Kenny Bee
Hong Kong singer, musician, and actor, born on February 23, 1953, and one of the two lead vocalists of The Wynners; developed a solo singing career in the 1980s and made his film-directing debut with "殺妻二人組" in 1985.
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About the artist
Kenny Bee is a Hong Kong singer, musician, and actor, born on February 23, 1953, and one of the two lead vocalists of The Wynners. In his early years, he lived in various places on Hong Kong Island, including MacDonnell Road, Causeway Bay, and Tin Hau Temple Road.
Resident performances were Kenny Bee's entry point into the music industry. After leaving school at fifteen, he formed the band Tea with friends and worked as a musician in a Wan Chai bar. He was later invited by the bar captain to work as a resident singer at Mikado for two years, his first job. He subsequently sang at venues including Glogo, Basemenet 18, and Club Joker.
His bar work also introduced Kenny Bee to his future bandmates in The Wynners. At a bar he met Anthony Chan, who was filling in for another performer, and later met Alan Tam together with Anthony Chan, gradually getting to know the other members. After learning that Kenny Bee could play the saxophone, the others invited him to join Loosers; the band was soon renamed Wynners. Kenny Bee later recalled that his mother had arranged for him to attend university in San Francisco, but by then he had already joined The Wynners.
After The Wynners formed, Kenny Bee became a lead vocalist and keyboardist, sharing lead vocals with Alan Tam. In 1973, the five members primarily sang English-language songs and performed song-and-dance routines on stage. This choice was also related to the popularity of Western English-language songs in Hong Kong at the time, and the band consequently produced many English-language works in its early years.
As Hong Kong audiences gradually shifted toward Cantopop, The Wynners also began creating Chinese-language works and paused releasing new material in the early 1980s. Kenny Bee then developed his solo singing career, with works from this period including "要是有緣," "情變," and "讓一切隨風."
After traveling to Taiwan to make films, Kenny Bee began expanding his acting work. In the late 1970s, as the members of The Wynners pursued separate careers, Kenny Bee went to Taiwan to appear in films including "小城故事." In "小城故事," he played 陳文雄, who learns woodcarving after leaving prison. According to the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, director 李行 asked Kenny Bee to wear a crew cut to portray a young man from rural Taiwan.
After returning to Hong Kong, film and music converged for him in 1983. Kenny Bee appeared in "表錯七日情" and sang its theme song, "一段情," with Bennett Pang; the song was selected as one of that year's Top 10 Jade Solid Gold songs, while the insert song "要是有緣" was selected as one of the Top 10 Chinese Gold Songs.
His solo works continued to appear on song award lists in 1985, 1987, and 1988. "淚之旅" was selected in the third quarterly round of the 1985 Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards, "誠懇" was selected in the fourth quarterly round of 1987 and also named one of that year's Top 10 Chinese Gold Songs, and "兩點水" was selected in the second quarterly round of 1988.
Kenny Bee also moved from performing into film direction, making his directorial debut with "殺妻二人組" in 1985. After releasing the new-songs-and-greatest-hits album "晴有獨鍾" in October 1988, he left PolyGram after more than ten years of collaboration and moved to the CBS SONY label EPIC Records.
Mandarin-language songs became another path in his solo career. Kenny Bee entered the Mandarin-language market with "只要你過得比我好" and, after joining Warner Music in 1992, also recorded an adaptation of 張雨生's "大海."
Music honors he received later reflected both his performing and creative careers. "日日是好日" was selected as a winning song in the first round of the 2007 Jade Solid Gold Outstanding Selections, and Kenny Bee received the 新城勁爆殿堂大獎 in 2012. In 2016, he received the Golden Needle Award at the 38th Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards in his own name, as well as the CASH Music Achievement Award from the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong.
Overview
- Born
- February 23, 1953age 73
- Born in
- Hong Kong
- Career start
- Debut as group member · 1973
- Active
- 1973 – present53 years
- Gender
- Male
- Instruments
- Piano / Keyboard, Saxophone, Vocals
Catalogued works & releases
No catalogued works yet.
