William Wei

Wei Li-an (; born 5 March 1987), known professionally as WeiBird, is a Taiwanese singer-songwriter. He has released six studio albums, one live album and two extended plays. Wei won the Golden Melody Award for Best New Singer in 2011 and Best Composer in 2015.

Wei gained media attention as the winner of the first season of the reality television singing competition Happy Sunday in 2007. He released his eponymous debut album William Wei in 2010, which received 4 nominations at the 22nd Golden Melody Awards and subsequently won him the Best New Artist award. Wei also received a nomination at the 58th Golden Horse Awards for Best Original Film Song with "Red Scarf" (如果可以). The song is also nominated for Song of the Year at the 33rd Golden Melody Awards.

Life and career

1987–2005: Early life Wei grew up in Taichung, Taiwan. His parents, Wei Chin-long (韋金龍) and Chen Yu-mei (陳玉美), were both professors in the foreign languages departments of National Chung Hsing University and National Chung Cheng University, respectively.

Wei's grandfather was a songwriter and both of his parents were previously choir members. Wei grew under their influences and has developed great sensitivity toward music.

During his high school, Wei's father bought him his first guitar and he developed a passion for the instrument. His songs were very well received by the Netizens and Wei became one of the most popular songwriters on StreetVoice. Although most of Wei's works were notably Folk Pop, he also experimented with different music genres such as Bossa Nova, R&B, Soul Jazz and Disco. He decided to put his budding music career on hiatus and continues his study. Wei felt that he was not ready to become a singer and he did not want to be bonded by a contract. Angela Zhang and Rene Liu.

2009–2010: Slowly Wait, William Wei, The Fleeing of a Two-Legged Bookcase In 2009, Wei decided to sign a record deal with Linfair Records. Wei released his first EP on 13 March 2009, titled Slowly Wait (慢慢等). It consists of two tracks 'Slowly Wait' (慢慢等) and Good Weather (好天氣). Wei also launched WeiTV, a parody channel on YouTube, to promote his first EP. Subsequently, Wei released his first self-titled debut studio album (韋禮安同名創作專輯) on 4 June 2010.

Wei's debut album received positive reviews from the critics. It was selected as one of the top 10 mandarin albums in 2010 by the Chinese Musicians' Association and Hit FM. Wei received nominations 4 different categories in the prestigious 22nd Golden Melody Awards. The album was nominated for Best Mandarin Album and lead single, 'Have or Have Not' (有沒有) earned Wei a nomination for Best Composer. Wei held his first nationwide concert tour, The Fleeing of a Two-Legged Bookcase (兩腳書櫥的逃亡), on 18 September 2010 at the Taipei International Convention Center to a crowd of 3000. He covered songs from his debut album and some of his all-time favourite songs by other artistes. The concert was recorded for live release. The Fleeing of a Two-Legged Bookcase was later held in Taichung on 25 September 2010.

2011–2013: The Bird That Saved The World, Someone Is Waiting and Through My Lenses Wei was conscripted for mandatory military service in late 2010. He served as the ambassador for the anti-drug campaign during his military service. The filming was completed within a tight schedule of sixteen days back in 2010.

Following the success of his first album, Wei's second album Someone Is Waiting was released on 3 August 2012. The album received rave reviews from critics and fans. Both Chinese Musicians' Association and Hit FM have shortlisted the album as one of the top 10 best albums in 2012. "Still" (還是會), one of the songs in Someone Is Waiting, won the Best Soundtrack of the Year award in the KKBOX Music Award. "Still" charted at 10th on the overall KKBOX digital music chart in 2012. Wei held his second concert tour Through My Lenses concert at Hong Kong and Taipei. Both concerts were fully sold-out.

2014: Journey into The Night Wei released his third studio album, Journey into The Night, on 25 March 2014. Unlike the previous two albums, Journey into The Night leaned towards a darker artistic direction. Inspired by Ang Lee's movie Life of Pi, Wei faced his worst fears in his third album and experimented with metal rock, hip-hop, 2-step, electronic and rock. It was also the seventh most streamed album on music streaming platform KKBOX. The third single, 'By Your Side' (在你身邊) was ranked 5th on the overall KKBOX digital music chart in 2014. The album received 2 nominations at the 26th Golden Melody Awards. The filming took place at the villages in Guizhou. Wei performed 'May Have Been', the theme song of the play, at the very last scene. On 12 September 2015, Wei held his third concert, Free That Girl, at the Taipei Arena. In promotion of the concert, Wei released a promotional single titled "Girl" (女孩) on 28 May 2015. Wei also enlisted help from various female artistes including Hong Shi from Taiwanese girl group Popu Lady, Waa Wei and Lala Hsu to promote the concert. Free That Girl performed to a crowd more than 10,000. It was scheduled to be held in Hong Kong on 18 June 2016. In October 2015, Wei returned to tour with theatre play "What Is Sex?" in China. In two months, he performed at 7 cities: Shenzhen, Chengdu, Wuhan, Shanghai, Beijing, Zhuhai and Guangzhou. Wei's rising popularity has won him endorsement deals and opportunities to sing for soundtracks of television drama series. At the 2015 overall KKBOX digital music chart, "Girl" was ranked at 9th and "Don't Say" was ranked at 11th.

Wei held his Free That Girl concert in Hong Kong on 18 June 2016. Wei's fourth album 'It All Started From An Intro' was scheduled for release on 16 August 2016. In this album, Wei continues to experiment with different music genres such as Argentine tango, electronic dance music, pop, R&B, fingerstyle guitar etc. At the 12th KKBOX Music Award, Wei was one of the ten recipients honoured with the 'Artist of the Year' award. The award is given to the top ten performing artists on KKBOX based on total music streaming volume.

2018–2020: Contractual Dispute, At Thirty, Sounds Of My Life, After Thirty

On 2 September 2018, Wei announced he has left his record label, Linfair Records and established his own music label, Awesome Music. Wei released a new single 'At Thirty' on 13 September 2018, which became the promotional single for his 'At Thirty World Tour'. Compromising of 10 shows, the tour visited 8 major cities in China and is scheduled to visit Singapore and Malaysia.

On 29 April 2020, Wei released his 5th studio album titled Sounds of My Life. The theme behind this album circles around Wei's 'Documentary of Sounds' as he translates his life and emotions into music. For this album, Wei also experimented a variety of genres in his album, from pop, folk, rock to even R&B. Later in December 2020, Weibird performed 2 sold-out shows of 'After Thirty' at the Taipei Pop Music Centre. Sounds of My Life received 4 nominations at the 32nd Golden Melody Awards. He later participated at reality talent show Sing! China and joined Team Li Ronghao. He was subsequently eliminated in the Cross Knockouts round. Wei was invited by Giddens Ko to compose a song for his movie Till We Meet Again which was adapted from his novel 'Yue Lao' (月老). Wei co-wrote the theme song "Red Scarf" with Jerry C and Ko, which was a commercial success, becoming the biggest hit song in 2021. The song is among the list of most-viewed Chinese music videos on YouTube and topped music charts in various countries. It was named the 'Song of the Year' by Hit FM in the annual Top 100 countdown. "Red Scarf" was well received by music critics and was nominated Best Original Film Song at 58th Golden Horse Awards and Song of the Year at the 33rd Golden Melody Awards.

In the same year, Wei released his first English album I'm More Sober When I'm Drunk. The album is inspired from Wei's past heartbreak experiences which includes drowning his sorrows in alcohol. The album was well-received and named one of the Top 10 Album of the Year by Hit FM. The lead single 'R.I.P.' topped the Western Single Chart on KKBOX.

Endorsements Wei has been a spokesperson for many popular brands including Lipton, Microsoft Office 365 and Cotton USA. In many of his endorsements, Wei specially wrote songs for the brands such as 'Playing Games' (玩遊戲) for Microsoft Office 365

Wei was also the ambassador for World Vision Taiwan on numerous occasions. In 2013, Wei was first appointed as the ambassador for World Vision Taiwan's "Love Loaf" campaign and travelled to Armenia to bring awareness about combating poverty and improving the lives of children and their families. In 2014, he continued his ambassadorial role and visited Bosnia and Herzegovina. Subsequently, Claire Kuo joined Wei and visited Zambia in 2015 to raise awareness about issues such as water scarcity, malnutrition and diseases.

Name Year Note Angelia & Pets – Kido Bag 2012 Vitalon – 御茶園 With Puff Kuo World Vision Taiwan 2013 Travelled to Armenia Cotton USA 2014 Quaker Oats Soy Milk Pringles 2017 ETALKING 2018 Hai Zhi Yan Sea Salt Lemon Water – 海之言 Taiwan Beer World Vision Taiwan Travelled to Uganda with Jasper Liu Bohemian Rhapsody Bohemian Rhapsody Global Influencer Program ETALKING 2019 Hai Zhi Yan Sea Salt Lemon Water – 海之言 Lexus IS 300h 2020 With Nike Chen ENYA NEXG Smart Audio Guitar 2022 ECOVACS DEEBOT X1 Robotic Vacuum EDIFIER TO-U2 mini Bluetooth Earbuds Darlie

Discography

William Wei (2010) Best Mandarin Male Singer William Wei Best Composer "Have or Have Not" Best New Artist William Wei

Association of Music Workers in Taiwan Top 10 Album William Wei

8th KKBOX Music Awards Best Soundtrack of the Year "Still"

Best Album in Mandarin Sounds of My Life Best Mandarin Male Singer Sounds of My Life Best Composer "I Wrote A Song For You" Association of Music Workers in Taiwan Top 10 Album Sounds of My Life

58th Golden Horse Awards Best Original Film Song "Red Scarf"

17th KKBOX Music Awards Artist of the Year

Hit FM Top 100 Countdown Song of the Year

33rd Golden Melody Awards Song of the Year