[Newspaper] Oriental Daily , Feb 2011

2011-2-23 Oriental Daily

Chilam Cheung’s Music Company Spending Millions to Please His Whims

Source: the Sun

Credits: Jayne @ http://jaynestars.com

http://asianfanatics.net/forum/topic/744050-chilam-cheungs-music-company-spending-millions-to-please-his-whims/

Chilam Cheung will be holding his first concert at Hong Kong Coliseum on March 26th and 27th. Due to positive pre-concert sales and ratings for recent TVB series, The Rippling Blossom <魚躍在花見>, his current music company, Neway Star Music, was willing to renew his music contract for an eight figure sum. Also, Chilam will be releasing a new music album in March 2011.

In his new music album, Chilam wrote lyrics for a song temporarily titled, “Toy Story.” Since Chilam’s son, Morton, was a dedicated Toy Story fan, Chilam suggested to add Buzz Lightyear’s voice clips to the song. Neway Music applied for copyright use, but unfortunately Hong Kong Disneyland rejected the proposal. Not giving up, Chilam proposed to name the song “Toy Story.” Neway appealed their case and agreed to pay royalties to buy the expensive song name. Hong Kong Disneyland reportedly has to transfer the application to the American Disney operations for the copyright approval. The case will have closure this weekend. Hopefully, the matter will settle soon, otherwise this may delay the release of Chilam’s new album in March.

The tickets for Chilam’s March concert have almost sold out. The Rippling Blossom peaked at thirty-three points in ratings and allegedly, there were two or three music companies interested in signing Chilam. As a result, Neway’s founder, Sit Chai Kit, offered to renew Chilam’s contract for another three years with an eight figure sum. Mr. Sit also proposed to arrange another concert performance at the Hong Kong Coliseum in 2012 and arrange for a twenty-session world concert tour, along with other tempting terms.

When reporters contacted Chilam, who was currently in Vietnam , he acknowledged that Neway was seeking copyright usage from Disney. As for his contract renewal with Neway, Chilam indicated that he will negotiate the contract terms after his March concert.

Neway Star Music’s Chief Executive, Kevin Wong, said, “Our company is willing to spend lots of money to buy the ‘Toy Story’ to use for Chilam’s song. The most important thing is to match Chilam’s needs. We have worked very well with Chilam over the last two years. We have confidence in successfully renewing our contract with him.”