Post by sarahtiu015 on Nov 7, 2008 3:10:53 GMT -12
Fahrenheit (traditional Chinese: 飛輪海; pinyin: Fēi Lún Hǎi) is a Taiwanese boy band that has achieved success in the last two years in Southeast Asia. This group consists of four members: Aaron Yan, Wu Chun, Calvin Chen, and Jiro Wang. They are managed by Jerry Fen's Comic Productions Co., Ltd. and records albums with HIM International Music. They are also managed by WOW Music[1] in Hong Kong. Fahrenheit are often associated with their seniors, S.H.E, and are commonly referred to as the most successful Taiwanese boy band after F4.[citation needed]
They released their self-titled debut album, Fahrenheit, on September 15, 2006 while their second album Two-sided Fahrenheit was released on January 4, 2008.
Background
Derived from the definition of Fahrenheit, each of the four members represents a season or temperature that corresponds with their different personalities. Calvin Chen represents spring, warm; Jiro Wang represents summer, hot; Wu Zun represents autumn, cool, and lastly, Aaron Yan represents winter, cold. Each of the four members also has his respective temperature represented on the Fahrenheit scale: Calvin Chen is at 77 degrees, Jiro Wang is at 95 degrees, Wu Zun is at 59 degrees, and Aaron Yan is at 41 degrees. Each of their temperatures are separated by 18 degrees.
Wu Chun was born and raised in Brunei for most of his life, later graduating with distinction at RMIT, in Melbourne, Australia. He was introduced to the entertainment industry during a trip to Taiwan around Mid-November 2005. A television producer (Ella Chen's second sister's boyfriend) discovered him during this trip, and recommended him to play the lead male role of Tokyo Juliet, which Wu accepted..
Aaron Yan was born in Taiwan, but moved to New York, USA at a young age for elementary school but later returned to Taiwan for high school and college. He attended the Chinese Culture University, majoring in Journalism but later switched universities and majors in his third year. He is currently on a study hiatus due to work commitments. Around early 2005, Comic producers had been searching for elite bloggers around the web. They discovered Yan, who, at that time, was really popular online, and thus recommended him to go casting for a role in a drama. Yan thought it was a fraud at first, but after several tests, he realized that it was true. He was given a small role in 'I Love My Wife' and was later asked to be in 'It Started With a Kiss' as Ah Bu.
After Calvin Chen graduated high school in Taiwan, he further pursued his college education in Canada, where he completed his Masters degree in Economics at University of Victoria. He then further continued his life in Canada by joining a pageant-like competition (Sunshine Boyz) in Vancouver,[2] where he won first place with a free ticket to Taiwan and a contract with a music company.
In 2000, Jiro Wang started to work since he graduated from Taiwan's Fu-Shin community college, and did part-time jobs wherever he could, such as commercial modelling. BMG, the label that signed him, planned to package him with Jay Chou and Jordan Chan to form a boyband called 3J, but because of 9/11, BMG's stocks crashed and the 3J plan was scrapped. He later joined the army for 2 years, and came back around 2003. Since he was still popular around Taiwan, he was given two roles as a guest-star in 'The Pawnshop No.8' and 'I Love My Wife'. Then Comic Productions approached him, and was given the supporting role as Ah Jin in 'It Started with A Kiss'. That was where he was grouped with Aaron, Calvin and Wu Chun.
Although unstable at first, Fahrenheit first gained minor recognition around late 2005 when their first all-together series, KO One, was broadcasted on television in Taiwan. Because it felt awkward to have only three members in a boyband,[citation needed] Wu Chun joined the group later in late 2005. On December 28, 2005, Fahrenheit officially became a vocal quartet boy band.
Rise to stardom
Before Fahrenheit released their first album in September 15 of 2006, they gained minor attention as singers from contributing in several Taiwanese drama soundtracks. Their popularity immediately rose after the soundtracks were released, but was only limited to Taiwan and Mainland China. After their first album was released, their fan base had extended to Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia . Overseas fans such as from North America and Europe are also getting more familiar with them.
As soon as announcements for their debut album pre-order was released on August 30, 2006, the album broke past 10,000 copies. [3] After its release in September 15, 2006, the album entered the G-music charts and was ranked #2. It was less than 1% below Jay Chou's Still Fantasy album, which came out two weeks prior to the release. [4] Fahrenheit's album sold passed an impressive 80,000 copies in Taiwan within the first month. [5] Ultimately on the G-music Mandarin Charts their album was ranked 11th for the top 20 of 2006 and stayed in the charts for 17 weeks. [6] Their primary song, or zhuda (Chinese: 主打; pinyin: zhǔ dǎ) song, "I Have My Youth" (我有我的Young) was on Hong Kong's Global Rhythm List as the Top 16th song for weeks. Their duet with Hebe of girl group S.H.E also won them several popular awards. Fahrenheit was also the first new foreign boy band to have won third place for Best Group at Hong Kong's TVB8 Awards. Although unable to defeat their seniors S.H.E and Twins, who had won first place and second place respectively, they have beaten Hong Kong's local boy bands such as Sun Boy'z and Soler. In less than a year, Fahrenheit has already won eight awards. Despite the outburst of winning multiple awards, there had been debates where fans disagreed with the awards that they have won. The most debated topic was when Fahrenheit won HITO Music Awards 2007's Best Male Group award, arguing that Fahrenheit is too inexperienced to have won the award.
Popularity and success
With the help of starring in popular dramas, Fahrenheit has been the fastest moving boy band[citation needed] and has quickly gained their status as one of the top boy bands of the year in Taiwan. Within a year, they had already debuted in over 30 different magazine covers all over Asia. They make frequent appearances in Taiwan's Play and Color magazine covers. After their predecessors F4, they are the second Taiwanese boy band to hold a concert in Indonesia with only just one album released. They already held two mini concerts: one in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia on March 31 and one in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong on April 19. [7] Also, they held 2 concerts sponsored by Watsons Water at the end of September 2007: one in Hongkong on September 28, 2007 and one in Guangzhou on September 29, 2007.
Fahrenheit attended to an opening ceremony for their new music label in Hong Kong, WOW Music, at Times Square, Hong Kong, on April 19, 2007, the same evening where they held their mini concert in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. They also attended with fellow label mate Tank as well as with other popular artists like Candy Lo and Mavis Fan. More than a thousand fans showed up at the mall, the majority being Fahrenheit's fans. There were fans who faced danger and climbed on roofs, cars, narrow roads, etc. to catch a glimpse of them. Some fans also fainted and were stepped on due to the number of people. Over fifty security guards and ten policemen had to appear at the venue to protect Fahrenheit as well as the other artists. There were also some fans who rented vans to chase after Fahrenheit's vans. Some fans also became victims of car accidents because of this. At their mini concert in Hard Rock Cafe, the organizers had to cut down Fahrenheit's performance because the fans were going overboard and out of control. Fahrenheit expressed that they do not want their fans to do anything dangerous. Fahrenheit's company explained that if fans do not correct this behavior they will cut some of Fahrenheit's future trips to Hong Kong. [8]
[edit] Major concerts
Ever since Fahrenheit's meteoric rise to stardom, HIM has been giving quite a bit exposure for Fahrenheit, such as promoting the group in two of S.H.E's major concerts in Taipei and Singapore where they were seen performing their duet with Hebe as well as their own songs. Ever since their exposure had hit the Hong Kong market their company does not want to miss this chance for more promotion for the group and is currently organizing Fahrenheit's first major concert in Hong Kong in September at the HKCEC. It was reported that they are originally going to hold a concert in Hong Kong's renowned coliseum, Hong Kong Coliseum, but because all of the performances slots are full, they have to move their concert to a different venue. The director of WOW Music expressed that Fahrenheit is currently slated for performing in the HKCEC for two to three nights. In the winter of 2008 they will debut in the Hong Kong Coliseum. [9] as part of their All-Asia Concert. During their All-Asia press conference for the release of their second album in Hong Kong, it was revealed that plans for the All-Asia Concert were in the works. Confirmed concert stops include Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. Torwards the end of September, Fahrenheit had some concert stops in Mainland China and about a week later, they had a couple more concerts in China with S.H.E. for their Mengniu Promotion-type concert.
