About Me
At the stroke of midnight, 17th May 1976, a future star named Lee-Hom (Alexander) Wang was born in Rochester, New York, USA.
Lee-Hom was born into a middle-class Chinese family in the States. He is the middle child in his family. He has an older brother and a younger brother. Lee-Hom comes from a family of high-achievers. His father is a physicist, his mother a libarian, his elder brother a Yale graduate for medicine(currently praticing in Chicago) and his high-schooler younger brother is headed for the same road as his eldest brother. Lee-Hom is different from his family members. "My family likes chess and mathematics while I like music." Although he was excellent in high-school academically, he was not interested in following the footsteps of his father and brother. Music is Lee-Hom's passion.
How did Lee-Hom get in touch with the world of music? Quoted from an interview, "My brother was 6, and I was 3. I remember a day when my mom sent my brother for violin lessons. I was so excited seeing the violin that I wanted to learn too, but the teacher said "Xiao di di (little kid), you're too young. Come back when you are your brother's age. So I was thinking, that was really unfair, and I was kind of mad. I took up music lessons at the age of six, and developed a love for it." At first, Lee-Hom prefered the violin to the piano. "I used to think the piano was as stupid and as dull as a type writer. You press a key, and a sound comes out. With the violin, it is different. I am able to move my fingers anywhere I want and I can do vibrato for even more expression." But later on in his life, Lee-Hom discovered the many uses of the piano, and jazz piano soon became his favourite subject.
In high school, Lee-Hom was a curious and inquistive person. He joined 7 clubs and societies including the band and choir. "I was stretched so thin that I couldn't really excel in any of them. My brothers are so much more focused."
Lee-Hom's family, besides his mother, were against him making music his lifetime career. Being academically capable, Lee-Hom's father hoped that Lee-Hom, like his brother, would go into medicine in college, due to LeeHom's academic achievements good enough for major universities such as Princeton and Yale, but Lee-lom opted for music instead when it came to choosing his career. His father, naturally, was very unhappy, but accepted his son's choice. In college, Lee-Hom chose Music Composition as his major.
Leehom had his first album at the age of 19, "Rival Beethoven". It was quite a success and music critics were excited about the promising new singer. But since Lee-Hom was still studying at Williams College, he was unable to do any promotions. It was Lee-Hom's fourth album, "Wanting to See You Every Second" that got him the credit he deserved. The album did quite well in Taiwan, entering the charts and staying there for quite sometime. Lee-Hom's fifth album, "Revolution", was a huge success. The album sold 40,000 units during early sales in Taiwan and reached gold status in Malaysia, a sale of more than 15,000 units.
In 1999, Lee-Hom managed to grab two awards at the recent prestigious Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan, Best Male Singer and Best Producer. The Golden Melody Awards is Taiwan's equivalent to the American Grammy Awards. Lee-Hom also won an award for the Best Song (Impossible to Miss You) at a music awards ceremony at Hong Kong recently. Recently, Lee-Hom was nominated in 6 categories at the 2000 Golden Melody Awards: Best Producer of the Year, Best Male Vocalist of the Year, Best Composer of the Year (for Huan Xi Cheng), Best Arranger of the Year (for Lung De Chuan Ren), Best Lyricist of the Year (Shi Fang for Shang Kou Shi Ai de Bi Ji), and a top 15 Golden Melody Song of the Year (Forever's First Day), and won three of these awards: Best Male Vocalist, Best Composer and Golden Melody top 15 Song of the Year.
Lee-Hom's goal in music is to create his own sound, a sound neither Western nor Asian, yet combines the two from both worlds. In Lee-Hom's opinion, to create your own unique sound is the key to longevity in the music circle.
