests with musical warmth, cheering on the Olympics, and greeting the arrival of the Beijing Olympics with a confident bearing.
With the lighting of the Beijing 2008 Olympic flame in Athens, the Beijing Olympics that captured the world’s attention thus raised its curtain. Over more than a hundred days of torch relay across five continents, more than 20,000 torchbearers from around the world carried the Olympic torch bearing countless dreams, and with it the world’s beautiful pursuit of peace and friendship and the Olympic ideal. The song Light the Passion, Share the Dream accompanied the Beijing Olympic torch all the way, as the blazing “Lucky Cloud” torch shone together with the Olympic spirit and sang of the powerful cohesion of the Chinese nation. Besides the four-person version of Light the Passion, Share the Dream performed by Wang Leehom, Stefanie Sun, Wang Feng and Jane Zhang, the English version recorded with the participation of 106 international beauties from the 57th Miss World finals is also a dazzling highlight of this album.
Since the official launch of registration for Beijing Olympic city volunteers, the public’s enthusiasm for paying attention to and supporting city volunteer work has reached unprecedented heights. The number of applicants for Beijing Olympic city volunteers has exceeded 1.36 million, and becoming one of the Olympic volunteers has become a matter of immense pride and honor. Every volunteer is a bright star in the sky, adorning the splendid firmament of the Beijing Olympics. I Am a Star, the Beijing Olympic volunteer song with lyrics by the famous lyricist Lin Xi and composed and performed by the Taiwan powerhouse singer Wakin Chau, depicts our most lovable volunteers in warm and moving words. The song was jointly created by Lin Xi and Wakin Chau over two weeks. Lin Xi’s creative prowess is fully displayed in this song, with every word and phrase expressing his original creative intent of boundless love. At the same time, the melody of the whole song is gentle yet powerful, and its grand orchestral style blends with a typically Chinese flavor — very distinctive indeed.
Forever Friends, a song created for the Beijing Olympics by the Italian musician Giorgio Moroder, is also a major highlight of this album. The song has both Chinese and English versions, performed respectively by Sun Nan and A-Mei, and by Sun Nan and CoCo Lee. The lead creator of the song, the world-renowned Giorgio Moroder, is a famous Italian music master. Having composed many Olympic theme songs, he has a deep attachment to China, and even made a special trip to Beijing to gather inspiration for this song. The song combines the charm of Eastern music with the characteristics of Western music. Through the theme of “forever friends,” it expresses a beautiful wish that transcends racial and national boundaries, and the power and appeal contained within it will make everyone who hears it want to hold the hand of the person beside them, so that everyone becomes friends and shares in the joy.
Thousands of Miles of Mountains and Rivers, the work of Jay Chou and his longtime partner Vincent Fang, has drawn even more attention. The song blends rock with Chinese-style melodies, and even adds a passage of “Peking opera” vocals, fully showing the true colors of the Chinese style. Dreams in Sight, jointly created by the famous Hong Kong musicians Lin Xi and Leung Kin-cheung and sung by Bibi Zhou (blog), tells of the Olympic spirit that crosses national borders and the humanistic values of Chinese civilization, and became a hit Olympic song as soon as it was released. The well-known Hong Kong singers Nicholas Tse and Joey Yung sang their hearts out for On the Same Blue Planet, personally performing an Olympic song and showing extremely high enthusiasm for participation. The two also separately expressed their hope for the success of the Beijing Olympics, and felt even more honored to be able to contribute to it. Hero, composed by the Taiwan singer Chris Yu with lyrics by Wang Pingjiu, director of the Olympic Cultural Activities Division of the Cultural Activities Department of BOCOG, is dedicated to the heroes who strive for their dreams on the Olympic field and never give up the Olympic spirit.
Another song performed by a hundred stars, We are ready, as the theme song of the one-year countdown to the Beijing 2008 Olympics, let the whole world feel Beijing’s rich Olympic atmosphere and enthusiasm. The famous musicians from Hong Kong, Peter Kam and Chan Siu-kei, used a melody and lyrics full of vitality and rhythm to meticulously portray the heroic spirit, confidence, joy and anticipation of Beijing and China on the eve of the Olympics. Its repeatedly chanted “We are ready” is not only unforgettable as the song’s main melody, but also became the strongest voice of anticipation for the arrival of the Beijing Olympics. And the moving lyrics and pleasant melody of Everyone Is NO.1, created by Andy Lau, vividly portray the spiritual world of athletes with disabilities, depicting both the hardships and bitterness they face and their striving and struggle. As the pride of the Chinese people, Wang Leehom, as one of the first torchbearers to carry the sacred flame, completed the major mission of Olympic torch relay. He brought a song, One World One Dream, for which he wrote the lyrics, composed the music and sang himself, expressing with its majestic music and beautiful lyrics his full support for and boundless hopes for the Olympics.
One World One Dream, a song by the famous singers Liu Huan and Na Ying, conveys to the whole world the deep feelings of the sons and daughters of China toward the 2008 Olympics. “One World One Dream,” as the slogan of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, accurately expresses the spirit of the Olympic Games, and this perfect pairing of a king and a queen of song inspires in Chinese people a sense of glory, responsibility and mission. Our Dream, a song created by Wang Feng, has maintained consistently high click rates since it entered the selection process; this Olympic song full of rock flavor is also the Chinese rock scene’s way of expressing its sense of Olympic glory. Cheers for Life, performed jointly by Yu Quan and Han Hong, is a song that embodies para-sports. As friends who have known each other in the industry for many years and equally top-tier powerhouse singers in China, the three of them nonetheless sang a song together for the first time — and singing for the Olympics, especially joining forces for para-sports, made all three particularly committed.
Stand Up, the theme song of the Olympic film The One Man Olympics, has lyrics by Wang Pingjiu, director of the Olympic Cultural Activities Division of the Cultural Activities Department of BOCOG, and music by Shu Nan, winner of the Golden Rooster Award for Best Music. It is performed jointly by Jackie Chan, Wang Leehom, Stefanie Sun and Han Hong, with the four representing the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas Chinese respectively. The song expresses the Olympic spirit of never giving up and striving tenaciously. Mankind Is One Family, brought by Wei Wei and Dai Yuqiang, hopes to convey the core of the Olympic spirit — peace, harmony, open-mindedness, friendship, transcendence and passion — to everyone, hoping that it can represent every Chinese person and awaken in all humankind enthusiasm for and resonance with the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the ideal of universal harmony.
As an international sports gala of extraordinary significance, the Beijing 2008 Olympics will become a richly colored and infinitely glorious stroke in history. Everyone is, in their own way, singing the praises of, celebrating and giving voice to their expectations and yearnings for the Olympics. Music knows no borders, and music can never be fully expressed in words. As a sonic-version commemoration of a grand occasion of the century, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Songs Album carries the passion of Chinese people around the world in watching over, blessing and supporting the Olympics, carries the world’s pursuit of and ideals for the Olympic spirit, and allows the humanistic spirit to leap forward and be sublimated in the perfect fusion of the Olympic spirit and music.