Jacky Cheung Plans to Never Retire
Jacky Cheung (張學友), once the Artistic and Musical Director of the popular Hong Kong musical Snow.Wolf.Lake <雪狼湖>, is planning to produce an all-new musical. Although the project is only in its brainstorming stages, Jacky hopes the new musical will be ready by Snow.Wolf.Lake‘s 20th anniversary in 2017. To get the process started, the “God of Songs” is publicly soliciting potential scripts, and promised to incorporate a romantic story line.
Recently celebrating his birthday on July 10, Jacky shared his three birthday wishes for this year. The 52-year-old expressed excitement when discussing his upcoming musical. “I have been talking about this for many years, but it is really hard when you actually try to get started. There are many things to worry about! I don’t even have a story, and honestly, not even a sliver of an idea. We must have a story first, and then we will find our female lead. I actually feel very impatient about this. I want to get started soon. I will take any script! Of course I will add in romantic elements; I have always specialized in love songs! I guess I will have to put out an open call for scripts!”
In addition to his new musical, Jacky also wished for good health this year. As he becomes older, Jacky finds that he must pay extra attention to eating and exercise. “People like me are public figures, and we rely on our looks for income. Of course I will have to play tennis to keep myself in shape! When I was young it was okay to be more relaxed. Nowadays my metabolism has slowed down, so I have to pay more attention to what I eat. I normally eat at home. My wife carefully watches calories, and doesn’t cook with oil at all. I would gain weight if I have to frequently attend dinner parties or drink. However, I do eat at home for the most part.”
Jacky’s third birthday wish may not seem so ambitious to others, but to him, presents quite a challenge. In order to always keep in touch with his two daughters, 12-year-old Zoe (張瑤華), and 8-year-old Zia (張瑤萱), Jacky is planning to set up a Facebook account and install popular chat app WhatsApp on his phone. “No matter what [my daughters] do in the future, whether continuing their studies or get married, they can handle all of that themselves. Whether they choose to marry or not, whether they want to marry a man or a woman, that is their own business. They must let me know however. This is why I am planning to open a Facebook account and install WhatsApp, so I can stay in touch with my two daughters. They don’t have Facebook for now, but they would use WhatsApp to chat with their mother. I cannot go online with my phone. This is such a big deal to me. I will have to change my phone and my phone plan. It will take me quite a bit of time to learn about all of this!”
Despite his long years in the music industry, Jacky continues to break records and grows more passionate about his work every day. He even vows to never retire and will continue to sing for as long as he can. “I used to be more uptight [about my work], but at 2011’s concert I began to really enjoy my stage, and I felt very comfortable. I will definitely not retire. It would be pretty awesome if I can sing into my 80s. My voice is a gift from my parents.”
Out of this generation’s artists, Jacky likes Eason Chan (陳奕迅) the most. He thinks Eason is a great singer and saw his potential since the very beginning. Jacky joked that he gave Eason more points because Eason is his fan. In addition, Jacky also praised groups RubberBand and C AllStar, saying that the two have the talent to stay around for a long time.
Source: ihktv.com
This article is written by Katrine for JayneStars.com.
Glad to hear Jacky’s never going to retire. He should come out with more love ballads for us to enjoy!
He could be 80 and would still be singing better than most (if not all) of the newer generation “singers.”
so relieved he doesn’t plan to retire any time soon 🙂 I have yet to experience his concerts in the HK coliseum! Listening to his songs takes me back to my childhood when my parents would play it in the car.
I am so happy he isn’t going to retire for myself and for him. For myself: i can look forward to attending his future concerts or musical performance with my family or friends. I only went to his concert once, to Kelly Chens concert, Jay Chow and some concerts with mixed performers. Jacky was the most memorable. How I love him singing Miriams song: 3.小城大事 (Small City Big Matter. That was so good.
He even waved at me and others when we were leaving earlier than other audience. Other stayed for encore but we had to take the last bus/mrt.
And for him that the reason for not retiring is because he enjoys his work/job. It such a blessing to be able to do the work you are passionate about. 🙂
Eventhough he’s good but he can’t act nor dance. Thankfully he has a good & strong vocal otherwise, what other things can he do, he’s not so versatile to me.
Hmmm…interesting….many people have said that Jacky is actually very underrated as an actor…sure, whether someone can act or not is a bit subjective, but for someone to say he “can’t act” or “isn’t versatile”, I’m curious to know the basis for this comment…
As for the comment that Jacky “can’t dance”….um, have you watched any of his concerts live? If people are trying to compare him to someone like Aaron Kwok who has a dance background, then sure Jacky’s dancing doesn’t come close. If not comparing to Aaron, then again, what is the basis for this comment?
Uhm, you really need to check out his newest dvd on concert. I tell almost anyone that cares to buy a copy, haha. But seriously his tap routine was pretty good given Jacky’s background and what a snoozefest tap can be. His tango ain’t so shabby either. At the end of the day, he’s an amazing singer he does not need to do other things.
@WildBerries: Well-said and thank you! I also encourage people to buy his latest concert DVD because it’s truly a quality product that Jacky poured his heart and soul into putting together (which is partially why it took so long to release, though there were other reasons as well).
And sure, his dancing may not be as great as someone with a background in dancing, but if you watch any of his concerts and performances, you will see that it is actually not bad at all (better than alot of other people in fact).
Lastly — for a 50 year old to put 110% effort into singing and dancing for 146 shows straight (within an 18 month timespan) and still maintain the same high level of quality in every single show…takes alot of stamina and endurance…not everyone can pull it off as well as he did…
I beg to differ on this as I ve seen him in a movie once where he played a psycho killer convincingly to give me the creeps. He can actually act
Good, nowadays there are so few Cantonese “Singer” (I mean real singer), he is definitely one of the greatest !
happy to hear this from Jacky, I am big fan of him. I think his dancing skill is not too bad at all, his voice in the main point very powerful and he is the real god of songs. to be honest can not find any other singers as good as him now days, not even Eason Chan.
@bloom: no offense but i am quiet amused by your comment. you make it sound like a singer top priority is acting and dancing lol. Jacky is a singer, and has always been a wonderful singer, what more can you ask of him? i’m confused, so these days it better to have a singer to act and dance better than his/her singing voice? what’s the point of calling that person a singer then? should they be call entertainer instead?
now i kinda understand how HK and the rest of the world are full of crappy singers who can’t even carry a tune to begin with.
Well said KK, the main point is the voice of the singer not the acting or dancing skills. Jacky Cheung has a really good voice and it’s hard to find other singer like him.