Where is THE VOICE of Macao?

By Arcadia Ian, Cherry Leong

 

In the little city of Macao live a bunch of people who possess the extraordinary talent of having a beautiful voice. They live like everyone else; not having the choice of developing themselves into a career of professional singers, some may watch the reality shows of Hong Kong or Taiwan during weekends, watching the competitors from the “Million Stars” and “The Voice” turning their dreams into reality, wishing that they could do the same.

It is assumed that being a singer in Macao is an unachievable dream, but music enthusiasts seem to be able to see a glimmer of a light when Teledifus?o De Macau S.A. (TDM) launched the first singing contest, and there was a sudden boom of new faces singing on screen. Later on, more and more singing contests emerged in Macao. However, after one show, or if they are really good, a few shows, you will never be able to find them on TV again, nor will you see them being invited to local events for performances. This phenomenon seems common to most of us, but is it normal or healthy for the development of the music industry of this little city?

Herman Iu Hei Tou, president of the Music Society in University of Macau (UM), helped organize the original music contest in May 2010. Like many other singing contests in Macao, Iu wanted to create a platform for talented singers to excel in their skills in front of everybody, and he has his own opinion about the lack of development of the music industry, singers in Macao to be more specific. “Unlike our neighboring regions like Hong Kong or even Taiwan where the entertainment industry is indeed quite mature, there is a sense of commercial entertainment culture, which easily enables new singers to reach the public, also, corporations see the entertainment industry as a golden goose so they are willing to invest money into new singers. On the contrary, the population is much smaller here than that in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Therefore, the market in Macao is much more limited. This makes the music production companies less motivated to invest in Macao singers,” Iu continues.

“The only thing that we can do to help promote our own music culture is to host more competitions and keeping on doing it so that our participants can get opportunities to step on the stage and be prepared for a bigger stage. It is impossible to have a competition to achieve the effect like ‘The Voice’ in Hong Kong, but an on-going trend is definitely needed,” Iu says. Iu thinks that if local people do not support Macao’s music industry, no matter how many music contests are held in Macao, the contests will only be practicing platforms for amateur singers, and they can only go overseas in order to develop their talent.

Christopher Chan Chon In, vice-president of the Executive Committee of General Association of Chinese Students of Macao, has a lot of experience in hosting different talent contests, including a music contest, like the “Campus Singing” - the Macao students’ pop song singing contest. The aim of the music contest is to discover Macao future singers and arouse people’s interest in singing.

"After the participants win the singing contest, we will invite them to perform in different functions that are held by our organization in order to give more opportunities for them to exhibit their talent," Chan says. Chan also says that there are very few well-known music production companies in Macao. Thus, even though some youngsters win the music contest, not many corporations are willing to invest in them. "Most singers in Macao are amateur singers. In such a circumstance, the music production may have a high risk of losing money if they invest in them as they do not reach the professional level needed for a large market. Their competitiveness is relatively lower than singers' in Hong Kong or
other places," Chan continues.

In Chan's point of view, the mass media, like television stations and radio stations in Macao can cooperate with each other in order to promote Macao singers more effectively. Then the music industry can have a better development. "Actually, the government can provide a subsidy for those who would like to make their own music discs. It can also cooperate with television stations in Macao to promote Macao's pop music," Chan adds.
Mandy Cheong Sok Man has participated in many music contests, like the Campus Singing. She has won several prizes. After winning the prizes, the organizations which held the contests will invite her to be a performer in other activities
they hold. Cheong says that the Macao music industry is developing, but it takes time to improve. Despite investors' reluctance to invest in this industry, people's preference for non-local music also creates difficulty for local singers to develop in this industry. "The government should invest more money in promoting the local music as the promotion is not widespread enough," Cheong adds.
Antonio Wong, who took part in several music contests, thinks that there is no entertainment industry in Macao. He says, "We can see that when there is any function held by the government, it usually invites artists from other places. It
may sometime invite so-called local singers, but in the poster, the most eye-catching part always features non-local singers rather than local ones. Hence, the government should be the first one to sponsor local singers and local music corporations so that they can have a better development."