There is a saying on the Internet, "Jay Chou and Liu Genghong have a fateful friendship, and they have passed the fate of Wen Lan."
This happened when they were still newcomers.
Once the three of them went back to Liu Genghong’s house after playing basketball. Wen Lan and Liu Genghong were writing songs in the living room while Jay Chou went to take a shower.
Jay Chou took this bath for an hour, but the gas leaked.
Wen Lan, who was the most poisoned, was foaming at the mouth. Liu Genghong used his remaining will to dial 119. Jay Chou crawled out and knocked on the neighbor's door, and several people were saved.
Probably because of this life-and-death friendship, Jay Chou wrote the most songs for Wen Lan, a total of 16 songs.
Wen Lan and Jay Chou
These songs play an important role in Wen Lan's singing career. One song " Summer Wind" won Wen Lan the "Favorite Golden Melody Award" at the 2021 Favorite Golden Melody Music Festival.
This gust of wind started blowing in 2004 and has been blowing until now.
Wen Lan saw primary school students singing this song some time ago and was shocked: "If you think about it, "Summer Wind" is actually eighteen years old."
In 1997, Wen Lan, a 17-year-old Atayal girl, participated in "Super Rookie King" hosted by Wu Zongxian without telling her parents.
At that time, Wu Zongxian founded his own record company "Alfa" and was recruiting people, and he took a liking to Wen Lan at a glance.
In order to get Wen Lan's parents to agree to the contract, Wu Zongxian visited her thatched cottage and went to her mountain tribe home, treated her parents to dinner, and took them to hot springs. It was as solemn as a marriage proposal, and finally impressed Wen Lan's parents with his sincerity.
So "Alfa" had its first female singer.
At that time, Wen Lan was highly praised. Jay Chou, who signed a contract a year before her, was just a music assistant.
The life in the company is simpler and happier than Wen Lan imagined. When working, everyone concentrates on making music. After get off work, we often play basketball together. As the only girl in the company, Wen Lan is loved and loved, and everyone follows her rules for playing basketball.
Her first song, "roof", arrived in 1999.
Wen Lan and Wu Zongxian
This song, a duet between herself and Wu Zongxian, written and composed by Jay Chou, has become a duet hit because of its catchy melody and catchy melody.
This year, Jolin Tsai and Elva Hsiao successively released their first albums. Their albums were very popular. " I Know You Are Sad " and " The Most Familiar Stranger " were widely sung.
In comparison, Wen Lan, who only has one song in hand, is too inconspicuous.
In order for Wen Lan to break into the increasingly fierce market, Wu Zongxian spent a lot of money.
Jay Chou, Fang Wenshan , Bobida , Zhong Xingmin ... The company's main creative forces came out to produce Wen Lan's first album "The Sixth Sense".
"The Sixth Sense" album cover
For publicity, he even did not hesitate to use his own scandal to hype up, saying that Wen Lan was the fourth woman after Ahn'Qiraj, Chen Xiaoxuan and the female college student.
Wen Lan didn’t have to speak too much when making announcements or appearing on the show. Wu Zongxian and her senior brothers did all the talking for her. Under the wings of safety, her life was easy and smooth.
The results obtained after a series of operations are not satisfactory.
Even though the company invested a lot, Wen Lan's album sales were still poor, and no one even knew she had released an album.
In the same year, Jay Chou also wanted to release his own album. Wu Zongxian told Jay Chou that if he could write 50 songs in 10 days, he would help him release an album. This underappreciated music assistant really wrote 50 songs day and night.
At the 12th Golden Melody Awards, Jay Chou's "JAY" stunned everyone, and another newcomer Stefanie Sun was shortlisted for the Golden Melody Award for Best Newcomer.
Under the background of Jay Chou and Stefanie Sun, Wen Lan's performance became even more dismal.
Wu Zongxian and Jay Chou
Someone once asked Wu Zongxian: "Jay Chou must have helped you make a lot of money, right?"
Wu Zongxian said: "So what, Wen Lan has lost everything."
The 21-year-old girl from the mountains has no idea what to do. Coupled with the company's personnel changes, she has nothing to do, and she doesn't know if she will have another album. She feels terrified every day. When
was about to sign a contract with Wu Zongxian, her parents, in order to take care of her more conveniently, applied for a job transfer and transferred Wen Lan's younger brother to another school. The family moved from the tribe to Taipei.
At this time, the family affection turned into pressure. She felt that she was like a "rice bug" because of her incompetence, and she felt sorry for her parents.
During those days, she neither sang nor listened to music, and resisted everything related to music.
Her mother noticed that she was depressed and would often open a bottle of red wine and chat with her while drinking.
Wen Lan heard her mother's life experience and heard her mother say that she only wanted her to be happy. These words gave her a lot of comfort and support.
Although Wu Zongxian’s speech was unpleasant, he did not give up on Wen Lan.
At that time, Wen Lan's skin was very white, so white that the blood vessels were clear.
The company studied the reason why Wen Lan’s first album failed: the image of a fair-skinned, gentle and distressed urban girl was too unrecognizable.
It happened that on the last day of the company that year, everyone played games, played music and danced. Colleagues saw that Wen Lan was very lively while playing games, and suddenly they had new ideas.
At the beginning of the millennium, American pop singer Jennifer Lopez’s wild and dynamic style swept the Taiwanese music scene.
The company wants Wen Lan to take this route, buy her a ticket to tan the sun, and let her go to to tan .
Wen Lan was very obedient and got herself tanned.
One time when she went home, she met a neighbor. The neighbor did not recognize her and said to her mother: "Oh, my daughter is a singer, and my mother is rich, so she hired Filipino helpers."
Not only that, Wen Lan also has to learn to dance in high heels that are more than ten centimeters tall.
Wen Lan has never worn such high heels, so she started practicing from walking.
She would wear high heels at home until she could walk easily in high heels, and then she started practicing dancing. The extensive training caused her ankles to become habitually dislocated. The hardships
suffered were rewarded a year later.
"A Little Wild" album cover
In 2001, Wen Lan released the R&B style album "A Little Wild". This album invited Michael Lin, who was good at strong and distinctive rhythm, to arrange the music for Wen Lan. It also specially included the duet version of "Rooftop" by Wen Lan and Jay Chou.
's single " Tears Know " was originally written by Jay Chou to Andy Lau . Andy Lau couldn't understand "What do tears know? How can tears know?" and returned the song. The song
finally fell into the hands of Wen Lan and became her most popular song in this album.
The success of "A Little Wild" made Wen Lan dubbed "Taiwan's Jennifer Lopez" by the media.
Taking advantage of the strong east wind, the next year, Wen Lan released his third album "Blue Rain". The title song was still composed by the ace combination Jay Chou and Fang Wenshan.When
was filming the MV for "Blue Rain", water restrictions were restricted in Taipei. Wen Lan jumped into the pool that had not been changed for more than two weeks. His mood was as sad as the music style. This lyrical R&B album once again boosted Wen Lan's popularity.
"Blue Rain" album cover
At this time, Jay Chou was already a leader in the Chinese music scene . He did not forget to support his fellow students and even took Wen Lan with him when he held concerts.
Looking at the 60,000 spectators in the audience, Wen Lan was confused for a moment. It was the biggest stage that the 22-year-old had ever seen. She was thinking in her head: "You can't let down your senior brother, and you must never go out of tune."
In the next two years, Wen Lan worked hard to improve herself. She took acting classes in a theater troupe to develop her voice and performance potential. She went to the United States to learn dance from a teacher, studied various body shaping courses, sculpted curves, and increased vital capacity .
In 2004, Wen Lan released her fourth album "Greenhouse Effect".
The classic tracks in "Greenhouse Effect", "Summer Wind" and " Happy Birthday to Me " were all composed by Jay Chou.
"Wen Style Effect" album cover
This album established Wen Lan's status as the queen of hot dance.
Three years later, Jay Chou established his own music company, and Wen Lan joined Seed Music .
Without Jay Chou, Wen Lan met Kenji Wu.
Wu Kequn's first album "Heat Wave" created for Wen Lan ranked second in Taiwan g-music with a sales performance of 4.21% in the first week of its release, second only to Zhang Huimei 's "STAR".
"Heat Wave" album cover
In the "Heat Wave" MV, Wen Lan tried for the first time to integrate VOGUE dance , which became popular in New York in the 1980s, with swing dance, Locking and so on.
The stylist also specially selected clothes for her from Madonna Italian designer D&G. This song set off a new wave of disco popularity at the time.
Since then, wherever there is a dance floor in Taiwan, there will be Wen Lan's "Heat Wave" performance.
once participated in a commercial performance. The organizer posted the advertisement early, but the stage was not set up near the start of the performance.
The staff had to stack up all the boxed drinks in the store to create a stage big enough for one person to stand on.
Because the heels were easily stuck in the gaps in the box, Wen Lan stood on tiptoes in fifteen-centimeter high heels. When she went to bed that night, she kept her feet elevated all night, otherwise her feet would go numb.
Wen Lan has been dancing in high heels for a long time. One ankle of Wen Lan is habitually dislocated, and two toes on the other foot have been fractured. She has to wrap them with elastic bandages every time she performs, and apply ice immediately after the performance.
Later, when recalling this experience, Wen Lan smiled lightly:
“When I jump on stage, I don’t think of pain, because the people in the audience may have waited for this part. Months, I have to perform this song quickly."
In 2013, she released " Wen Lan's self-titled concept album ". This was her tenth album since her debut, and it was also a milestone for her.
Cover of "Wen Lan's Concept Album of the same Name"
She served as a producer for the first time. The entire album lacked the dynamic dance of the past and changed to a mature intellectual beauty route. "Passers" and " Counter-flowing Tears " in the album are all written and composed by herself.
There is a line in the song "Reverse Flow of Tears": "The road may be easier if you go with the wind, but the blown hair will cover your eyes."
Recalling the years he has been in the industry, Wen Lan once used a touching metaphor: "It's like a swaddling baby who doesn't know the outside world.".
The basic content of her life is to perform, go home, create, return to the tribe, and the cycle repeats.
She is not very social. From the day she became a singer, she has been well protected by her family and company.
This year, a girl who had been protected for a long time grew up.
Looking back on her childhood, Wen Lan lived a life of moving around.
My father’s job was often transferred, so the whole family moved around with him.
Year-round "migration" life has cultivated Wen Lan's ability to adapt to the situation. No matter what new environment she goes to, she can quickly adapt to it.
But as time went by, the loneliness in her heart would come out to bite her heart from time to time.
When Wen Lan first debuted, her dream was to buy a house for her family and have her own land on the tribal mountain.
The next step is to plan your future "retirement life". Have a house of your own, it doesn't have to be too big, you just want a home of your own.
Her dream of buying a house for her family came true in 2007.
That year she wrote the lyrics for the song "Pocket". The whole song was just a simple piano accompaniment, relying entirely on the integration of voice and emotion. Wen Lan performed it calmly and soothingly, which was very listenable.
Wen Lan wrote: "The shell loves home, the fish swims in the water, and I am left, a nostalgic cancer, stepping on the sand. I will slowly learn to be brave, slowly learn to keep warm, and if I feel cold, put it in my pocket."
This home-loving girl learns to be independent and brave in the process of chasing her dreams.
In 2013, the year when "Wen Lan's concept album of the same name" was released, Wen Lan bought himself an apartment and began to prepare for his own music production company.
The company was established the following year. In the new single "Never Say Never", she gave herself a blessing, "Perseverance is the best gift. It clears the fog, sees the road, and walks out on your own."
All her dreams have come true, and all that is left is to sing. Over the years, she has continued to release songs.
Perhaps because of her petite stature, only at that moment on stage did Wen Lan feel that everyone could see her.
Someone asked Wen Lan, if there was a chance to travel back in time, which year would he want to go to?
She thought about it seriously and decided not to go back, so she just settled down.
If one day there is no stage for her outside, she will go back to the tribe and continue singing until she can no longer sing.
