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Alan Tam Wing Lun (; born 23 August, 1952) is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer and is a film actor. During the golden age of Cantopop, he was well-known in Hong Kong for singing romantic ballads and other songs and was not renowned for singing fast songs in the style of fellow Cantopop star Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui. He is also known as 'Lucky Lun' (幸é??éº? homonym word play on "Wheel of Fortune") as well as his affectionate title 'Principal' (æ ¡é?·/è?æ ¡é?·) as if he were the principal of a Hong Kong school.
He started his career with a well known band called Wynners which also have a well-known singer Kenny Bee among its members. In the band, his vocals stood out and he was lead singer for many years, recording many familiar hits with the band. Dissatisfied with the progress of his career at such an important stage and especially that Kenny Bee had a more illustrious future, he took the brave step to break free from the Wynners' smothering influence and decided to go solo. His first album as a solo artiste is 'Naughty Boy' (å??æ??æ??) in 1979. An early success would be the song 'Love in Autumn' (æ??å?¨æ·±ç§?) first performed in 1984.
For many years, he enjoyed gradual success and the Hong Kong press frequently reported of a fierce rivalry with the late Leslie Cheung who personified the 'bad boy' image and made it his own whereas Alan Tam was the proverbial 'goody two shoes'. It was in 1986 that his hit song 'Friends' (æ??å??) which upped the ante for an interesting 'duel' between the two hotly favored artistes. Despite all these claims, the two artistes never publicly demonstrated open conflict with each other and in 2000, both of them even collaborated to produce the single remix of Tam's popular song 'Illusion' (幻影). Although both artistes are at peace with each other, it was the fans who created the unnecessary spectacle of a musical feud which the Hong Kong press eagerly reported and added fuel to these rumors. Leslie Cheung himself admitted in person that his earlier decision to retire in 1989 was disturbingly caused by Alan Tam's fans placing joss sticks and other prayer items in front of Cheung's house which was a bad omen and a way to foretell death. Nonetheless, after Cheung's comeback, both of the singers have brushed aside the previous doubts about their friendship and even appeared in galas and other special programmes.
Alan Tam himself established a foothold on the Cantopop scene with songs dating back to the late 1980s like 'Embrace' (æ??æ?±), 'Flower in Water' (æ°´ä¸è?±), 'Half Dazed, Half Awoken' (å??夢å??é??) and the popular 'Love Trap' (æ??æ??é?·é?±). The heyday of his singing career was over in the early 1990s, and while he continues to release albums from time to time, sales are no longer impressive and there is also a notable absence of hit numbers. Not that the singer seems to care much, for he enjoys living a casual and merry life surrounded by many of his showbiz friends. He was also the actor in a number of entertaining films like Armour of God with Jackie Chan and the hilarious 'Master Wong v. Master Wong' which is a parody of legendary Canton kung fu exponent Wong Fei Hung. He also won the Best Leading Award in the Golden Horse Film Awards in 1981 with the film 'If I were for real'.
In 2003, after the deaths of Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui, he teamed up with fellow artiste Hacken Lee for a successful tour of Asia and both of them are known to collaborate on further concerts up to 2005. He was always maintaining that he would be eternally 25 years old despite his age although he was still respected within the Cantopop industry (despite the fact that his record sales have been far from impressive over the past decade or so) with his views still bearing an impact as can be seen with the "appointment" of the 'New Four Heavenly Kings' which was subject to his approval.
External links
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