Fairy Tale (Michael Wong album)


Fairy Tale is the third solo album by Malaysian Chinese singer Michael Wong, released on 21 January 2005.

History

Wong's previous two albums, Michael's First Album and Ray of Light, stirred up a fan base but did not make much ground in terms of record sales. His fans had to wait another two years before Wong finally launched his third album, Fairy Tale. After rejecting the first few songs he listed himself for the album with his sense of perfection, Wong eventually re-selected some songs himself and finally rooted for his ten favourite songs to be cut into the album, of which six were composed by himself. His two years of work paid off when this album immediately attained success, and became critically acclaimed as Wong's best-selling album.

Title song

The first single from this album, also called Fairy Tale, was composed by himself. Wong, who is more of a composer and hardly wrote lyrics, asked about 30 lyricists for suggestions for this particular song. After finally adding a finishing touch to the song with lyrics he wrote himself, he then left it to be arranged and produced by the experienced Japanese producer, Taichi Nakamura. Fairy Tale is considered by many fans as Wong's strongest single. It became number one at the Baidu 500 immediately after it was released in January 2005, making it to the top of the download counter for 15 weeks. The single is arguably the most successful Chinese language song in the 21st Century. As of 2007 it is still among the top in the karaoke charts. Wong became the first Malaysian to win four main awards in the Chinese music scene's biggest award show, the Hong Kong TVB8 Golden Music Awards on 3 December 2005. He won Best Composition, Best Composer/Artist, Top Ten Songs of the Year, and Best of the Year's Top 10 Songs.
The music video accompanying Fairy Tale has been the subject of heated debate. It depicts Wong playing the song at a concert, transmitted to a girl in a hospital bed by phone. Intermittent flashbacks during the song reveal that she had a nosebleed before collapsing. She was most likely suffering from some form of cancer. At the conclusion of the video, she dies, and a voice-over says, "When the whole world ignores me, only you can never ignore me okay?"

Track listing

  1. "Intro"
  2. "童話"
  3. "天堂"
  4. "少年"
  5. "手機留言"
  6. "向左走向右走"
  7. "一點光一點亮"
  8. "期限"
  9. "海邊"
  10. "妹妹"
  11. "記得我愛你"
  12. "The End"

    Bonus MV VCD

  13. Fairy Tale 童話
  14. The First Time 第一次
  15. Sadness Subway 傷心地鐵
  16. Christmas in 2999 2999年的聖誕節
  17. As if nothing had happened 若無其事

    Cover versions