Interview with Denise Ho: ‘Breaking Free of Society’s Conventions’

Bearing the title of the late Pop Queen Anita Mui’s only female apprentice, Denise Ho has toiled in the HK music industry for more than a decade. As a witness to the slow but steady deterioration of the HK music industry, Denise bluntly states that the decline is primarily due to the ‘pettiness’ of most of the major record companies in HK. Frustrated and disappointed with the music environment in HK, Denise once considered leaving the music industry permanently – instead, she decided to “take a break” from HK temporarily and try her luck in Taiwan. It turns out this was the right move for Denise, as she has encountered unexpected success in Taiwan – in addition to her debut Mandarin album successfully breaking into the Taiwan market, she has also recently been nominated in 2 award categories in the prestigious Golden Melody Awards. Denise’s example demonstrates that daring to be innovative and not being bound by society’s conventions can definitely be rewarding.

Not afraid to talk about Joey Yung

With increased popularity comes increased scrutiny and Denise Ho is certainly no exception. Indeed, her ‘love life’ has been a public point of interest for some time now – even though her ‘close friend’ relationship with singer Joey Yung seems to slowly be accepted by fans, Denise candidly states that towards the taboo of ‘homosexuality’, people should be more ‘open’ in this day and age….

Denise: “This is a topic that I feel shouldn’t need to be analyzed any further -- if in this day and age, people still feel that the mere mention of the word ‘homosexuality’ is taboo, then I feel that they shouldn’t continue to ‘live’ in this era and instead should go back to ‘that’ era! Every person has the possibility to fall in love with anyone from any sex – it’s really a matter of whether you are going to let society’s supposed ‘conventions’ box you in.”

“Actually, ‘love’ really means that you accept and love how the person is inside rather than their appearance on the outside. With regard to that question (homosexuality), I won’t be able to give you a definite answer – not now, not forever – as there is no way for me to know for sure that I will always love someone of a certain sex. It’s just like how there are people – whether male or female – who married and even had kids, but then later on end up with someone of the same sex -- just because you are dating someone of a certain sex now does not mean that in the future you won’t be with someone of another sex. Right now, Joey and I are ‘good friends’ – my parents rarely ask me about my love life…interestingly, the media asks me more than they do.”

Big step forward in Taiwan

Denise’s decision to find refuge in Taiwan gave her the opportunity she needed to heal her spirit as well as regain her confidence and energy. Being able to gain success in Taiwan at her own pace gives Denise a sense of accomplishment…

Denise: “Before I left, I was already thoroughly disappointed in HK as a whole, disappointed in the system and everything. Luckily, at that time, I decided to go to Taiwan – there is definitely less pressure there. Being cooped up in one place for a long time can easily lend itself to becoming stagnant, so I’m glad that I was able to step away and look at the big picture, at the same time regaining the positive energy that I needed. For me, the Taiwan market is a better fit – plus, over there, they truly take the time to ‘digest’ your work.”

“In HK, the ‘life’ of an album is only approximately 1 month – after that, everyone is anxious to know why it’s taking so long for new songs to be released. Sometimes, looking back, it pains me to see what the HK music industry has become. Some people ask me why I waited so long to come out with a Mandarin album – I’m actually lucky that I was able to wait so many years and think things through clearly before releasing that album. If I had rushed to release the album many years ago when I wasn’t sure about the direction of my career, the result would definitely not be the same as it is now.”

“All this time, I’ve been following my own timeline and working at my own pace – the results in Taiwan prove that this method is the best fit for me and most importantly, it does work! Add to that the joy of being nominated for the Golden Melody Awards – proves that the method I chose for myself can be successful, even if it takes me a longer time to get there compared to others. I hope that I can be an example to other HK singers and show them that there is more than one way to go about accomplishing something. Oftentimes, people will try to dictate how you should do things and tell you what you can and cannot do…HK is notorious for this – most people feel that as long as you follow society’s conventions, then things will work themselves out eventually, but what I’m trying to say is that in reality, there are other paths that can get to where you want to go.”

Laments the state of the HK music industry

The current unhealthy state of the HK music industry has had a widespread effect on many of HK’s artists – those with talent and true potential are often discouraged working in such an environment. At one point, even Denise herself considered leaving the industry….

Denise: “HK’s music industry has been unhealthy for many years already, which is very unfortunate. It truly is very difficult and exhausting to be a singer in HK – the pressure doesn’t come from figuring out how to make music, but rather, figuring out to ‘sell’ the music that we make. This creates a whole other ‘layer’ that we have to consider – it’s no longer as simple as making good music and maintaining high quality. HK people generally take an unappreciative approach when it comes to music – they are too picky and oftentimes, it puts a lot of pressure on singers and can be very discouraging. Why is it that HK citizens don’t even support HK’s musical talent? Plus, it doesn’t help that our music industry isn’t united, especially the record companies that constantly haggle over the slightest thing – this ‘pettiness’ is one of the main things that ‘killed’ the music industry!”

“Thinking back to the 80s, the ‘norm’ was for the more senior singers to guide and mentor the newcomers – take me for example, I was mentored by Anita and she has always been very supportive of me. Seniors are usually willing to help newcomers whom they feel have potential, but nowadays, there are so many things that they have to consider – for example, is the person from the same record company? Are there any conflicts of interest? What will I gain from it? There are a lot of talented and influential artists out there who perhaps do want to help, but if the record companies object, the artists may decide it’s not worth the trouble to pursue it – slowly, it turns into people just caring about themselves and their own best interests. Plus a lot of people’s mindsets are still very ‘old-fashioned’ – it’s really very annoying! If they truly cared about the best interests of the music industry as a whole, the ‘pettiness’ wouldn’t exist to such a huge extent!”

“In the HK music industry, there is a pattern of placing a lot of emphasis on which award to win at which particular station – as a result, songs are created for the sole purpose of accommodating that certain company’s tastes and everyone else ends up following suit…in this type of environment, it’s impossible for the music industry to be healthy!”

Tears of joy at being nominated for Golden Melody Awards

When she broke into the Taiwan market, Denise did not have any expectations of awards, so getting nominated for "Best Mandarin Female Performer" and "Single Producer of the Year" at this year’s GMAs was truly the icing on the cake for her. As for who she supports to win this year…

Denise: “I’m rooting for Wan Fang, as her ability to move people with the emotion in her singing is no easy feat. Karen [Mok] is great too, but she has won the award before, whereas Wan Fang hasn’t – plus Karen is nominated in other categories. Of course, I hope that Karen wins something as well – after all, both of us are HK artists entering the Mandarin music market…having 2 HK artists nominated out of 5 spots available already makes me very happy. Despite the nominations though, I won’t let myself get too complacent – after so many years in the industry, I still feel it’s necessary to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground and not get overly confident. However, I was definitely very moved, as I never thought that in a foreign place, I would get more recognition than in my hometown!”

“The moment I found out about the nominations, the tears came pouring forth (though it wasn’t to the point of sobbing uncontrollably). The first thing I did was call everyone who had worked on the album with me to share the good news. Of course, I shared the news with Joey as well – she was very happy for me, as she had witnessed my efforts and understood what I was trying to accomplish in doing things at my own pace…I don’t believe she cried though….anyway, everyone was very happy for me! To be honest, Taiwan’s Golden Melody Awards have more prestige than HK’s award ceremonies because every year, the judging panel for the GMAs is different – you can’t find out ahead of time who is going to be on the judging panel and try to ‘kiss up’ to him/her, not like in HK!”

Patient and accommodating family

Denise was born into a middle class, hard-working family and throughout the years, her relationship with her family has been very close. However, Denise admits that sometimes, being together too much can lead to conflict…

Denise: “In terms of family, I’m continuing to learn every day the best way to maintain a healthy relationship – this is something that will forever be a learning process. With family, there will always be an element of indulgence and sometimes, it’s very hard to control my reaction to certain things – especially with my parents. Of course, each time there is an argument, I usually blame myself – I try to step back and understand that they are active participants in my life as well, so it’s hard to avoid conflicts sometimes. Luckily though, the ‘conflicts’ never last long and after a few days, everything is fine again. Interestingly enough, my older brother and I are more accommodating with each other – perhaps because he has a tempermental personality (like a volcano ready to erupt) while I’m also the impatient type, so somehow we seem to complement each other and are less likely to get into conflict. Of course, it also helps that we don’t see each other as often as I do my parents, so there is less opportunity for conflict.

Source: Oriental Daily
Translation: llwy12 @ AsianFanatics