Khalil Fong, a singer-songwriter of Hong Kong who infused a sensitivity of the soul and the R&B in the Chinese pop songs, died on February 21. He was 41 years old.
His death was announcement Saturday by his label, Fu Music. The announcement did not say where Mr. Fong had died or specified a cause of death, but he said that he had struggled against “incessant disease” for five years.
Liked for his moving voice and his distinctive mixture of soul and Mandarin Pop, Mr. Fong’s music found an audience in Hong Kong, in continental China and a large part of the Chinese world.
“Trying to present Soul, or Soul R&B music, was not the simplest thing,” he said in A 2016 interview with the South China Morning PostNoting that the genre has not been widely adopted in the region. “One of the things I wanted to do was present this type of music in the context of the Chinese language.”
He burst into the popular music scene in 2005, when Warner Music Hong Kong released his first funky and syncopated album, “Soulboy”. During the following decade, he released eight albums and occurred in stadiums and large concert halls around the world, wearing his thick dark glasses.
But Mr. Fong’s career has been interrupted by health problems and, in recent years, he had widely withdrawn from the public. Inspiration has never stopped flowing, however, and he released singles sporadically.
He recorded his latest album, “The Dreamer”, during what he described as various stages of the disease, of which he has never revealed nature.
Makeing music was “both a challenge and a relief from the rather tedious circumstance” of poor health, he wrote On Instagram when the album was released in October.
“I had tons of notes and ideas, structures of songs and words noted and each time I could manage, I gradually moved them,” he added.
Khalil Fong, whose Chinese name was Fong Tai-tung, was born on July 14, 1983 in Hawaii.
His father was a drummer, and Mr. Fong grew up listening to his collection of blues and records of the soul of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. His mother was a language teacher who later became his full -time commercial director and was credited in certain songs as a lyricist.
When Mr. Fong was 5 years old, the family moved to Shanghai, where they lived for several years. After a brief stint in Guangzhou, they settled in Hong Kong. He started learning from the guitar and writing music in adolescence, and he soon submitted demonstration cassettes to record companies.
He was 22 when “Soulboy” was released. More albums, including “Love Love Love”, “Orange Moon” and “Timeless”, followed quickly, as well as global tours.
His interpretations of American successes as “Nothing will change my love for you” And “Red bean», A Chinese ballad by the popular singer Faye Wong, has accumulated millions of views online.
While most Hong Kong pop musicians sang in Cantonese, he recognized in interviews that he did not feel comfortable singing in what was his third language. He especially sang in Mandarin and English.
In 2016, he founded the independent Fu Music label, saying he wanted him to pay tribute to the Chinese and Western influences.
“JTW”, named after the Buddhist epic of Ming-Dynastie “Journey to the West”, was released that year. The album included collaborations with two stars of South Korean pop, Zion T. and Crush, as well as the Pop Star Taiwano-American Wang Leehom.
In 2018, Mr. Fong began to publish “Emi the dream receiver», A series of fantastic graphic novels that he has written in Chinese and English, on a girl who has lucid dreams that help her understand her place in the world.
“I think these stories are a reminder to myself and to others that we should be aware, to create a better society for future generations,” he said in An interview at the time.
He did not reveal that he had struggled with health problems before 2024, when he presented “The Dreammer”, his latest album.
“In life, we are each confronted with challenges, but through all this, let’s not forget how to be dreamers,” he wrote.
Complete information on Mr. Fong’s survivors was not available. He said in interviews that he was a only child and did not have his children himself.
He recently declared to the Chinese language media that he hoped to start tours and had plans for new music. Barely a few weeks ago, he promoted video to “Oasis,” A song from “The Dreamer”.
The album was varied. His songs included an ironic refutation of a rumor on the internet according to which he had taken agriculture and a Fanciful review of the “godfather” trilogy: “It was good but it was sad / Mike was good and Mike was bad / but above all crazy and lonely.”
The most poignant, perhaps, was how he transmitted the quick time of time. Many songs on the album, the last one, “There is not much left to say“, Suddenly ended in the middle of the sentence, just before he could finish thought.
Oh, my love, I might want you to stay
But the truth tells me
That nothing left here at …
