Story | Connie Li Photography | Tudor
He’s dashing, funny and a true gentleman. That’s the kind of admiration Jay Chou receives from his fans since he did the promo for the Tudor Black Bay Chrono watch.
Watch Him Shine
Who is asia’s “King of Pop”? Tudor is offering a resounding answer, by featuring Jay Chou in a 30-second video, to promote the release of the Tudor Black Bay Chrono.
In the entertaining video, Chou shows up at a Tudor store, wanting to take a closer look at the Tudor Black Bay Chrono.
But the staff are all busy with other customers. So he magically puts his hand through the glass cabinet and lifts out the watch. Needless to say, this immediately gets the staff’s attention. He subsequently buys the watch and, while leaving the store, plays one more magic trick, turning a deck of cards into a watch. He then puts on his watch in front of the mystified staff before driving away in a vintage sports car.
Tudor happily let Chou direct and act in the video, knowing his indisputable star power. His stature as a musician, actor and director, and his unique style and cultural depth, makes him a great fit for Tudor.
In Chinese communities, Chou is indeed a household name. After he shot to fame as a singer/songwriter in 2000, he has been spreading his stardom outside of composing to include acting and directing movies. He has starred in variety shows and has been an icon in fashion, animation and e-sports. He even took up a role as a Sotheby’s curator to plan an asia contemporary art auction. He also ranks fifth in the 2021 Forbes China Celebrity List released in August.
An Overnight Sensation
A mega talent, Chou’s 20 years of success is rooted in music. He’s amassed so many awards to even bother to list. But recounting just one story from the early days of his career shows just how big Chou’s star has shined right from the start.
On July 16, 2003, 50 radio stations across asia debuted his song “In the Name of His Father”, for which more than 800 million people tuned in. Even the radio stations collectively declared the date “Jay Chou Day”. Eighteen years later, the
same song is played. It’s not uncommon for fans on his WeChat account to rave with comments like “Jay is always a hit.”
At the heart of Chou’s popularity is his music.”Blue and White Porcelain”, with soulful lyrics that have touched many over the decades, is but one example.In November 2020, Chou marked the 20th anniversary of his music career by
releasing the Jay’s Universe playlist on apple music, taking fans on a grand tour of his music, his art and live shows. The curated playlist of Chou’s signature east-meets-west style takes classical oriental aesthetics to the mainstream, injecting new life into ethnic musical instruments, the pentatonic scale, ancient poetry and Peking opera.
The mix of music is a showcase of Chou’s fun-loving free spirited character that is his and his alone. He tells stories in tongue-twisting raps, and his unique intonation resets the rules for Chinese phonetics, creating an immense kind of freedom for lyrical rhythm.
The World Waits
The Jay Chou World Tour, which was originally scheduled to kick off in December 2019 at Hong Kong Disneyland has been rescheduled four times, the latest date is set for March 2022. As tortuous as it is for the 100,000 fans who hold tickets, they remain loyal and are willing to wait more than two years to see him live. The organizer is even toying with the idea of applying for a Guinness World record for having the largest number of people waiting the longest for a concert. That’s the kind of magnetism this guy holds.
“My music mixes Chinese traditional music with martial art elements,” says Chou. “To get noticed in the West, Chinese culture is a starting point. I think I have to travel a unique road that nobody has gone down before. I got noticed because people thought my music was different.”
In June 2020, amid the global pandemic blues, his song “mojito”, a finalist for the Taiwan golden melody award, made Cuba a dreamy place. The uplifting rap beat, with Latin-inspired lyrics, transported us to Havana, riding in a vintage car and dancing salsa in the streets—an expression of love and joy unfettered by the pandemic.
After “mojito”, Chou was silent and fans went online looking for answers. Finally, in August this year, he responded, perhaps looking to tease his fans: “Made two songs. Shot the MV for two. Should this dude release them first, or wait for the other songs to form an album? But this is not going to happen ‘til next year.”
Let’s wait patiently as Chou once said: “if staying true to my style is conceived as ‘rehashing the old’, it’s hard for me to argue against that. Making music is difficult. Every album will have a different voice. Some might say, ‘You are not moving forward.’ Some might say, ‘That’s all you’ve got.’ Let’s just write a song to prove them wrong.”
M79360N-002
Black Bay Chrono
Manufacture Calibre MT5813 (COSC)
41mm steel case
Steel bracelet
$5,970
