Francis Lee (lyricist) - Life

Life

Twice nominated, he has won "The Best Lyricist Award" for the song named "Love " (愛,"Ai" in Romanization) released in Karen Mok's Mandarin album entitled ) in the 14th Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎"Jin qu jiang", generally known as the Chinese Grammy Awards) held in Taipei, in recognition of his superb art in lyrics writing.

His most recent international projects include the two theme songs to "Red Cliff I & II"（赤壁1& 赤壁II :決戰天下）directed by John Woo（吳宇森) and the Chinese version of the theme song "Wavin' Flag"(旗開得勝 or "Qi Kai De Sheng") to 2010 FIFA World Cup sung by Jacky Cheung（張學友, Zhang Xue-you）, Jane Zhang(張靚穎 Zhang Liang Ying)and K'naan.

Subtle with words, versatile in style and capable to tailer-make lyrics to individual needs, he has written for numerous top Chinese artists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia such as Karen Mok（莫文蔚Mo Wen-hui）, David Tao（ 陶喆Tao Zhe ）, Leehom Wang （王力宏Wang Li-hong）, Jolin Tsai （蔡依林Cai Yi-lin）, Sandy Lam（林憶蓮Lin Yi-lin）, Stephanie Sun（孫燕姿Sun Yan-zi）, Jacky Cheung （張學友Zhang Xue-you）, A-mei（張惠妹Zhang Hui-mei ）, Eason Chan（陳奕迅Chen Yi-xun）, Fish Leong (梁靜茹Liang Jingru), Rainie Yang(楊丞琳 Yang Cheng Lin), Angela Chang(張韶涵 Chang Hsiao Han), Bibi Zhou （周筆暢Zhou Bi-chang）, Tsai Cin （蔡琴Cai Qin）, Coco Lee (李玟Li Wen), F4, S.H.E, Twins, Beyond, and the famous Japanese artists Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子） and Gackt, ranging from candy teen-pop to thought-provoking works, nearly everything from ballads to rock and hip-hop.

Always sharp but supple, sometimes comic but witty, Francis’s works show a unique sensibility that can distill even the most daily-life-words to a poetic level, yet never pretentious or hard to reach.

Selected as one of the 13 best lyricists in the Mandarin music scene in the July-2004 issue of "Eslite Reader"（誠品好讀"Cheng pin hao du"）, a monthly journal published by the most significant book store " Eslite Bookstore"（誠品書店"Cheng pin shu dian"）in Taiwan, Francis is further described as "one of the top-4 lyricists in Taiwan" in the Japanese journal of "Taiwan Current Post"( "Tai Ryu Poppsu") in 2005.

In 2007 his theme song to "Blood Brothers" or "Tian tang kou"天堂口 was nominated "The Best Original Theme Song Award" in the 44th Golden Horse Awards (金馬獎"Jin ma jiang"). His co-produced album "L!VE is… Karen Mok"（拉活"La huo"）was nominated "The Album of the Year", "The Best Female Singer " and "The Producer of the Year" in the 19th Golden Melody Awards and finally won "The Album of the Year" award.

His collaboration with David Tao陶喆, "The Art of War" (孫子兵法"Sun zi bing fa"), centering on issues like greed, loot and doing harms to one another and the global environment has won him a nomination of "The Song of The Year" in the 17th Golden Melody Awards of 2006. Another song also sung by David Tao called "Susan Said"（Susan說 "Su san shuo"）won a "Top 10 of the Year 2005 " Award organized by the "Musicman Organization" （中華音樂人交流協會"Zhong hua yin yue ren jiao liu xie hui"）, another prestigious award in Taiwan. The title is a witty punning of the English name " Susan" and the Mandarin pronunciation of"Su-san"and the song is an imaginary dialogue on fate and love between 2 women whose names are similar in sounds and exactly the same in Romanized written form, suggesting though"Su-san" is from the Ming Dynasty and "Susan" is from nowadays, they still face similar difficulties of life.

Francis has also worked with various composers throughout the world. In 1999 he worked with the famous Japanese composer and producer Daisuke Hinata（日向大介） for the Mandarin version of the theme song to "King of Comedy" （喜劇之王"Xǐjù zhī Wáng"）starred by the Hong Kong king of comedy Stephen Chow（周星馳, Zhōu Xīngchí）. In 2003 he worked with the oscar-winner Indian composer and producer A.R. Rahman for the Mandarin version of the theme song to Columbia Pictures' "Warriors of Heaven and Earth" （天地英雄 "Tiāndì Yīngxióng"）.

His most recent cooperation with Japanese musicians and artists includes the tow theme songs "Heart, War" or "Xin, Zhan" （心．戰）and "Red Cliff ~ River of No Return"（赤壁~大江東去）both composed by Taro Iwashiro （岩代太郎）and produced by Kazuhito Kikuchi （菊池一仁）to the spectacular epic "Red Cliff I & II" or "Chi bi I & II" （赤壁 I 赤壁II）directed by John Woo or Wu Yu-sen(吳宇森）.

In 2005 he wrote Seiko Matsuda’s（松田聖子） official Chinese version of her " I’ll Fall In Love" to mark her 20th anniversary in addition to the Mandarin version of "December’s Love Song" （十二月的情歌"Shi er yue de qing ge"）performed by Gackt and Leehom Wang in 2003.

In 2006, he wrote the Mandarin lyrics in the joint-Asian divas and multi-language song "Color of the Moon" composed by Yumi Matsuoya （松任谷由實）and performed by Yumi herself and Sandy Lam（林憶蓮） together with 2 other Asian female artists for the campaign "Friends Of Love The Earth 2006"

For the Korean-related music scene, Francis recently worked with Bang, the producer of Baby Vox and G.O.D. for a well-known artist Li Quan from the Mainland China in 2005. Apart from that, he also wrote the Mandarin version of "Misty Moon" (by Lim Hyung-Joo) called "White Moonlight"（白月光"Bai yue guang"）sung by Jeff Chang（張信哲Zhang Xin-zhe）in 2004, following the success of Jeff’s earlier Mandarin adaptation of the theme song to the all-swept-away Korean TV drama series "Winter Sonata"（冬季戀歌） called "From Beginning Till Now"（從開始到現在"Cong kai shi dao xian zai"） in 2002.

Francis is also experienced in writing commercial title songs and various theme songs for TV and movies. The long list includes the Mandarin version of "Can’t Help Falling in Love" performed by F4 for Disney’s "Lilo & Stitch" 2002, Pepsi TV commercial title songs from 2002–2004, Sega Games commercial title songs for Mainland China 2005, Rejoice shampoo’s commercial title song for Mainland China and Hong Kong 2005-2006, as well as the theme song and ending song in the extremely popular TV drama series "Meteor Garden II" （流行花園 II "Liu xing hua yuan II"）by F4.