What Do Hong Kong Couples Play at Their Weddings?
4 minutes
Besides the unavoidable “Wedding March,” you would expect to hear cheerful music at a wedding. But Spotify recently released the ten songs most often played at Hong Kong weddings, and more than half are tragic ballads about heartbreak, longing, and old flames. What are these songs doing there? Do people not listen to the lyrics anymore?
1. Karen Mok — “The World Outside”
This song taking first place is rather strange. Isn’t it about someone trapped inside a walled city, waiting for the person outside to return? Its lyrics suit the runaway’s theme better: “The world is so big; I want to go and see it.” Young people do not know Chyi Chin anymore, do they?
2. JJ Lin — “She Said”
“The one who came quietly, then slowly took the silence away…” The only song that could compete with this ode to an ex is the one that says, “Tomorrow I’ll be someone else’s bride; let me think of you one last time.”
3. My Little Airport — “The Young Café Owner”
A quick complaint about useless QQ Music: everyone, please go to Xiami to listen instead. The song comes from the album The Age to Marry. As the title suggests, an awkward young man of marrying age eats at the same café every day, year after year, because he has a crush on its young owner. In Guangdong, people say the winter solstice matters more than New Year, so families should gather then. But this guy even has winter-solstice dinner alone at the café. As a “proud adult,” perhaps he really “doesn’t know where to go.” But what does any of this have to do with a wedding?
4. G.E.M. — “Bubble”
Good grief. Listen carefully to the lyrics—do you still want to get married?
5. Pharrell Williams — “Happy”
At last, a normal and celebratory dance track. Pharrell Williams had been around for years, mostly as a producer known within the industry. He finally stepped into the spotlight when “Get Lucky,” his 2013 collaboration with Daft Punk, swept the charts. The following year, Despicable Me 2 gave “Happy” a boost to the top of the Billboard chart. It became his first bona fide solo hit.
6. G.E.M. — “Intoxicated”
Originally recorded by David Huang and released in 1994, this old song has had many cover versions over the past twenty years, by Anita Mui, Dave Wang, Tiger Huang, Andy Lau, Wang Leehom, Power Station, Eason Chan, Yoga Lin, Jam Hsiao, Sha Baoliang, and Zhang Hexuan. Yet it is still a song about missing an ex.
7. Jay Chou — “Obviously”
The narrator keeps insisting that the other man is gentler and may be able to give her more, while promising to become a friend without making her choose…
This was obviously picked by an ex-boyfriend!
8. Mayday — “Suddenly Missing You”
Do people always think of an ex when they get married?
9. Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat — “Lucky”
Finally, a song that makes sense. “Lucky I’m in love with my best friend”—what could be more enviable? That is what it means to be lovers and best friends. The song was also a global hit and will probably keep going strong.
10. Jay Chou — “What Kind of Man”
If the ex-boyfriend did not pick this song to torture himself, then perhaps the bride chose it to torment her ex in the audience…
The cover image is from The Wedding Singer, starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.